How does hatred spread in Italy? Mario Draghi's dimision case

This study examines how hate accounts influenced public opinion on X during Mario Draghi's resignation in July 2022 and the electoral period leading to Giorgia Meloni's rise. It analyzed 796,654 tweets with hashtags related to the Italian government crisis between July 12-August 16, 2022. The analysis revealed 17.18% of messages contained hate speech, primarily linked to far-right movements. These messages formed six interconnected clusters, with users showing characteristics typical of message viralization strategies, like astroturfing. The findings suggest users exploited Draghi's resignation to spread hateful content, likely polarizing public opinion and facilitating political change in Italy.