New data on online hate crime incidents related to football released

September 30, 2022 Article

The Home Office has, for the first time, released experimental data about online hate-related incidents related to football.

Recorded incidents totalled 52 between 1 January and 28 July 2022, a 136.36 per cent rise from the 22 figure recorded during the 2021/22 season.

That figure, however, comes with a big caveat: it may not sit entirely within the criteria used to record cases in 2022.

The Home Office briefing stressed that 74 incidents from both datasets provided a “good indication” of online hate crime incidents that satisfied the criteria for further investigation.

The racist targeting of England’s Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford, and Jadon Sancho on social media following the Euro 2020 final last summer landed some in prison – including 19-year-old Justin Lee Price. Others received fines or suspended prison sentences.

Karl Tizzard, 29, received a fine and a ban from all Brighton & Hove Albion games after posting racist tweets just 25 minutes after England’s defeat on penalties to Italy. Hugh Laidlaw, 50, was given an eight-week custodial sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered to pay a fine of £1000 plus another £900 in extra costs for his racist comments.

Others, like 64-year-old Robert Whippe, admitted directing two racist tweets featuring monkey and banana emojis at Rio Ferdinand following the defeat. Deputy Senior District Judge Tan Ikram told Whippe, “Those two symbols are often used by those who want to express racist views towards black people, and that’s what you did”.

Jerry Garcia-Lorca Roj-Oz, from Abbey Wood, south-east London, targeted Jadon Sancho on Instagram with a racist monkey emoji, resulting in a suspended prison sentence.

Racist Bradford Pretty, 50, avoided prison for their racist rant following the Euro 2020 final defeat – the self-employed plasterer had lost 70 per cent of his business with many people calling him out to quote for fake jobs.

Scott McCluskey, 43, received a 14-week suspended sentence and was ordered to wear an electronic tag for 40 weeks after being found guilty in September 2021.

A year from a social media blackout aimed at pressuring social media companies to do more to tackle racism and discrimination, The Mirror interviewed various diversity leaders about what it meant and what challenges remain.

Academics have long explored how social media amplified racism in new social settings (including from traditional fan messageboards), as other studies explored the function of “frontstage” and “backstage” models behind what motivates hate speech online. In the blurring of the boundaries on social media, the front-facing way (front stage) people express themselves to the “public” identity, whereas, in contrast, the “backstage” is a private space where individuals express their feelings more freely. Much of this sentiment, some academics argue, is welded to online disinhibition.

Other scholarly work situates constructions of whiteness and the intersections of masculinity and the notion of “white habitus” that advantages specific social and cultural profits to white football fans, which in turn, helps encourage some to spread racism.

Other researchers focus on efforts to counter racism via Kick It Out!, grassroots community and anti-racism groups, and the importance of structural reform at the game’s highest level – especially given the structural under-representation of South Asian footballers at all levels.

TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat (a handy guide for reporting stories is here) have their reporting forms.

As a trusted flagger, Tell MAMA benefits from prioritised reporting status, so we encourage the public to report content when platforms fail to remove content.

The Metropolitan Police, Staffordshire Police, and West Midlands Police all have dedicated hate crime officers that deal with football-related hate crimes, both online and offline.

Within stadiums, the Home Office data revealed 18 offences related to racist chanting, with a further example occurring outside a stadium.

 

 

 

 

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Categories: football, hate crime, Home Office, News

Revealed: Cllr Steve Flood retweeted call for ban on kosher and halal slaughter

August 22, 2022 Article

A Tell MAMA investigation has unearthed more inflammatory anti-Muslim and discriminatory social media content from an Ipswich councillor suspended from the local Conservative party.

Councillor Steve Flood, who now sits as an Independent for the ward of Sprites, retweeted from the @steveflood3 account content that read, “I do not believe Islam should be allowed in the UK” and “ISLAM DOES NOT ALLOW FREE SPEECH and it is being allowed to grow from strength to strength in Britain”.

Flood had listed “borough conservative councillor” on their Twitter bio.

The local Conservative MP Tom Hunt called the retweets “cleary Islamophobic” and had no place in a mainstream political party, the East Anglian Daily Times reported.

The content seen by Tell MAMA and shared with local Conservatives in Ipswich and forwarded to party head office included retweeting content that called for a ban on halal and kosher slaughter, a total ban on immigration, and conspiracies about halal meat labelling. And boosting an inflammatory racialised falsehood that read, “A mainly Muslim Army is being ushered into our Country by the HOUR! Fit, Adult, young Men. Legions of them, from all Cultures and Countries, of which we know NOTHING! 40K so far since 2021. Remember, our own ARMY has just under 80K. Our National Security is in grave Danger!”.

Evidence of Cllr Steve Flood retweeting calls for a ban on kosher and halal slaughter in the UK.

The anti-Muslim falsehood as retweeted by Cllr Steve Flood.

The image used in the original tweet was a photograph of refugees in Calais, taken in 2018.

Examples of the anti-Muslim and Islamophobic retweets that resulted in Cllr Flood’s suspension from the local Conservative party.

Anti-LGBT+ content found by Tell MAMA included a retweet from Cllr Flood from an account holder who called Pride a “sexual deviancy fest” and from a separate account that claimed, “Pride is now just a celebration of perverts, narcissists and pedo apologists.”

Anti-LGBT content Cllr Flood retweeted before locking their Twitter account.

Councillor Flood tweeted statements like “A once great country is being destroyed, by welcoming illegal immigrants” and “You are all paying for illegal immigrants, at £5,000,000 a day and rising,” blaming them for failures to secure dental appointments, rentals, or hospital appointments.

A conspiracy about halal meat labelling appeared on Cllr Flood’s Twitter timeline.

Other councillors documented their misuse of Twitter in 2021 to spread anti-Muslim falsehoods.

In a statement, the Conservative Association said: “On Friday morning the Ipswich Conservative Association suspended Councillor Steve Flood following allegations that appeared in the press on Thursday.

“The suspension includes removal of the whip from the Conservative group at the borough council.”

A meeting on Wednesday (August 24) will decide the future of Steve Flood in the Conservative party.

We continue to offer all councils and local authorities bespoke training on social media best practices and digital trends around anti-Muslim hate and Islamophobia.

 

 

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Categories: Conservative Party, discrimination, Halal, Kosher, News

From Buffalo to Christchurch, how online fascism causes real-world terror

May 16, 2022 Article

The racist terror that targeted Black communities in Buffalo, New York, in what the Buffalo Mayor, Byron Brown said, intended to kill “as many Black lives as possible“, left 10 dead and three injured.

Amongst the dead include 77-year-old Pearl Young, 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, Roberta Drury, 32, 68-year-old Heyward Patterson, Geraldine Talley, 62, 65-year-old Celeste Chaney, 52-year-old Margus Morrison, Andre Mackneil, 53, 72-year-old Katherine “Kat” Massey, and the retired police officer and the heroic store security guard, Aaron Salter, aged 53.

Police named the three individuals injured: Jennifer Warrington, Zaire Goodman, and Christopher Braden.

Of the thirteen people shot, 11 were Black.

The 18-year-old neo-Nazi, Payton Gendron, stands accused of attempting to murder as many Black people as possible in Buffalo, New York, took inspiration from other far-right and white supremacist terrorists in the United States, Norway, Christchurch, and the UK.

A 180-page screed (referred to as a “manifesto” in news outlets) uploaded online and attributed to Gendron clarifies their fascist, neo-Nazi views and an obsession with the racist “Great Replacement” conspiracy – which draws mainstream credence in the United States despite continued condemnation.

The Amazon-owned platform Twitch removed the live stream video in two minutes (of the attacks occurring) – but the video quickly appeared on Twitter and Facebook. In addition, the N-word and “14” – a reference to the infamous white supremacist “fourteen words” mantra appeared on the rifle. A private Discord server is also under investigation – as Unicorn Riot reported on the chat logs, as they sought advice about tactical armour and weapons.

According to the New York Times, the accused also made threats against their high school, resulting in his arrest and a psychiatric evaluation aged 17, but he was released days later. Nor was Gendron on the red-flag list – a New York law enacted in 2019 where a judge issues an “extreme risk protection order” that prevents the person from owning or buying a gun.

The screed details how their racist views grew in their teenage years before crystalising on the notorious /pol/ (politically incorrect) board of 4Chan to call for accelerationist racist terror and destabilisation tactics in communities to harm Muslims and other minoritised groups.

Like the white supremacist terrorist who murdered 51 Muslims in Christchurch, this screed adopts an eco-fascist slant, which echoes traditional fascist calls for the violent rebirth of a mythologised society. However, for the historian Robert Paxton, fascism functions primarily as a “political behaviour marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood”, where emotion drives the violent actions as a tool of recruitment and inspires others to such horrific acts of terror and violence.

It’s crucial that in the age of digital and cyberfascism, such violent appeals to this mythologised nation-state exist beyond traditional borders, much like the internet connections which draw such individuals and groups together. In their paper “Fascism at eye level“, Douglas Holmes argued that cyberfascism today functions as a “disperse” problem that echoes beyond traditional national contexts and geographies. Such emerging technologies present fascism with various faces and reconfigurations.

Before taking selective extracts from the screed, it is essential to consider how digital subcultures can help facilitate the dehumanisation and others of minoritised groups into street-level forms of violence and terrorism. For example, in Cathrine Thorleifsson’s study on cyberfascism on 4chan’s/pol/ board, they argue that the role of echo chambers, when fused with a lack of counternarratives, and the creative process of creating fascist and racist memes, provides a ‘significant’ sense of agency and as a lightning rod for radicalisation through the unquestioning acceptance of the racist conspiracism that underpins white supremacist ideology. Such affective politics of fear grounded in the dehumanisation of minoritised groups, othering them as an existential threat, can inspire such violence and terror offline, as the above also helps build community beyond traditional borders.

Moreover, as Thorleifsson noted, the “gendered reconfiguration of fascist content and promotion of the urgency of the need of a national or racial rebirth” through the creative process which also “reflects a core feature of the fascist phenomena: the perception of an endangered community that need to be reborn through violent means.”

As we return to the screed, Gendron described accessing /pol/ during the covid-19 lockdowns of 2020, where they chanced upon a GIF of the Christchurch live stream. Then, wanting to understand more and be enthralled by the terror, they describe watching the terror attacks, accessing their screed, and how they “mostly agreed with him”. Before sanctifying the racist terror carried out by white supremacists – including Patrick Crusius, Anders Breivik, Dylann Roof, and John T Earnest.

Amongst various links of anti-Black racist pseudo-science and abhorrent memes, the screed links to a Telegraph article published in 2010, in which Richard Garside, director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, called “racist claptrap” as “Crime is one of those areas of public policy where it is still respectable to seek explanations for behaviour in the colour of a person’s skin.”

Other racist memes targeting Black and Jewish communities found in the screed first appeared on the neo-Nazi white supremacist hate site, White Aryan Resistance, under the moniker “A Wyatt Man” in 2004 – the identity of whom has been a subject of much curiosity and investigation.

More modern racist memes about Jewish communities in the screed reinforce the historic antisemitic canard of so-called disproportionate influence in public life, blamed for all perceived social problems, as they call for genocide.

Transphobia appears in the screed, writing “LGB (drop the t)” and describing “transgenderism as a mental illness”. In addition, a racist meme blames Jewish communities for trans identities, reinforcing the above point.

Buried amongst the dizzying volume of racist anti-Black and anti-Jewish memes is a meme that blames the latter for criminal acts of child sexual exploitation in the UK – including a crude collection of headlines that further racialise the crime, which is not reflective of reviews into the backgrounds of such criminals, including from the Home Office.

The racialisation of Islam appears in the screed, othered to justify dehumanisation and violence. Therefore, it is no surprise that the screed also praises the Finsbury Park terrorist Darren Osborne (who they misspelt as Osbourne), the Christchurch terrorist, and the neo-Nazi Norweigan terrorist Philip Manshaus. The latter attempted to murder Muslims at a mosque after murdering his stepsister Johanne Zhangjia Ihle-Hansen in a racist shooting.

Buried towards the end of the screed is the further glorification of Patrick Crusius, John Earnest, Robert Bowers, Anders Breivik (spelt correctly this time), and Dylann Roof. Other notable white supremacist terrorists cited in this paragraph include Anton Lundin Pettersson and Luca Traini – a further example of how the Christchurch manifesto, including the narcissistic and psychotic Q&A section, took inspiration from the tragic events in New Zealand in March 2019.

The screed calls for the murder of the Jewish philanthropist and Holocaust survivor George Soros, the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan. Following this, we alerted the Metropolitan Police and Khan’s office. When asked about this, Khan told the press, “It’s been on public record that I receive police protection. “It’s unfortunate but it’s a fact of me being the mayor. “I’ve been incredibly safe because I’m looked after by dedicated, decent, brave police officers.”

President Joe Biden urged unity to address the “hate that remains a stain on the soul of America” in a press conference yesterday.

Authorities are still considering domestic terrorism charges.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Categories: Christchurch, Far Right groups, Fascism, Great Replacement, Neo-Nazi, News, terrorism

GUILTY: Far-right terror teen, 16, from Leeds, given Referral Order

March 17, 2022 Article

Counter-terror police thanked the public for flagging the social media activity of a 16-year-old teen in Leeds who was later found guilty of far-right related terrorism offences.

A press release details how Counter Terrorism Policing North East investigated and subsequently arrested the teen in May 2021, re-arresting them two months later.

He entered guilty pleas at Westminster Youth Court on February 17, 2022.

The teen, whose identity remains anonymous due to their age, entered guilty pleas for offences related to the dissemination of a terrorist publication and for possession of terrorist material.

On Monday, March 14, it emerged that the young terrorist received a twelve-month referral order for each offence – which will run concurrently.

They will also have to front the costs and face a criminal behavioural order that will run until the day before they turn eighteen.

The counter-terror police press release makes clear that “Referral Orders can include reparation or restitution, as well as undertaking a programme of interventions and activities to address their offending behaviour.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Martin Snowden, who leads Counter Terror Policing North East, said: “We are immensely grateful that this was reported to police,” adding that the public should continue to report such content for the police to act.

“Through reports such as these, the work of the CTIRU and the support of online service providers, we can silence those wanting to spread hatred and protect others from the harm that takes place on online platforms,” he concluded.

 

 

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Categories: Far Right groups, Leeds, News, terrorism

#No2h8November: Social media verification tips and reporting hate

November 1, 2021 Article

This #No2h8November 2021, we have put together some tips, advice, and tricks for reporting racism, hate, and abuse across the major social media platforms and resources to consider when looking at counter online disinformation.

Last year, we put together a series of infographics about improving personal safety on Twitter – with advice about filtering harmful Direct Messages, flagging harmful, racist or dehumanising images, bio details (including avatars, usernames, and biographical text), how aggressive retweeting constitutes spam. Other examples include reporting images where no text appears in the tweet (merely select the option “It displays a sensitive image or video’ and flag as ‘adult, violent, hateful”).  Twitter also has a more comprehensive reporting form than the streamlined option provided in-app or web platform.

TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat (a handy guide for reporting stories is here) have their reporting forms, but as a trusted flagger, Tell MAMA benefits from prioritised reporting status, so we encourage the public to report content when platforms fail to remove content.

Remember: critical thinking is crucial. We intend this guide to be introductory, not exhaustive in detail, but we hope it can be developed further in the future.

As First Draft note in their “Five Pillars of verification” always consider PROVENANCE (the originality of content), SOURCE (who created the content), DATE (when did it appear online), LOCATION (Where was the account or website created), and MOTIVATION (why was the account or website created).

Bellingcat, First Draft, and Craig Silverman’s Verification Handbook provide far more comprehensive guides and resources available in various languages.

And this free guide gives some introductory advice about geo-specific tweet searching and image reverse searching methods.

Reverse image searching

Tell MAMA continues to document how we debunk anti-Muslim and Islamophobic falsehoods, more so during the Covid-19 pandemic. From screengrabs of viral videos to images that appear across major social media platforms, using platforms like Bing, Google Images, Yandex, and TinEye, we can see that sometimes all is not what it seems. In addition, there are helpful guides about the drawbacks to the platforms when identifying faces, altered content, or locations, notably from DomanTools published in 2019. Finally, for ease, on Firefox and Google Chrome, the free add-on extension RevEye streamlines the image reverse search process. Other websites to consider to help identify content when reverse image searching is removing backgrounds (especially when dealing with faces). Sites like remove.bg are free to use. Sensity offers a web-based tool for detecting deepfakes and GAN-generated faces.

Double-checking URL links and short links

Securi provides tools to scan URL links for malicious content like malware and its overall security with a simple click.

To double-check the veracity of any popular shortened URL link, URL Unshortener provides a screenshot preview of the link. The French-based cyber security firm CRDF Labs provides ways to test URLs also.

Visual Ping allows you to see how websites change over time.

Checking metadata for images and PDFs

Free tools to check the metadata of images includes Jeffrey’s Image Metadata Viewer and Forensically. And for PDF files, there are websites like Metadata2go.

Fact checkers

Reuters

AFP

Full Fact

Google Fact Check Explorer

BBC Reality Check

Snopes

Join the discussion with the hashtags #No2h8 and #No2h8November. The month is about challenging racism, hate, bigotry in all its forms, and how we can work together collectively to be upstanders and not bystanders, especially in the online world and how we carry on these acts of solidarity in the offline world.

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Categories: Instagram, internet research tools, News, TikTok

Tommy Robinson’s ‘anti-Muslim message’ saw boy facing death threats, court hears

April 21, 2021 Article

Tommy Robinson’s “entirely distorted anti-Muslim message” about a Syrian schoolboy who was attacked at school led to the boy and his family “facing death threats and extremist agitation”, the High Court has heard.

The English Defence League founder – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – is being sued by Jamal Hijazi, 17, who was filmed being attacked in the playground at Almondbury School in Huddersfield in November 2018.

Shortly after the video went viral, Robinson claimed in two Facebook videos, which were viewed by nearly one million people, that Jamal was “not innocent and he violently attacks young English girls in his school”.

The 38-year-old also claimed Jamal “beat a girl black and blue” and “threatened to stab” another boy at his school, allegations the teenager denies.

On the first day of the libel trial in London on Wednesday, Jamal’s lawyer told the court that Robinson’s comments “turned Jamal into the aggressor, and the bully into a righteous white knight”.

Catrin Evans QC, representing Jamal, said in written submissions that Robinson’s allegations had “a devastating effect on Jamal and his family” and led to them being relocated from the area in early 2019.

She described Robinson as “a well-known extreme-right advocate with convictions for violence, as well as fraud and drug offences”.

Robinson “used his social media platforms, in particular his Facebook account, to spread his extremist views”, Ms Evans added.

She said Robinson “falsely accused Jamal of being part of a gang that participated in a violent assault on a young girl and… also alleged that he had threatened to stab another child”, and did so “without any direct knowledge of the events in question”.

Ms Evans told the court that Jamal was bullied from shortly after he started at the school in October 2016, having come to the UK with his family as refugees from Homs in Syria.

She added: “The bullying, and the failure to do enough about it, culminated in 2018 in a series of incidents in the school, including serious threats made to Jamal.”

Ms Evans said a fellow pupil attacked Jamal in October 2018 and “simulated waterboarding him” by pouring a bottle of water over his face when he was on the ground.

After the video of the incident went viral, it “received mass national media coverage and an outpouring of support for Jamal and his family”, Ms Evans told the court.

Robinson then published the allegations about Jamal “to his million social media followers”, “apparently based only on material posted on, and subsequently deleted from, social media”, Ms Evans added.

She described Robinson’s defence as “a cobbled-together mix of generalised smears of Jamal’s character”, saying that “there is simply no merit to the defendant’s defence of truth”.

Robinson, who is representing himself at the trial, is defending his comments on the basis that they are substantially true.

In written submissions, Robinson said he had “uncovered dozens of accounts of aggressive, abusive and deceitful behaviour by the claimant, including acts which speak the truth to the matters complained of”.

Referring to the alleged “waterboarding” incident, Robinson added: “Not only was the claimant the bully and not the victim in this incident, he has subsequently been shown to be the aggressor on multiple occasions, indulging in violent and abusive behaviour.”

The eight-day trial at the Royal Courts of Justice in London is expected to hear evidence from Jamal and Robinson, as well as pupils and staff at the time of the incident.

The trial before Mr Justice Nicklin is due to conclude next Friday and it is expected that he will give his ruling at a later date.

Credit: PA News

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Categories: Anti-Muslim message, court, Death threats, Far Right groups, Jamal Hijazi, libel, News, Stephen Yaxley Lennon, Tommy Robinson

Lammy says Twitter must get ‘much faster at removing hate’ after racist abuse

August 3, 2020 Article

Labour MP David Lammy has told Twitter it must get “much faster at removing hate” after a delay to deleting racist abuse targeted at him.

The shadow justice secretary said on Monday that it took more than 13 hours for the social media giant to act before it suspended the perpetrator’s account.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said Twitter “must take decisive action against this sort of vile content much faster” following the “awful racist abuse”.

The latest criticism of Twitter comes after social networks were condemned for failing to act quickly enough over a series of anti-Semitic messages sent by grime artist Wiley.

Mr Lammy tweeted: “13+ hours later, the police are investigating and Mikolaos Nichaloliakos’ tweet calling me a ‘monkey boy’ and making threats about ‘hanging’ are still live.

“You (Twitter) need to get so much faster at removing hate.”

Scotland Yard said the tweet’s “contents are being assessed” after an allegation of malicious communication towards the MP on Sunday.

Twitter said: “Racist behaviour has no place on our service. We have policies in place that address abuse and harassment, violent threats, and hateful conduct.

“If we identify accounts that violate any of these rules, we’ll take enforcement action. This account in question has been suspended for violating our hateful conduct policy.”

Downing Street was among those to criticise Twitter and Instagram for not acting sooner over Wiley’s message, saying last week their response had “not been good enough”.

On Monday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “Social media platforms must be quicker at taking action against hate.”

The post Lammy says Twitter must get ‘much faster at removing hate’ after racist abuse appeared first on Faith Matters.

Categories: David Lammy MP, News, Racist Abuse, Removing Hate

Change.org removes petition calling for the destruction of mosques after removal of slave trader statues

June 11, 2020 Article

Change.org has removed a petition which called for the destruction of mosques in response to the toppling and removal of statues of the slave traders Edward Colston and Robert Milligan.

The petition, titled “If the statues go, the Mosques go too,” called on Black Lives Matters supporters to target mosques (as apparent symbols of slavery) and had gained over 500 signatures in one day before its removal for breaching the platform’s rules on hate speech.

On Twitter, the petition had generated various harmful comments, with one such tweet calling for the use of bulldozers.

Credit: Twitter.

Others tweeted that the “mosques can go anyway…”.

Signatories on the change.org petition included individuals based in the United States, Chile, Spain, and Australia, from the location information provided on some profiles who had made public statements after signing the petition.

Some UK-based users who signed the petition had made racist comments, referring to Muslims as “medieval savages” as others made broader racialised anti-Muslim and Islamophobic comments – from accusing all Muslims of being terrorists to forms of ‘cultural othering’, including about the perceived number of mosques in a ‘Christian country’.

Change.org has clear policies on hate speech, limiting content (including petitions, usernames, comments) that “attack or malign an entire class of people based on characteristics such as their age, color, disability, ethnic origin, gender identity, nationality, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, medical condition, or veteran status.”

The platform also holds discretion when enforcing its Terms, including the closing of accounts or removing harmful content.

We welcome the swift action regarding hateful content on their platform.

 

 

 

 

 

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Categories: Black Lives Matter, News, petition

TikTok bans Britain First and Tommy Robinson for hate speech violations

April 23, 2020 Article

Video-sharing app TikTok has banned the accounts of far-right agitators Britain First and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson).

In a statement, the company confirmed to Tell MAMA that both accounts “had been subject to an ongoing investigation due to the nature of some of the content posted.”

Multiple content violations concerned the use of hate speech, which fall foul of the platform’s Terms and Conditions.

The ban is permanent, meaning that neither Mr Robinson nor Britain First can return to TikTok.

A TikTok spokesperson said: “Keeping people on TikTok safe is a top priority and our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines clearly outline what is not acceptable on our platform. Content that seeks to promote hateful ideology has no place on TikTok and the accounts belonging to both Tommy Robinson and Britain First have been permanently removed for multiple violations of our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. We’re continuously enhancing our efforts to ensure that individuals and organisations seeking to promote any form of hateful ideology cannot establish a sustainable presence on TikTok.”

Recent investigations has exposed their activity on the platform.

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and Britain First have been banned from all other major social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat.

Tell MAMA welcomes this ban, as all social media platforms have a duty to protect its users from hate speech, and ban those who breach its policies.

 

 

 

 

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Categories: Britain First, News, Tommy Robinson

Shropshire Police debunk malicious tweet about a mosque ‘ignoring’ the coronavirus lockdown

March 30, 2020 Article

Shropshire Police and other Twitter users have debunked a malicious tweet which claimed that a ‘mosque in Shrewsbury’ was ignoring the coronavirus lockdown.

The offending tweet, published on March 26, from a user who claimed ‘to have spoken to the mosque’ and was ‘horrified’ to find that it was still open, adding that the people inside could be ‘super spreaders’ of the virus, and urged the police to act.

Credit: Twitter.

The Shrewsbury Muslim Centre, however, has continued to observe the lockdown since the government’s advice changed earlier this month. In a statement published on March 19, the centre added, as with many places of worship, spoke of their acute concern about the virus and would, therefore, cease holding Friday (Jummah) prayers until further notice.

Credit: Shrewsbury Muslim Centre.

Shropshire Police tweeted yesterday evening that “Probably because there is no Mosque in Shrewsbury. There is a prayer centre & it has been checked and is fully compliant with the current government requirements.”

Other Twitter users condemned the flagrant attempt at stirring up anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobia, writing, “Shropshire Police thanks for standing up in favour off against the hater who want to pour petrol and stir up tensions in the community.” One user added that “There isn’t a mosque in Shrewsbury ya daft racist,” as another user replied, “You’re a super spreader of lies and racism.”

Some condemned the user for wasting police time and resources, adding that, “Wasting police time, Russ. You’re nowhere near my town. Thank goodness.”

The tweet did attract attention from a plethora of nationalist and far-right accounts, but a clear majority of the replies condemned the malicious tweet.

When asked what they were going to do about such hateful conduct, Shropshire Police replied that it had been “all duly recorded & reported.”

Tell MAMA urges users to report the malicious tweet, as others have done so. We welcome the quick debunking by Shropshire Police and others who challenged this malicious and inflammatory tweet.

You can get advice from our confidential and free helpline on 0800 456 1226. Or through our free iOS or Android apps. Report through our online form. Or contact us via WhatsApp on 0734 184 6086.

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Categories: Coronavirus, News, Shropshire Police