DISCURSIVE PRACTICES OF DIGITAL AGGRESSION BY THE RUSSIANS AGAINST THEIR COMPATRIOTS: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF NEGATIVE COMMENTS ON THE “VKONTAKTE” SOCIAL NETWORK

Abstract

The research focuses on how users of the VKontakte social network display hostility, condemnation, or intolerance towards other citizens, using discursive practices such as insults, stereotyping, and threats. The critical discourse analysis reveals how negative users’ comments reflect social, regional, or cultural conflicts within Russian society, create a toxic linguistic atmosphere online. The research resulted in describing the basic tactics of discursive practices of digital aggression in social networks. They are intellectual, social, and moral discrediting, medical stigmatization, zoomorphization and dehumanization, negative self-stereotyping, gender and regional stereotyping, violation of the standard tone in communication. The paper also examines the impact of platform features on the nature of digital aggression.