Over 55% online Islamophobic content on Twitter originates from India: report

[MenInG]

Twitter users in India contribute to 55.12 per cent of anti-Muslim content on the microblogging site, a study tapping into Islamophobia online has revealed.

The study by the Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) – the apex Muslim body in the Australian state of Victoria which represents an estimated 270,000 community members– found “a strong correlation between spikes in hate and newsworthy events related to Islam, particularly protests, terrorist attacks and eruptions of conflict in the Muslim world”.

The study also found that “the response of politicians to current events connected to Islam can have a considerable impact on the prevalence of Islamophobia”.

A large spike in Islamophobic tweets was observed on February 25, 2020, which the study links with “hateful remarks” made by leaders of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against Muslim protesters of the Citizenship Amendment Act.

The primary factor contributing to the rise in hateful content online in India was particularly found to be associated with the ruling party, as “there are an endless number of examples of how the BJP has actively normalised hatred towards Muslims”.

Similarly, in the United States, “although Islamophobia has long been a problem”, the study noted “that it was dramatically exacerbated by the racist, conspiratorial and inflammatory rhetoric employed by Donald Trump”.

“Trump ranked as the third most frequently mentioned user in Islamophobic posts, a great many of which were focused on defending his ban on Muslim immigration, in addition to forwarding his theory that the Democrats were collaborating with ‘the Islamists’ to take over the West,” the study also reported.

Additionally, anti-Muslim remarks made by other leaders such as former British prime minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron were also found to be associated with spikes in hateful content online.

With regard to the relationship between Islamophobia and terrorism, however, the study also noted that attacks in the West were more likely to lead to anti-Muslim hate than those committed elsewhere.

The geography of hate

Nearly 86 per cent of Islamophobic content between 2019 and 2021 has been found to have originated from three countries, namely India, the US and the UK.

The findings are alarming as the United Nations had last year urged the international community to “take all necessary measures” to combat Islamophobia, observing that the “institutional suspicion and fear of Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim has escalated to epidemic proportions”.

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, independent rights expert Ahmed Shaheed, had placed the blame on “numerous” states, regional and international bodies.

In a report to the Council, he had cited European surveys in 2018 and 2019 that showed that nearly four in 10 people held unfavourable views about Muslims. In 2017, 30 per cent of Americans viewed Muslims “in a negative light”, the Special Rapporteur had added.

He said that nations had responded to security threats “by adopting measures which disproportionately target Muslims and define Muslims as both high risk and at risk of radicalisation” and in states where Muslims are in the minority, they are frequently targeted based on stereotypical ‘Muslim’ characteristics, such as names, skin colour and clothing, including religious attire, such as headscarves.

These measures include restricting Muslims from living according to their belief system, the securitisation of religious communities, limits on access to citizenship, socioeconomic exclusion and pervasive stigmatisation of Muslim communities “by mainstream media, powerful politicians, influencers of popular culture and in academic discourse”.

Worryingly, TRT World reported, this appeal has fallen largely on deaf ears, particularly within the executive boardrooms of social media companies, which have done little or nothing to remove anti-Muslim content from their platforms.

It may also be noted here that as per the ICV study, of the 3,759,180 Islamophobic posts reported, at least 85 per cent remained online even after a year had passed.

https://tribune.com.pk/story/237774...mophobic-content-originates-from-india-report

 

[sweep_shot]

Not surprised at all.

I once made a thread about Islamic banking at a Canadian forum. Guess who had a problem with it? It was an Indian. No Canadian had a problem with it but that Indian guy was poking his nose.

 

[Technics 1210]

Well there's a surprise!

 

[rhony]

Taliban ruined the image of Muslims worldwide.

 

[Champ_Pal]

Taliban ruined the image of Muslims worldwide.

911 did the most damage.

 

[Civil]

Twitter users in India contribute to 55.12 per cent of anti-Muslim content on the microblogging site, a study tapping into Islamophobia online has revealed.

The study by the Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) – the apex Muslim body in the Australian state of Victoria which represents an estimated 270,000 community members– found “a strong correlation between spikes in hate and newsworthy events related to Islam, particularly protests, terrorist attacks and eruptions of conflict in the Muslim world”.

The study also found that “the response of politicians to current events connected to Islam can have a considerable impact on the prevalence of Islamophobia”.

A large spike in Islamophobic tweets was observed on February 25, 2020, which the study links with “hateful remarks” made by leaders of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against Muslim protesters of the Citizenship Amendment Act.

The primary factor contributing to the rise in hateful content online in India was particularly found to be associated with the ruling party, as “there are an endless number of examples of how the BJP has actively normalised hatred towards Muslims”.

Similarly, in the United States, “although Islamophobia has long been a problem”, the study noted “that it was dramatically exacerbated by the racist, conspiratorial and inflammatory rhetoric employed by Donald Trump”.

“Trump ranked as the third most frequently mentioned user in Islamophobic posts, a great many of which were focused on defending his ban on Muslim immigration, in addition to forwarding his theory that the Democrats were collaborating with ‘the Islamists’ to take over the West,” the study also reported.

Additionally, anti-Muslim remarks made by other leaders such as former British prime minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron were also found to be associated with spikes in hateful content online.

With regard to the relationship between Islamophobia and terrorism, however, the study also noted that attacks in the West were more likely to lead to anti-Muslim hate than those committed elsewhere.

The geography of hate

Nearly 86 per cent of Islamophobic content between 2019 and 2021 has been found to have originated from three countries, namely India, the US and the UK.

The findings are alarming as the United Nations had last year urged the international community to “take all necessary measures” to combat Islamophobia, observing that the “institutional suspicion and fear of Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim has escalated to epidemic proportions”.

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, independent rights expert Ahmed Shaheed, had placed the blame on “numerous” states, regional and international bodies.

In a report to the Council, he had cited European surveys in 2018 and 2019 that showed that nearly four in 10 people held unfavourable views about Muslims. In 2017, 30 per cent of Americans viewed Muslims “in a negative light”, the Special Rapporteur had added.

He said that nations had responded to security threats “by adopting measures which disproportionately target Muslims and define Muslims as both high risk and at risk of radicalisation” and in states where Muslims are in the minority, they are frequently targeted based on stereotypical ‘Muslim’ characteristics, such as names, skin colour and clothing, including religious attire, such as headscarves.

These measures include restricting Muslims from living according to their belief system, the securitisation of religious communities, limits on access to citizenship, socioeconomic exclusion and pervasive stigmatisation of Muslim communities “by mainstream media, powerful politicians, influencers of popular culture and in academic discourse”.

Worryingly, TRT World reported, this appeal has fallen largely on deaf ears, particularly within the executive boardrooms of social media companies, which have done little or nothing to remove anti-Muslim content from their platforms.

It may also be noted here that as per the ICV study, of the 3,759,180 Islamophobic posts reported, at least 85 per cent remained online even after a year had passed.

https://tribune.com.pk/story/237774...mophobic-content-originates-from-india-report

Any random article you will always see orange coloured avatars with muscular gods and comments sarcastically saying "peaceful religion" , or adding "pork" for play on words. Oh well what can be done.

Millions of jobless frustrated dudes with internet access and no masculine responsibilities or physical status then this is bound to happen. Spend time on internet all day and never live a real life.

 

[KingKhanWC]

Taliban ruined the image of Muslims worldwide.

911 did the most damage.

Thanks for proving the OP with a few posts.

Tbf I cant blame them, if you are not able to physically fight being extremist vegetarians, you will resort to spreading hatred so others can do the dirty work. In this regard extremists Indians are not different to Israelis, who have been using this tactic for decades now.

 

[Champ_Pal]

Thanks for proving the OP with a few posts.

Tbf I cant blame them, if you are not able to physically fight being extremist vegetarians, you will resort to spreading hatred so others can do the dirty work. In this regard extremists Indians are not different to Israelis, who have been using this tactic for decades now.

There is a lot of truth in what you are saying. Veggie Hindus cannot fight muscular meat eating Muslims. Hence they resort to online fighting.

 

[KingKhanWC]

There is a lot of truth in what you are saying. Veggie Hindus cannot fight muscular meat eating Muslims. Hence they resort to online fighting.

Most Hindus are good peaceful people, its only the extremists who take their religion to the extreme inc their diet.

You have remember Hindus number over a billion but are mostly located in one land. In India they are on top due to docile Muslims and a government which supports them , giving them confidence. Outside of India its near impossible for them to practice their extremism but they still feel angry seeing Muslims in other nations, so resort to their keyboard.

Also bots are used on twitter. Social media is a disease in this respect.

 

[rhony]

Thanks for proving the OP with a few posts.

Tbf I cant blame them, if you are not able to physically fight being extremist vegetarians, you will resort to spreading hatred so others can do the dirty work. In this regard extremists Indians are not different to Israelis, who have been using this tactic for decades now.

Physical fights lol!! Don't blame me now when I say you fit the stereotype because of your own words. People have been fighting physically in Afg, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Palestine, Yemen, Somalia for decades. I bet they all ate a lot of meat too. But they are destitute. Taliban ruined the image of Muslims worldwide. If you can't accept it, you are ignorant. It's not hate, it's the truth.

 

[Pakpak]

I think its mainly down to the sheer number of Indians who have found the internet the last two decades and a lot of them being exposed to BJP's hateful narrative. Even if its 10% of Indians doing this that's above 100 million....which is almost half the number of Pakistan's total population.

You go on Wikipedia pages and you will see pages of places in Azad Kashmir being edited by Indians to wrongly say Indian territory. Places from Reddit to football forums, Pakistani and non-Pakistani are full of Indians, PP being a prime example. I have been member of many football forums and always am gobsmacked how much anti-Pakistan trash they post to the average Westerner and as a single person its impossible to counter it.

With a population of almost 1.5 billion you need just 10-20% of them which is close to 200 million to post trash on the internet and noone will be able to counter it as there will be too many BJP lovers to shout them down.

 

[KingKhanWC]

Physical fights lol!! Don't blame me now when I say you fit the stereotype because of your own words. People have been fighting physically in Afg, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Palestine, Yemen, Somalia for decades. I bet they all ate a lot of meat too. But they are destitute. Taliban ruined the image of Muslims worldwide. If you can't accept it, you are ignorant. It's not hate, it's the truth.

Only in the minds of many Indians esp extremists and others who ignorant of history & geo-politics. Taliban are a very small sect of Muslims, which dont represent any other Muslim nation. Why dont you think the Arabs represent Muslims? Oh because Indians need Arabs, work for them . Remember Arabs dont see Indians has anything but workers.

Now can you explain why so many Indians spend so much time spewing hate on Twitter or please bump u p the Taliban thread if you are obsessed with them?

 

[Manunited18]

Thanks for proving the OP with a few posts.

Tbf I cant blame them, if you are not able to physically fight being extremist vegetarians, you will resort to spreading hatred so others can do the dirty work. In this regard extremists Indians are not different to Israelis, who have been using this tactic for decades now.

Yes lol. Abit like Liecester. The RSS extremists picked on minors and elderly and as soon as anyone with courage came the xxssies ran off.

 

[Manunited18]

Physical fights lol!! Don't blame me now when I say you fit the stereotype because of your own words. People have been fighting physically in Afg, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Palestine, Yemen, Somalia for decades. I bet they all ate a lot of meat too. But they are destitute. Taliban ruined the image of Muslims worldwide. If you can't accept it, you are ignorant. It's not hate, it's the truth.

Ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha what a hypocrite. Your RSS extremist Government under Mohdi are mow coasing up to the Taliban lol

 

[rhony]

Only in the minds of many Indians esp extremists and others who ignorant of history & geo-politics. Taliban are a very small sect of Muslims, which dont represent any other Muslim nation. Why dont you think the Arabs represent Muslims? Oh because Indians need Arabs, work for them . Remember Arabs dont see Indians has anything but workers.

Now can you explain why so many Indians spend so much time spewing hate on Twitter or please bump u p the Taliban thread if you are obsessed with them?

Indians and as a matter of fact many people in the world are influenced by certain media channels. When your BBC or the CNN or fox say it's been an year since girls went to schools under Taliban, there is bound to be a reaction. And this news is pumped every few days, weeks, month to keep it fresh in the mind of people. People react to news. Indians do it more because of their sheer number and anti Muslim bias. Americans do it for the same.reason. Britishers do the same. Nothing unites Hindu communists and Hindu nationalists as much as a Muslim girl's education.

 

[KingKhanWC]

I think its mainly down to the sheer number of Indians who have found the internet the last two decades and a lot of them being exposed to BJP's hateful narrative. Even if its 10% of Indians doing this that's above 100 million....which is almost half the number of Pakistan's total population.

You go on Wikipedia pages and you will see pages of places in Azad Kashmir being edited by Indians to wrongly say Indian territory. Places from Reddit to football forums, Pakistani and non-Pakistani are full of Indians, PP being a prime example. I have been member of many football forums and always am gobsmacked how much anti-Pakistan trash they post to the average Westerner and as a single person its impossible to counter it.

With a population of almost 1.5 billion you need just 10-20% of them which is close to 200 million to post trash on the internet and noone will be able to counter it as there will be too many BJP lovers to shout them down.

Yes lol. Abit like Liecester. The RSS extremists picked on minors and elderly and as soon as anyone with courage came the xxssies ran off.

Interesting even Hindutva celebs are very vocal on twitter. Its almost as they feel a twitter post is a battle won.

Nobody ever won a war and conquered on twitter , otherwise Piers Morgan would be ruling the world.

 

[rhony]

Ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha what a hypocrite. Your RSS extremist Government under Mohdi are mow coasing up to the Taliban lol

Ofcourse he will. It's bordering Pakistan on the north and is strategically important to India. He will abrogate article 370 in Kashmir and shamelessly accept the highest civilian honor from the Saudis a few days later. He will be part of the quad with the Americans and will buy Russian oil for cheap. He will cozy up with Israel more than any Indian PM in history and will also work to strike a deal with Iran to buy their oil in rupees. That's called foreign policy and he's one of the best at it.

 

[KingKhanWC]

Indians and as a matter of fact many people in the world are influenced by certain media channels. When your BBC or the CNN or fox say it's been an year since girls went to schools under Taliban, there is bound to be a reaction. And this news is pumped every few days, weeks, month to keep it fresh in the mind of people. People react to news. Indians do it more because of their sheer number and anti Muslim bias. Americans do it for the same.reason. Britishers do the same. Nothing unites Hindu communists and Hindu nationalists as much as a Muslim girl's education.

We all know the influence of social media or media.

Im asking why Hindutva extremists resort to twitter as per topic? Do they think writing a hate filled post is some sort of victory?

 

[rhony]

We all know the influence of social media or media.

Im asking why Hindutva extremists resort to twitter as per topic? Do they think writing a hate filled post is some sort of victory?

Could be many things. One, it's easy to express anonymously online. It could be a social exercise to show solidarity to a genuine cause. But foremost, I personally believe most Indians equate Muslims with Pakistan. So most of the hate posts could be related to Pakistanis and ofcourse the Taliban. There is no concept of victory. There is no war and in other metrics there is no comparison. It's genuine dislike and expression.

 

[KingKhanWC]

Could be many things. One, it's easy to express anonymously online. It could be a social exercise to show solidarity to a genuine cause. But foremost, I personally believe most Indians equate Muslims with Pakistan. So most of the hate posts could be related to Pakistanis and ofcourse the Taliban. There is no concept of victory. There is no war and in other metrics there is no comparison. It's genuine dislike and expression.

So in short a cowardly way of attacking others. Thanks

 

[KingKhanWC]

Apparently it's still affecting you. The press is writing articles about it and it costs nothing.

Relax, even a dozen Hindutva extremists(to my face) wouldn't affect me. I just find it hilarious Modi wanted a new Hindu Empire with a mighty army but they are all at home, eating lentils on twitter.

 

[rhony]

Relax, even a dozen Hindutva extremists(to my face) wouldn't affect me. I just find it hilarious Modi wanted a new Hindu Empire with a mighty army but they are all at home, eating lentils on twitter.

Part of what you said is right. Part of it is just propaganda that you believe. Modi wants a Hindu empire, yes. He wants it to be an economical, cultural power house. Does he want to build a mighty army and attack others? Nope. He's even cutting down the numbers in the army and started the Agniveer, temp.soldier policy. It's just a waste of cash paying people. Modern warfare is info warfare and robotic warfare. You cyber hack the enemy and then you defend using robotic machines. They will eat lentils and cripple the enemy infrastructure if it comes to that. Or just tweet to bother someone.

 

[SpiritOf1903]

Give them an inch, they take two

 

[Technics 1210]

What is happening in Leicester is actually a benefit to Muslims, the UK is now waking up to the realities of Saffron Terror.

It’s working too, white civilians are questioning the myth of peace loving yoga aspiring Hindu Indians in the UK, and in India too.

The next 10 years will all be about Hindutva/RSS and the terrorist/extremist ideology that it is.

The West needs another bogeyman, and Hindutva/RSS folk are it.

 

[rhony]

What is happening in Leicester is actually a benefit to Muslims, the UK is now waking up to the realities of Saffron Terror.

It’s working too, white civilians are questioning the myth of peace loving yoga aspiring Hindu Indians in the UK, and in India too.

The next 10 years will all be about Hindutva/RSS and the terrorist/extremist ideology that it is.

The West needs another bogeyman, and Hindutva/RSS folk are it.

That's the smart way to play it from the Muslim perspective. Infact that has been the rhetoric for the past couple of years in the west. And left liberal news and intellectuals have a huge role in it. But based on the events so far in UK, the chest thumping, the vigilance drives shows Muslims don't have patience to play the game. It was the Jews first and they got out with the 'anti semite' propaganda. Muslims are next and the 'islamophobia' , 'inclusiom' rhetoric seems to be working. The next on the dock is hindutva. And they are trying to get out of the dog House by employing Jewish tricks against Muslims. Hindutva is in search of Islam defending, proud warrior clans with swords on the streets of UK.

 

[Hextro]

No one should be surprised by this. I'm sure the number is even higher than 55% if you start looking deep into the average Indian's extremist mindset. Most Indian members on this very forum prove this study right.

 

[SalimBhai]

India is going through what pakistán went through under zia. The consequences will be the same.. it’s poisoning of the mind that f the general public . As it did with Pakistans Islamist ideology, hindutva ideology will also bleed out of its borders and into the international arena . It’s a shame.

 

[PakLFC]

This is what happens when you are ruled by the Muslim's for a thousand years

 

[Browncaps]

I posted this last month in the relevant thread. They even had the source twitter account suspended.



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">More than 50% of anti-Muslim hate tweets originate in India.<br><br>Together, India, UK and US account for 85% of anti-Muslim hate on Twitter.<br><br>(via <a href="https://twitter.com/AsianDigest?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AsianDigest</a>) <a href="https://t.co/D9UqWsUkKS">pic.twitter.com/D9UqWsUkKS</a></p>— CJ Werleman (@cjwerleman) <a href="https://twitter.com/cjwerleman/status/1559365301245968384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 16, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Colorblind Genius]

I posted this last month in the relevant thread. They even had the source twitter account suspended.

View attachment 117146

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">More than 50% of anti-Muslim hate tweets originate in India.<br><br>Together, India, UK and US account for 85% of anti-Muslim hate on Twitter.<br><br>(via <a href="https://twitter.com/AsianDigest?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AsianDigest</a>) <a href="https://t.co/D9UqWsUkKS">pic.twitter.com/D9UqWsUkKS</a></p>— CJ Werleman (@cjwerleman) <a href="https://twitter.com/cjwerleman/status/1559365301245968384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 16, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

So Pakistan ranks higher than Israel in the list for tweeting Islamophobic tweets?

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

So Pakistan ranks higher than Israel in the list for tweeting Islamophobic tweets?

I would have thought it is pretty obvious just from posters on here that there is a sizeable amount of anti-Islam posters in Pakistan. They might be a tiny minority, but in a large population country, not that surprising that they outnumber Israel.

 

[Local.Dada]

I don’t endorse any hate but forget islamophobia for a second but I would assume 85% of tweets about anything would come from Us, UK and India given the % of English speaking Twitter users and the volume of people on the internet.

Nigeria is a surprise but the other countries are
Canada, Australia. Make whatever of that stat.

If it was 100% coming from india then I would believe the propaganda thing.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

I don’t endorse any hate but forget islamophobia for a second but I would assume 85% of tweets about anything would come from Us, UK and India given the % of English speaking Twitter users and the volume of people on the internet.

Nigeria is a surprise but the other countries are
Canada, Australia. Make whatever of that stat.

If it was 100% coming from india then I would believe the propaganda thing.

Even those posting from those countries are probably mostly Indians.

 

[Local.Dada]

Even those posting from those countries are probably mostly Indians.

Right. What about the people posting from Pakistan and Nigeria? Remember it is not akhand Bharat yet. We are working on it

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Right. What about the people posting from Pakistan and Nigeria? Remember it is not akhand Bharat yet. We are working on it

Pakistan I already mentioned myself, in my first post on this thread, Nigeria not a surprise either when you consider there is a sizeable non-Muslim minority there. That's not to say hindutva bots aren't active there either, I am just giving you the benefit of the doubt.

 

[daytrader]

Tactics behind pro-India Twitter drive against Pak Army revealed

KARACHI: A pro-Indian army covert Twitter influence operation, suspended earlier this year by the social network, had been spreading propaganda against the Pakistan Army and attempting to highlight the Indian military’s purported successes in India-held Kashmir, a Stanford University study has shown.

“#ISPR has raised an #astonishing network of 4000-strong highly qualified #Information Warfare specialists during the past decade through a carefully crafted internship program that is directly run by #ISI,” the Stanford Internet Obser*vatory research quotes one of the accounts as saying.

In a paper titled ‘My Heart Belongs to Kashmir: An Analysis of a Pro-Indian Army Covert Influence Ope*ration on Twitter’ released on Wednesday, the Stanford Internet Observatory revealed the tactics the network employed, the narratives it was promoting and the possible links the network had to the Chinar Corps — a branch of the Indian army that operates in occupied Kashmir.

The paper notes that Twitter has not publicly attributed the network to any actor, and that the open source evidence didn’t allow the researchers to make any independent attribution, but they highlighted Indian news articles that showed social media companies Twitter, Facebook and Instagram temporarily suspending official accounts of the Chinar Corps for “coordinated inauthentic behavior”.

It also notes that the content of the Twitter network is consistent with the Chinar Corps objectives, “praising the work of the Indian Army in India-occupied Kashmir” and that the official account of the corps, [MENTION=90406]china[/MENTION]rcorpsIA is the seventh most mentioned or retweeted account in the network.

The network was most active last year until Twitter suspended “at least part of the network in March 2022” for violating their Platform Manipulation and Spam Policy, saying the presumptive country of origin was India.

Modus operandi

The network tweeted mostly in English, but also in Hindi and Urdu.

The accounts in it claimed to be relatives of Indian soldiers and proud Kashmiris, and their bios frequently portrayed their locations to be in held Kashmir. “One bio said, ‘Proud Indian and Proud Kashmiri. My heart belongs to Kashmir, Soul to India and Life to Humanity’.”

Two accounts existed to target specific individuals who were perceived as enemies of the Indian government and popular hashtags were related to Kashmir and the Indian and Pakistani militaries, the study says.

The accounts often used profile photos procured elsewhere on the internet.

According to the study, the suspended network’s tweets tagged both authentic and suspended accounts, including regional journalists, politicians from Balochistan, and Indian politicians. The paper did not mention which Balochistan politicians were tagged by the network in its tweets.

“Tweets tagging journalists aimed either to bring events to the attention of reporters, or to bring the reporter to the attention of followers — often in an apparent attempt to target the reporter for what was framed as anti-India content,” it said.

The study highlights two accounts in particular in the network that “existed to target reporters, activists, and politicians in this way”. The accounts — [MENTION=134400]kashmir[/MENTION]Traitors and [MENTION=134400]kashmir[/MENTION]Traitor1 — and an accompanying YouTube channel, “targeted specific individuals, focusing on what the account deemed ‘anti-India’ journalists, calling reporters ‘#whitecollarterrorist’, for example; saying that they were working to corrupt the minds of Kashmiris; and accusing them of taking money from Pakistan”.

The accounts targeted personalities, like American activist and author Pieter Friedrich, who is critical of the Indian government and Hindutva, and Fahad Shah — a currently incarcerated Indian journalist, who has also been critical of the BJP government.

In targeting particular individuals, the [MENTION=134400]kashmir[/MENTION]Traitors account would on occasion tag the official Chinar Corps account, [MENTION=90406]china[/MENTION]rcorpsIA, to draw their attention to a thread.

This network also targeted the Pakistani government. One [MENTION=134400]kashmir[/MENTION]Traitors tweet said: “#ISPR has raised an #astonishing network of 4000-strong highly qualified #Information Warfare specialists during the past decade through a carefully crafted internship program that is directly run by #ISI,” the study quotes the account as saying.

Dozens of accounts in the network mentioned or retweeted Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon, or @Tiny_Dhillon, a former Chinar Corps commander, who was “mentioned or retweeted more than 1,000 times”.

What were their narratives?

The narratives were patently anti-Pakistan and anti-China, with the report providing examples of how the network approached them.

They highlighted protests in Pakistan, with a particular focus on Balochistan. One tweet said, “Students protesting in Islamabad against the inaccessibility of internet in #Balochistan.”

The report adds: “Accounts accused Pakistan of spreading unfounded claims of Indian army atrocities, and they accused Pakistani soldiers of committing human rights abuses and protecting terrorists. Tweets claimed Pakistan was not safe for Hindus nor Muslims, and that Pakistan abandoned Pakistani citizens in China when the Covid-19 pandemic began.”

Tweets also criticised the state of women’s rights in Pakistan. One suspended account shared a tweet that said, “Pakistan Prime Minister ImranKhan has come under attack after he blamed women’s clothing for the rise in rapeand sexual assault.”

With regard to the anti-China narrative, the report highlights how the network tried to portray the Indian military’s supposed dominance over the Chinese military. “Indian soldiers are courageous, while Chinese soldiers easily surrender. Indian soldiers were referred to as ‘bravehearts,’ and soldiers killed in clashes with China were called heroes and martyrs. Any failed attacks on India’s part were due to unethical Chinese strategies, according to the network.”

The authors Shelby Grossman, Emily Tianshi, David Thiel, and Renée DiResta conclude by saying “our report only scratches the surface” and calls upon researchers to further dig into the network.

DAWN

 

[MenInG]

The apparent unwillingness of social media tech-giants to permanently remove the conspiracist and racist online content on different platforms that are whipping up hatred against Muslims and their faith, has been creating inexplicable problems for the community worldwide.

It was also casting a chilling effect and prevented the Muslims from exercising their freedom of religion and speech online, the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) said in its report.

The big tech’s continued failure to act on anti-Muslim hate created an ecosystem that restricted freedom of expression and pushes marginalised people off their platforms, all while allowing white supremacist, extremist, and hateful content to thrive and provide their shareholders with record profits, the report said.

The CCDH is a US non-profit corporation headquartered in Washington DC, and CCDH UK is a UK non-profit company headquartered in London.

According to different reports, Twitter, Google and Meta launched special efforts as part of a “shared commitment to counter hateful conduct online, however, they failed to control these materials.

Read more: 26 Muslims booked for offering congregational prayer in India

Twitter failed to remove about 3.8 million anti-Muslim tweets (posted between Aug 19 and Aug 21) as it could only remove 15% of the tweets (0.57 million were taken down out of the total one).

The popular micro-blogging platform is fast becoming a primary source for the proliferation of anti-hate content against Muslims and their faith.

Users from the three countries including India generated 86 per cent of malicious online content in the last few years that led to physical attacks on Muslims and mosques across the globe, a study by Asian Peace said.

Now approximately 55.12% of anti-Muslim hatred tweets originated from Indian social media activists.

Researchers have identified several key themes churned out from three countries which included the association of Islam with terrorism, depiction of Muslims as perpetrators of sexual violence, and declaring “halal” as an inhumane practice that typifies the so-called “barbarity” of Islam.

On the other hand, the UN had strongly encouraged the international community to “take all necessary measures” to combat discrimination against Muslims while warning that anti-Muslim hatred has reached “epidemic proportions.”

In this connection, the UN had declared Anti-Islamophobia Day on March 15 due to the efforts of Pakistan which was a laudable step however, more desired to be done by the world and technological companies to stem surge of such trends worldwide.


As per a study by the Islamic Council of Victoria, Australia (ICV), a body representing Muslims in the state of Victoria with an estimated 270,000 Muslims as its member, found in its report that nearly four million anti-Muslim posts made during a 24-month period between 2017 and 2019.

In its report, ICV said that more causes for rise of such social media trends included the war on terror, media reporting, and right-wing groups and politicians across the globe, not just in the western countries but in places such as Myanmar and India, that spread false and malicious rhetoric to whip up anti-Muslim sentiment.

Also read: WATCH: BJP leader openly confesses to killing five Muslims

“These far-right groups are often networked and share information online to amplify their messages. In fact, much of the worst forms of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim incitement happens online,” it added.

Social media companies are failing to act on 89% of posts containing anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobic content reported to them, according to Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).

“This report exposed that social media companies, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, failed to act on 89% of posts containing anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobic content reported to them,” it says.

The social media giants had stated that they would be resolute in their commitment to ensure they were doing all they could to fight the hatred and extremism that lead to violence.

“Once again, their press releases prove to be nothing more than empty promises,” the report said.

The CCDH researchers reported 530 posts that contain disturbing, bigoted and dehumanising content that target Muslims through racist caricatures, conspiracies and false claims.

These posts were viewed at least 25 million times. Much of the abusive content was easily identifiable, and yet there was still inaction, it said.

Stating that Instagram, TikTok and Twitter allow users to use hashtags such as #deathtoislam, #islamiscancer, the report further said content spread using the hashtags received at least 1.3 million impressions.

The report, ‘Islamophobia in the Digital Age’, said that in the US, though, Islamophobia has long been a problem, one that “was dramatically exacerbated by the racist, conspiratorial and inflammatory rhetoric employed by Donald Trump.

As for the UK, the prevalence of anti-Muslim tweets was attributed to a multitude of factors, including the global reach of Trump’s hatred, the country’s longstanding issues with the anti-migrant sentiment, and the casual racism of former prime minister Boris Johnson, the report wrote.

The 2019 Christchurch Mosque attack and other such like incidents across the globe were all illustrative of this vicious cycle. The incidents of anti-Muslim abuse spiked upwards by a staggering 1300 % in New Zealand, and 600 % in the UK.

According to "South Asia State of Minorities Report 2021" the phenomenon of the spread of social media hatred against minorities had only worsened in Indian society in recent years since, progressing up the UN’s hate speech chain from the "bottom" level offensive or disturbing content to "top" level incitement to hostility, discrimination and violence.

In December 2019, the violent slogan "shoot dead the ******* traitors to the nation" was popularised by a BJP leader in Delhi, as part of a wider campaign in response to Muslim-led protests against India’s changes to its citizenship law, widely seen as being discriminatory.


In March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold, India witnessed yet another deluge of hate content and misinformation, falsely blaming the country’s Muslims for the outbreak and calling for social and economic boycotts, and even physical violence against them.

A great deal of hate in India played out on social media. A study by Equality Labs in 2019 revealed that Islamophobic content was the biggest source of hate speech on Facebook and Twitter, amounting to 37 per cent of the content reviewed.

Caste-based hate speech is also common, accounting for 13 per cent of the Facebook content reviewed by Equality Labs.

According to Amnesty International, a total of 902 alleged hate crimes were reported in India between September 2015 and June 2019, resulting in 303 deaths.

Of the 902 documented instances, 621 were reported to have been motivated by caste, with the victims of these being overwhelmingly Dalits (99.5%).

Of the rest, 217 were reported to have been primarily motivated by religion, with Muslims (89%) and Christians (8%) being the main targets.

Religiously motivated hate crimes resulted in a total of 91 deaths, of which 87 per cent were of Muslims. A total of 113 hate crimes were traced directly to the ruse of cow protection.

A study by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) noted that the production of media content and distribution are increasingly combined and concentrated in the hands of a few, and that many leading outlets at both the national and regional levels were controlled by individuals with direct political ties to the BJP, or by corporate conglomerates who have been openly supportive of the BJP.

Online social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have hundreds of millions of Indian users, and also become important channels through which anti-minority hate content is spread.

Express Tribune

 

[MenInG]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The person who operates the Twitter account claims to be an Islamic fundamentalist living in Spain, empathizing with violent extremists and longing for the days, more than six centuries ago, when Muslims ruled the country.

The views are as fake as the account, part of a loose and informal effort by far-right nationalists in Spain to use social media to stir up anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant fervor and to undermine faith in Spain's multicultural democracy. In some cases, they exploit Twitter's loose rules to spread hateful messages and threats of violence, while in others they pose as Muslims as a way to disparage actual followers of Islam.

By harnessing the power of social media to communicate, coordinate and evangelize, those behind the so-called Reconquista movement are relying on the same playbook used by far-right extremists in the U.S., Brazil and other countries who have used social media to expand their power and recruit new followers.

Reconquista also borrows the same rhetoric used by far-right groups in the U.S., and even some of the same online memes, including Pepe the Frog, a crudely drawn amphibian who has become a mascot for white supremacist and antigovernment groups in the U.S. In one Reconquista meme, Pepe is shown wearing the garb of a 16th century Spanish conquistador.

As in the U.S. and other countries, the Spanish nationalists have seized on debates over trans rights, spreading misleading claims about the exploitation of children and supposed conspiracies to eradicate the idea of gender. They've also criticized COVID-19 vaccines, feminism, efforts to address climate change and support for Ukraine following Russia's invasion.

The remarkable overlap of tactics and interests isn't a coincidence, but reflects how far-right groups in many countries are learning from one another, copying each other's successes, said Joel Finkelstein, co-founder of the Princeton, N.J.-based Network Contagion Research Institute, a group that studies online extremism that released a report on Reconquista this week. The findings were first reported by The Associated Press.

“This is a recipe for disaster,” Finkelstein told the AP. ”All over the world we’re seeing different manifestations of the same kind of problem. The flags are all different, but it’s remarkable how similar the memes are.”

One concern, Finkelstein said, is that the rhetoric could lead to offline violence.

Reconquista takes its name from the successful effort by Christian leaders to reconquer vast parts of the Iberian peninsula from its Islamic rulers and expel Muslims during the Middle Ages. It's a term embraced by some on the far-right, who see their opposition to Islam and immigrants as a divinely ordained sequel of sorts to that bloody, centuries long conflict.

Anti-Muslim rhetoric from accounts linked to Reconquista soared after a Moroccan man attacked two Catholic churches in the southern city of Algeciras in January, killing a church officer and injuring a priest. The man, an unauthorized immigrant, is now jailed in the psychiatric ward of a Spanish prison awaiting the results of a judicial probe; authorities believe he acted alone.

Many of the violent threats against Muslims that spread on Twitter following the attack violated the platform’s rules, and in some cases the platform did act to remove the content or suspend the author. But often those behind the content simply created a new account days after they were suspended.

The far-right party Vox helped popularize Reconquista online, using the term repeatedly in Tweets ahead of the 2019 election. Vox, whose members express strongly anti-immigrant views, now holds 52 seats, or the third largest number, in Spain's 350-member lower legislative chamber. The party's Twitter account was briefly suspended in 2020 for accusing its critics of promoting pedophilia, and again in 2021 for inciting hatred against Muslims.

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