Painted on the side of tanks and emblazoned on the shirt of Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak, the letter Z has come to represent support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It has even been incorporated into the spelling of place names such as КуZбасс in south central Russia.
In some countries, the Czech Republic for instance, there are even discussions about whether displaying the letter should be a criminal offence. Its rise comes shortly after another lesser-used letter from the Latin alphabet – Q – became a part of far-right politics in the US (and abroad) through the conspiracy theory QAnon.
The use of symbols is a fundamental part of any political conflict -– part of the propaganda strategy that tries to shape the public narrative. But what is most interesting is how these effective symbols emerge, and that some of them resonate so powerfully that they end up banned as a form of hate speech.
