Immigrant-Friendly Stakeholders and the Use of Twitter as a Digital Third Space in Chile: Is That So?

The article examines whether Twitter functions as a digital third space—an online environment fostering safe, symmetrical interactions—for immigrant-friendly stakeholders in Chile to challenge discriminatory discourses prevalent offline. Analyzing 5,652 tweets from organizations supporting immigrants, the study finds that these accounts promote positive, humanitarian, and legal framings of immigration, aiming to inform and protect immigrant communities. However, the qualitative analysis reveals that these efforts are frequently met with hostile, delegitimizing responses characterized by hate speech, moral condemnation, and political polarization, which complicate the creation of a safe digital space. The findings highlight that political talk on Twitter is often uncritical and emotionally charged, shaped by the platform's affordances such as anonymity and multimodal communication, which both enable and hinder the construction of inclusive digital third spaces for vulnerable groups like immigrants.