Racist Discourses on Social Network X as a Delegitimization Strategy of the Indigenous Uprising: An Analysis of the October 2019 Protests in Ecuador

Abstract

The Indigenous uprising of October 2019 in Ecuador constituted one of the most significant episodes of social mobilization in recent decades and generated an intense discursive dispute across digital environments. Although this event has been examined from political, economic, and sociological perspectives, limited attention has been paid to the role of racist discourses disseminated through social media as mechanisms for delegitimizing Indigenous protest. In this context, the present study aims to analyze racist discourses on the social network X as a strategy for delegitimizing the Indigenous uprising of October 2019 in Ecuador, identifying their main discursive categories, dissemination mechanisms, and effects on the construction of digital public opinion. The study adopts a mixed-methods approach that combines Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with computational tools for content analysis, network analysis, and the examination of digital affect. A corpus of 80 public posts was analyzed, selected according to thematic criteria related to the Indigenous movement and racializing expressions circulated during the protest period. The findings reveal that racist discourses were primarily articulated through strategies of criminalization, dehumanization, de-Indigenization, and cultural stigmatization, reinforced by algorithmic amplification dynamics and the intervention of highly visible actors on the platform. In addition, counter-narratives promoted by Indigenous organizations and allied actors were identified, aimed at reclaiming the legitimacy of social demands and denouncing practices of structural discrimination. The main contribution of this study lies in providing empirical evidence on the relationship between digital racism, social protest, and the construction of political legitimacy in Latin American contexts. The findings contribute to understanding how digital platforms can reproduce historical inequalities while simultaneously serving as spaces of symbolic resistance and contestation over the public meaning of social events.