Marc Owen Jones Profile picture
Asc Prof @Nuqatar | Author: Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East, Pol. Repression in Bahrain | PhD @durham_uni | Aff. @dawnmenaorg @ME_Council @rucsrr

Aug 5, 7 tweets

🧵🚨1/ It's insane that @Elonmusk replied to @europeinvasionn's tweet about UK riots. The account EuropeInvasionn, as I have stated many times now, is an influence operation. It's a hijacked X account that exclusively deals in anti-migrant & anti-Muslim great replacement disinfo

2/ EuropeInvasion was the most influential account spreading the false news that the attacker in #Southport was a Muslim. Arguably one of the biggest vectors in the disinfo potentially contributing to the violence in the UK

3/ A day later, it was the most widely shared account spreading an unsubstantiated and unfounded rumour that a murder in Ipswich was conducted by a Somali immigrant.

4/ It has 387k followers and has only been tweeting since February. It used to be an account with the handle @makcanerkripto. It was event suspended briefly by Twitter last month but reinstated.

5/ Musk also replies to the likes of @visegrad24 and @radiogenoa - similar accounts spreading racist bigotry. That Musk seems to think there will be civil war in UK or Europe is either because he follows such accounts, or because that's a narrative he is keen to promote

6/ And by 'insane' I don't mean 'surprising', I mean it's absurd that he can do this and continue to get away with being a race baiting bigot.

7/ And in this particular case, why this account. How did he come across it, or was he presented it? Understanding this would be important.

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