How disinformation is fuelling Britain’s far-right riots

2 comments

1. Some interesting parts from the article:

   “Oftentimes when an incident happens, and especially something really violent and shocking, there will be opportunists waiting to take advantage of an information void that emerges,” Mr Dsouza said.

   “These opportunists are waiting to pounce on something that they can use to legitimise their hatreds and to direct the fury of people that they’ve been building up for a long time into an incident and into specific targets, which is what they did here.

   Analyst in far-right influence at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue

   “We’ve been seeing narratives that Britain is under threat, threatened by an invasion, that immigrants are coming to take away from local white British people, their livelihoods, their families, various other sort of hyperbolic ideas, have been spread for years frankly

   “That’s both in the extremist groups, but also unfortunately in parts of mainstream media and political discussions.”

   It’s a trend that isn’t unique to Britain.

   Recent European Union and national elections in Europe showed support for far-right anti-immigration political parties has risen in a number of countries including France, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy.

   groups looking to replicate the violence currently unfolding in Britain overseas, including in Australia.

   “In the US, Europe and Australia, we are seeing accounts who are very much promoting this as ‘Britain is fighting back’ and it’s something that they want to see imported into their own context,” he said.

   “These groups are taking lessons from each other in terms of tactics and narratives and very much see success in one context as success in part of a global fight.”

   It’s basically a worldwide social media disinformation machine that fuels the far-right and fascists.

   Took an hour for the bots to find this post, you guys are getting lazy!

2. They’re really salivating at the idea of clamping down on social media aren’t they