Social media, hate speech, public opinion and collective action during Bolivia's post-election political crisis in 2019

Abstract

After the electoral elections of October 20, 2019 in Bolivia, a political crisis broke out that left around 35 dead, 833 injured and 1,504 arrested; in addition to a democratic setback con-summated in a Coup d'état. However, the post-electoral political crisis of October 2019 comes from a context of political conflict that finds its genesis in the constitutional referen-dum of 2016 that sought authorization for the re-election of Evo Morales. In the midst of this context, hate and racism speeches began to be perceived on digital social networks around the then president of Bolivia, Evo Morales and those related to his governing party; with different types of resources, both narrative, graphic and audiovisual.In this sense, the present work, through a qualitative methodological strategy, describes the role of social networks, in the drip coup from a systematic process that comes from 2016 in two dimen-sions: the first as a space for political dispute to delegitimize the figure of Evo Morales and the second, as a structure for mobilizing the collective action of the young people of the so-called “Pitita Generation” who legitimized the Coup d'état in Bolivia. That is, it was found that social networks played a significant role in the amplification of polarized discourses and in the mobilization of groups with diverse political interests. These hate speeches exac-erbated tensions and contributed to the escalation of violence. In this sense, the main find-ings deal with the incidence of the private (family) in terms of the mobilizations of the young people of the “Pitita Generation”, as well as the lack of knowledge and confusion re-garding their discursive universes, the strong incidence of hate speech especially towards Evo Morales and his followers, among others.