Thread by @Brefugees

@MollyMcKew The parallels between what is happening in the UK and USA are staggering. If you want to know what happens next in the USA, form fake news to serious corrosion of your democracy, just look at what's happened in the UK with Brexit. 1/n

[short thread]

@MollyMcKew 2/n
Brexit started with Fake News. Lots of it over a long period. Essentially it was UK media who salted the earth and poisoned the dialogue with obvious lies, but there have been major questions over the accuracy of UK media outlets for years... theguardian.com/politics/2016/…

@MollyMcKew 3/n
For Brits it's cute to see the sudden panic over Bots and Trolls in the USA for the 2020 elections.

If there's one thing most of us remember from the Brexit referendum it's the disinformation Bots and Trolls, who played both sides and killed discourse
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

@MollyMcKew 4/n
And when we talk about "Trolls" we mean it. One of the largest contributors to the pro-Brexit discourse was actually a Russian disinformation op...
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…

@MollyMcKew 5/n
The UK's main opposition party, which has always been 'anti-racist', is tearing itself apart over antisemitism. This has been going on for over a year and keeps getting worse

NB: The UK has a similar party political duopoly to the USA
politicshome.com/news/uk/politi…

@MollyMcKew 6/n
Last Christmas the Labour Party fell for a classic, hack, dump and troll disinfo op

This led to them to ask questions in Parliament about a UK organisation setup to fight disinformation, and embedded their supporters with 'deep-state' conspiracies etc
theguardian.com/politics/2018/…

@MollyMcKew 7/n
The next thing the USA can expect is politicians in fear of the people.

Many UK politicians have changed their Brexit positions from fear, and their timelines are patrolled by trolls setting the tone of discussion
theguardian.com/politics/2019/…

@MollyMcKew 8/n
You may think you're all desensitised by Trump now, but again just look at the UK...

This is a massive public interest story, regardless of your Brexit opinion, which is being completely ignored. Nothing comparable to this has happened in the USA yet!
channel4.com/news/the-banks…

@MollyMcKew 9/9
The USA is fortunate in many ways.

Your radicalisation ratio is ~30/70, whereas the UK is ~45/55 and ours is far more embedded, but we're just further down the rabbit hole because UK politics has been infected with Russian money for longer

/end

@MollyMcKew PS:
The UK is the first example of a major NATO power who's democracy has been infected by a hostile foreign power and subsequently destroyed itself from the inside out...but it isn't going to be the last because NATO meddling in an ally's domestic sovereignty is a big no-no.