SEMANTIC DISTORTION OF NETANYAHU’S UN STATEMENT ON TIKTOK AND INSTAGRAM

Abstract

This study examines semantic distortion in the reception of political utterances on social media, focusing on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement referring to Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s speech during a United Nations session. The statement can be interpreted at the literal level as diplomatic praise acknowledging Indonesia’s strategic position as the country with the largest Muslim population in the world. However, public responses on TikTok and Instagram reveal patterns of meaning reinterpretation and semantic distortion. Using a qualitative descriptive approach, this study analyses user comments collected from official detikcom TikTok and Instagram posts containing excerpts of Netanyahu’s speech. The analysis is grounded in Leech’s theory of meaning, particularly literal, connotative, and affective meanings. The findings indicate that interpretations on both platforms are predominantly shaped by connotative and affective meanings, influenced by emotional responses, ideological orientations, and sensitivities surrounding the Palestine–Israel conflict. Platform-specific characteristics, such as TikTok’s short-form, decontextualized videos and Instagram’s caption-based information delivery, further contribute to meaning distortion. While a small number of users demonstrate literal and corrective interpretations, these are overshadowed by emotionally charged responses. This study highlights how social media dynamics and collective emotions significantly shape public engagement with political discourse, frequently shifting interpretation away from literal meaning and reinforcing patterns of semantic distortion in digital communication.
Keywords: semantic distortion; netanyahu; shift meaning; conotative; affective.