How social media is helping the far-right spread fear and hate online
AAround 7 July, ESSEX police officers were called to High Street in EPPING, after the Essex police officers reported that a man treated a young girl in an inappropriate way.
38 -year -old Hadush Kebatu, an asylum seeker from Ethiopia, was allegedly trying to kiss a female student while eating pizza and has been accused of three sexual assaults since then.
However, the news that he came to England through a small boat only eight days ago was rapidly kept on social media, led to a series of protests that turned into violence and pushed the historical Essex town to the heart of an anti -immigration.
What has started as a group of indigenous complaints other than Bell Hotel, which hosts asylum seekers, has now risen to what is now described as “dust barrel status ,, with fear that it could provide a wave of rebellion in a way that is similar to those seen last summer.
In the last two weeks, leading leaders in Neo-Nazi groups and far-right organizations are accused of exploiting the situation by turning demonstrations for violence by demanding a “call for a national action”.
Their choice weapons? Social media known to have long been used as a tool to spread fear and hatred for a long time.
A few right -wing activists re -brand themselves as citizens or political commentators, and helped them accrue millions of followers in the UK and around the world.
Joe Mulhall, a philanthropist philanthropist, said that misinformation was dangerous at a time when he was quickly spreading online and breaking tensions.
“In Southport last year, the wrong knowledge of impressive murders, the perpetrator of the terrible murders, spread like a forest fire about the ethnic origin and the nationality of the perpetrator of the terrible murders.
“When wrong information spreads, it can justify existing prejudices and as a rumor or claim continues, things can rapidly act offline.”
Among those who set up the Private Facebook page, EPPING has three members of the Group Motherland. Founded in 2023 after leaving the patriotic alternative, the Neo-Nazi Group was defined as the largest fascist group of England.
This week, one of the leading members shared a few videos of protests on social media and called for future action: ın If you live in a hotel occupied by asylum seekers, start organizing. ”
The demonstrations also seen members of other groups, including former Neo-Nazi Terror Group Combat 18, British National Party and British patriots.
Mr. Mullhall warned that his online racist and anti -immigration discourse can often be under the radar, with extremely processed and over -processed police forces. The authority said that Britain should be in front of the curve ”to cut this activity.
“It’s hard to watch these comments and responsible people,” he said. “The extreme right is no longer divided into proper groups, instead of thousands of people who publish videos other than immigrant accommodation, publish rumors and make online comments.
“The days when police or social media companies can simply solve a particular group to solve this problem are behind.”
Since Elon Musk’s previously known as Twitter, the platform has changed significantly, the founder of Tesla has changed the algorithms of the founder and has been reported to remove real control mechanisms.
This included transforming the platform into the pro-M-Maga Trump Echo Chamber until last year’s US presidential elections, and previously banned figures such as Tommy Robinson and Katie Hopkinson.
In order not to hate hope, Islam has become a visible and relevant tendency, such as the Islamic anti -activist Robinson, who implies that he would participate in an EPPING protest on Sunday.
Mr. Mullhall said: “The distant right -wing dramatic and ironic way has changed, he doesn’t know the boundaries. What we see right now is the key figures that appear online. We don’t look at the organizations anymore, we look at the key people who emerged during the crisis.
“Far right international, they wander around and move in pacts and try to find any weakness. There are no official leaders; they don’t have a single leader, as if a group of fish moving in situations that benefit from the internet.
“It is not surprising that we see an increase in far-right activity in England, USA and Europe-these groups and ideas are interconnected.”
The British government’s investigation of social media, misinformation and malicious algorithms of the University of Portsmouth, an expert witness. Karen Middleton said that the recent protests in EPPING were “the continuation of the uprisings since many last year”.
He said: “sensational and polarizing content collects more clicks, collects more participation, so there is a systemic incentive to spread online misinformation.”
He called on great social media platforms to go much further to address the spread of false information, but warned that it was not about limiting free conversation.
“This is about taking responsibility for published information that goes to a large number of people and usually spread by people with high profiles,” he said.
The National Police Chiefs Council (NPSCC) spokesman called for a role that communities have played a role in stopping the spread of misinformation, and that they read, share and share people to avoid stopping tensions.
“We will encourage the public to access the official authorities for the right information. The spread of disinformation and misinformation by individuals or groups may contribute significantly to community tensions and have real world results.
They also called on social media companies to be vigilant to spread the wrong information and to “ensure that the harmful content is perceived and removed in time and removal and removed”.
