“Innocent” Hashtags? A Cautionary Tale: #IStandWithGreece as a Network of Intolerance on Twitter During a Land Border Crisis

Abstract

This study explores the hashtag #IStandWithGreece as part of the meaning-making processes on Twitter around a border crisis at Europe’s periphery, the Greek–Turkish land border. Adopting a network perspective, we located the most influential Twitter accounts using #IStandWithGreece, the communities they formed in the microblog, and other hashtags used to communicate their views in relation to the unfolding events. This allowed the scanning of the broader ideological character of these influencers and their respective communities and, by extent, that of the debate around the hashtag. The study exposes the strategic use of a seemingly innocent hashtag by certain influential actors to disseminate antimigrant stances that cut across national contexts of the Global North.