BERBICARA TENTANG KORBAN, BUKAN KEPADA KORBAN: DENIGRASI SEBAGAI BENTUK DOMINAN CYBERBULLYING DI KOLOM KOMENTAR INSTAGRAM

Abstract

This study aims to identify the forms and content of cyberbullying in netizens’ comments on an Instagram post by the account @awreceh.id regarding an alleged violence case involving two students from Sultan Syarif Kasim State Islamic University (UIN) Riau. This phenomenon illustrates how social media serves as a space for public participation in expressing opinions while simultaneously acting as a venue for various forms of cyberbullying. The study employs a qualitative content analysis method with a descriptive approach. Data were collected through documentation of the top 101 comments on the post. The analysis utilized the Participatory Media Culture theory to explain user participation in digital spaces, Krippendorff’s content analysis theory for the coding process, and Willard’s (2007) typology of cyberbullying forms as a categorization framework. The results indicate that 85 out of the 101 comments (84.2%) contained elements of cyberbullying. Of the seven forms identified by Willard, three were found: denigration (63 comments), flaming (12 comments), and harassment (10 comments); meanwhile, outing and trickery, impersonation, exclusion, and cyberstalking were not detected. The most prevalent forms of attack content were the humorization of violence (24 comments) and gender-based hate speech (22 comments). The dominance of denigration suggests that the comment section functioned like a stage, where netizens spoke about the victims in front of an audience rather than to the victims themselves. From the perspective of digital communication ethics, all identified forms violated principles of netiquette (Shea, 1994), particularly the principle of “remember the human.” These findings demonstrate that participatory culture on social media can devolve into harmful participation if not guided by an ethical framework.