The blame game: A thematic analysis of Islamophobic tweets during the COVID-19 pandemic

There is a sincere concern regarding the spread of Islamophobia, both online and offline. Events like COVID-19 fuelled more Islamophobic fake news and conspiracy theories online. The current research used data from 1,000 Twitter comments. It examined Islamophobia on Twitter during COVID-19. A thematic analysis was utilised to find key themes in the shared content. Four main themes emerged: (1) Muslims are COVID-19 super spreaders; (2) Muslims are getting special treatment during COVID-19; (3) Hindus are corona warriors against Islam; (4) COVID-19 originated from the Quran. This research provides theoretical explanations for the pandemic-related content on Twitter. It also comments on the differing impacts of anonymity on the emergence of potentially harmful content. We recommend several strategies to reduce Islamophobia and potentially harmful content online. This includes adding a button to report misinformation, adopting soft verification, and installing a tiered warning system.