Protestors remonstrate with police officers during the ‘Enough is Enough’ demonstration on Whitehall, outside the entrance to 10 Downing Street in central London on July 31, 2024. — AFP pic
Background
This article wishes to focus on one aspect of the issue, namely the use or misuse of social media and the role played by social media owners in promoting Islamophobia and anti-Immigrant issues leading to the outbreak of riots in the UK. .
The sparks for the riots now happening all over UK even as we speak, ignited on the Tuesday 29 th of July as public anger erupted in the wake of an ugly and mass stabbing attack that left three girls dead and a further 10 others severely wounded at a dance and yoga studio in Southport, a town just 19 miles north of Liverpool in northwestern England. The assailant has been identified as Axel Rudakubana, who turns 18 years old this week, born in Cardiff, Wales, to Rwandan parents who raised him as a Christian.
As he was considered a juvenile at the time of the attack, British law dictated that he could not be identified. Far-right figures pounced on this to publish on social media falsely stating that the attacker was a Muslim, even falsely naming him as Ali As Shakati, immigrant and refugee that had just come off a boat . The scale of this misinformation was so huge and spectacular. Al Jazeera quoted a report by Associate Professor Owen Jones, an IT expert from Hamid Khalifa University in Doha, Qatar. By July 30, just ONE day after the incident, Jones, reporting on X, had tracked “at least 27 million impressions [on social media] for posts stating or speculating that the attacker was Muslim, a migrant, refugee or foreigner”. This was no organically growing outburst or spontaneous combustion of anger. This was a deliberate cyber-attack of epic proportions meant to promote Islamophobia, racism and hatred to immigrants.
Who are the Far Right extremists?
Amongst those chiefly responsible for stirring up the current racial, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim feelings include people like influencer Andrew Tate, well known for his Islamophobic and racists views. He also said in a video on X that an “undocumented migrant” who had “arrived on a boat” had attacked the girls in Southport. Furthermore, he added, “The soul of the Western man is so broken that when the invaders slaughter your daughters, you do absolutely f****** nothing,” Posts alluding to the “Islamic religion” and associating it to “terrorism” and calling for the whites to reclaim their country flooded the internet. Others included notorious UK neo-fascists such as Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon) and Katie Hopkins. Robinson founded the English Defense League and is well known for his anti-Immigration and anti-Muslim views. Another group is the Britain First Party, a far-right, British fascist and neo-fascist political party and hate group formed in 2011 by former members of the British National Party led by Paul Golding who spent time in jail for hate crimes against Muslims.
Role of Elon Musk in facilitating Far-Right groups Propaganda
Elon Musk has played a crucial role in facilitating the spread of hate messages and Islamophobia in the UK. Acquiring Twitter for 44 billion in April 2022 and renaming it as X, he criticised its moderation decisions prior to his acquisition and called for a greater emphasis on what he says is “free speech”. In November 2022, He reinstated Tommy Robinson’s account on X which was previously banned by Twitter in November the same year. Britain First rejoined X after being banned in 2017 under Twitter’s hate speech rules after posting inflammatory anti-Muslim videos. X classified Britain First as an “official organization” and gave it a gold checkmark on X. Paul Golding and Gold and Deputy Leader Jada Fransen Other also had their accounts on X reinstated after being banned in 2017. Not only that he reinstated the previously banned account of Martin Sellner founder of Identitarian Movement, a European ethnicity superiority group who has links with Brenton Tarrant. Who is Brenton Tarrant? He was the gunman who entered two mosques in Christchurch New Zealand in 2019 and slaughtered 51 Muslims during Friday Prayer. When staff like Dom Lemon disagreed with his policy of flirting with extremists’ views, Elon Musk fired him. Needless to say, all these extremists were happy and praised Musk for allowing them to use his platform to continue to spread their propaganda and also collect donations.
It is noteworthy to note his response to news of the riots in the UK. He definitely has an agenda. He tweeted the now infamous quote that “civil war is inevitable” in the UK after a sixth day of unrest on British streets with scenes of violent disorder by far-right mobs. This was indeed a provocative statement that further inflamed tensions and emotions. No 10 Downing Street publicly criticised Mr Musk on Monday saying: “There’s no justification for comments like that and what we’ve seen in this country is organised violent thuggery that has no place on our streets or online”. He made a further provocation when he replied to a social media post from Prime Minister, Sir Keir Stamer who had criticised attacks and violence towards Muslims, by replying: “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on all communities? “. Elon Musk was implying that Sir Keir Stamer was only concerned about protecting Muslims and not caring about other communities, blithely ignoring that the main targets of the attacks and riots were focused on immigrants and the mosques, shops, community centres of the Muslim community.
Funds for Palestinian groups in Australia affected by Gaza war given to media outlets instead
He failed to acknowledge that a group of people gathering at the site of the attack in a peaceful vigil on July 30th found their gathering hijacked by a group of far right protesters who threw bottles and stones at police vans and attacked the local Southport mosque. Riots over the UK broke out after this incident along similar anti Muslim lines. Viewers left comments on social media depicting these riots stating “ Oh look no immigrants or Muslims amongst the mourners” or “ We had had enough. England for the English” etc further adding fuel to fire. Riots spread to Hartlepool, Manchester, Aldershot, Sunderland, Liverpool, Blackpool, Hull, Leeds, Preston, Stoke-on-Trent, Nottingham, Bristol, Middlesbrough, Rotherham, Tamworth, Solihull, Plymouth and Belfast in Northern Ireland. Muslims became the main target of these attacks, mosques, shops and even muslim graves in Burnley being attacked and vandalized. Ostensibly and for political reasons, the Islamophobia aspect is being down played by the press, instead these attackers are denoted as anti-immigrant protesters. None the less Muslims living in the UK feel that they are the main scapegoats for an incident that has nothing to do with them and their religion. Muslims are afraid to go out for fear of their lives. Areas with large white populations especially in the lower class has become no go areas for Muslims.
Double Standards of Social Media Platforms
Elon Musk and his ilk are guilty of practicing double standards. The whole world knows that when it comes to criticism of Israel and its genocidal war in Gaza and killing of Palestinians, social media platforms like X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok meticulously censoring accounts or actively reducing the reach of any pro-Palestine content, a practice known as shadow banning. Some users have also accused Instagram, owned by Meta, of arbitrarily taking down posts that simply mention Palestine for violating “community guidelines”. Others said their Instagram Stories were hidden for sharing information about protests in support of Palestine. Some also reportedly complained about the word “terrorist” appearing near their Instagram biographies. The BBC reported that Meta apologised for adding the word terrorist to pro-Palestinian accounts, saying the problem that “briefly caused inappropriate Arabic translations” has been fixed. So much talk about freedom of free speech. But when it comes to far right propaganda about anti-Islam, Immigration etc, freedom of speech is wheeled out as justification.
UK Far Right and the connection with Zionists Organisations
Tommy Robinson has appeared in pro-Israel protests in London and has publicly declared himself a Zionist. In 2018, he was on trial charged with contempt of court. A Guardian Newspaper report in December 2018 reported that Middle East Forum (MEF) a pro-Israel think-thank group in US helped to fund Robinson’s legal expenses. MEF stated publicly that they were proudly “helping Robinson in his moment of danger” by paying for his legal defence, “bringing foreign pressure on the UK government to ensure Mr. Robinson’s safety and eventual release”; and “organising and funding” a rally that took place in London. The David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC), a California-based thinktank that describes itself as a “school for political warfare”, has published a series of pieces defending Robinson, and has lobbied for him to address US politicians. Horowitz, the co-founder of the DHFC, told the Guardian in an email: “Tommy Robinson is a courageous Englishman who has risked his life to expose the rape epidemic of young girls conducted by Muslim gangs and covered up by your shameful government.” It is obvious that Zionists believe that by supporting UK far right extremists, they can undermine the position of the Muslim community in UK and lead to tension between the various communities.
Conclusions
- Far right extremists have been given an open platform to spread their racists, anti-immigration and anti Islamic Much of their anger are directed against Muslims, Mosques and properties, highlighting fictitious events of Muslims engaged in sex crimes, loss of jobs due to immigration, churches being taking over by Muslims etc . All these are displayed on social media to promote public anger and odium without any form of censorship by the platform developers
- There is evidence that these far right groups are being funded by Zionists groups who use these groups to attack the Muslims and Pro Palestine Protesters
- Social Media apply the strictest forms of self-censorship (without need for government intervention) on any posting even mildly critical of Israel but quote freedom of speech in allowing extreme postings of far right groups and individuals posting hate articles towards Muslims and immigration in the UK. This double standard is characteristic of social media platforms today and needs to be addressed.
- The British government is reeling with the damage done to public order, its multi-culturalism and diverse society-in-harmony image in tatters apart from damage to public property. The far right has shown that given space in the virtual media, it is able to influence a substantial minority of British yobs to go out and damage mosques, attack Muslims and their possessions and also attack police trying to restore order. All this in the name of “reclaiming England from the Muslims”
- Muslims worldwide are used to this double standards in social media platforms and have long been seeking restitution and reform of ethics and policies of social media platforms. Now the UK government is itself discovering the true cost of allowing social media platforms carte blanche in self-regulating its contents and failing to censor far right extremists from spewing their hate and lies. The very fabric of British society is being torn apart due to the irresponsible actions and inaction by social media platforms by actively facilitating, promoting and even supporting these propaganda.
- The late Conservative politician Enoch Powell back in 1968 made an infamous “Rivers of Blood” speech that he foresaw that immigrants will not integrate in British society and would cause bloodshed to occur. Far right extremists today are using pliant social media to make that prediction come true. The riots are a foretelling sign in this direction unless stopped immediately. The British government must therefore summon its courage to rein in the miscreants as well as take action on the social media and people like Elon Musk to restore public order and confidence amongst the communities that are most affected.
By: Dr Awaluddin Mohamed Shaharoun
