Words as weapons: Online shaming, sectarian polarization, and identity contestation in post-Assad Syria

This study examines how Syrians discursively negotiate political legitimacy, authority, and sectarian identity following the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024. Focusing on YouTube comments responding to the first public speeches of transitional president Ahmad al-Shar‘ (Abu Mohammad al-Jawlani), the analysis treats digital platforms as sites of political evaluation in a context marked by repression and absent institutionalized participation. Integrating digital ethnography, corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis, and stance-taking theory, the study draws on 5666 comments from three focal speeches, filtered from a larger corpus of 13,793 comments posted between January and July 2025. Quantitative findings reveal a decline in positive evaluations of the new regime over time, particularly during episodes of violence against religious minorities. Qualitative analysis shows how religious and sectarian repertoires are mobilized to (il)legitimize domination, express (mis)alignment, and articulate resistance. The study demonstrates that online discourse actively shapes ideological polarization and legitimacy-making during rapid political transformation.