Fake accounts whipping up antiMuslim sentiment online

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

Many groups have recorded significant growth in their social media followings in the past year, coordinating to push the message that Islam is an ‘‘imminent threat’’ to Western society.

Researchers from antiracist organisation Hope Not Hate found the impact of tweets from controversial US activist Pamela Geller, who is banned from the UK, is magnified by 102 bots, automated or semiautomated accounts that automatically tweet or retweet content.

Researchers monitored a sample of antiMuslim Twitter accounts in Britain and the US between March and November this year, and found, on average, a 117% growth in followers.

Geller, described by critics as a figurehead for Islamophobic organisations, produces the Geller Report, which doubled its viewers to more than two million each month between July and October. The Gates of Vienna counterjihadist blog, described by critics as a training manual for antiMuslim paramilitaries, also doubled visitors per month during the same period.

Patrik Hermansson, researcher for Hope not Hate, said: ‘‘The growth among Twitter accounts and websites spreading antiMuslim hate is alarming . . . as each account or site grows, more people are exposed to deeply prejudiced antiMuslim views.’’

The study charts how terror attacks in the UK have been exploited by antiMuslim activists over social media.

It also accuses Breitbart, run by Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon, of spreading fake news, stating ‘‘its reporting on Islam and Muslims is largely indistinguishable from the antiMuslim movement’s rhetoric or even that of the far right’’. — Guardian News and Media