۱۰ فروردین ۱۴۰۳ |۱۹ رمضان ۱۴۴۵ | Mar 29, 2024
News ID: 350453
28 November 2017 - 19:30
Anti-Muslim Online Surges Driven by Fake Accounts

A global network of anti-Muslim activists is using Twitter bots, fake news and the manipulation of images to influence political discourse, new analysis reveals.

Hawzah News Agency - Many have recorded significant growth in their social media followings over the past year, co-ordinating to push the message that Islam is an "imminent threat” to western society.

Researchers from the anti-racist organization Hope Not Hate found that the impact of tweets from one controversial US activist, Pamela Geller, who is banned from the UK, is magnified by 102 bots,automated or semi-

automated accounts that automatically tweet or retweet their content.

Researchers also monitored a sample of popular anti-Muslim Twitter accounts in Britain and the US between March and November this year, and found that, on average, there was a 117% growth in followers.

Geller, described by critics as a figurehead for Islamophobic organizations, produces the Geller Report, which doubled its viewers to more than two million people each month between July and October. The Gates of

Vienna counter-jihadist blog, described by critics as a training manual for anti-Muslim paramilitaries, also doubled in visitors per month during the same period.

Patrik Hermansson, researcher for Hope not Hate, said: "The growth among Twitter accounts and websites spreading anti-Muslim hate is alarming. In such a key area of public interest, it is an indication of increased

interest in these views and, as each account or site grows, more people are exposed to deeply prejudiced anti-Muslim views.”

The study also accuses Breitbart, run by Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon, of spreading fake news, stating that "its reporting on Islam and Muslims is largely indistinguishable from the anti-Muslim

movement’s rhetoric or even that of the far right”.

The study says a network of online forums and image boards serves as an echo chamber to amplify and spread fabricated anti-Muslim social media campaigns.

Researchers say in their report that bots were employed to amplify Geller’s messages on Twitter, identifying at least 102 accounts that exhibit characteristics of bots, including only exclusively posting content with links

to Geller’s website and being highly synchronised, meaning they post the same content at almost the same time.

The simplest bots follow and retweet other users. A user with a large number of followers is generally easier to trust and may seem more "legitimate”. The more advanced bots often mix human control with artificial

intelligence, and are notoriously difficult to detect.

 

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