[Thread]1/ This thread is about @Keir_Starmer and #Islamophobia. Yesterday three Tory MPs were censured for sharing a doctored video about @Keir_Starmer . The video, shared by now deleted account @NJamesWorld, attempted to discredit Starmer's handling of the grooming gang crisis
2/ I was interested to see if these disinformation tweets shared by Tory MPs including the Health Minister @NadineDorries impacted upon the abuse @Keir_starmer would receive online. I downloaded around 29,491 interactions received by Starmer's account between 11th May & 15th May 
3/ I then grouped those tweets according to those that mentioned a cluster of keywords usually used by the right in narrating the grooming crisis, namely, paedophilia, saville (a symbol of paedophilia). It would be useful to see if the shared video prompted a spike in mentions
4/ of these terms. From the graphs below (left percentages - right raw numbers) you can see a moderate increase in accounts mentioning those terms (or spreading links with the same information). However this spike is on 13th May, before the MPs shared the video. So why the spike?
5/It actually most probably relates to @Keir_Starmer 's tweet about Ramadan on 12th May (See screenshot). Following this tweet about #iftar in the evening, we see a steady uptick of tweets re Starmer's alleged role in being lax on grooming gangs (red = tweets with keywords)
6/ Now this is perhaps not surprising, the issue of the grooming gangs has been a dog whistle term for Islamophobia in the UK. Indeed, as the graph shows, following the 12th there is a general uptick in tweets mentioning the terms muslim, Islam, paedophile, grooming etc #
7/ Indeed, the 3nd most popular tweet to Starmer was screenshots about Starmer being lax on paedophile Saville and "muslim rape gangs". This was sent on 13th May before the MPs had shared the video. The 2nd most popular tweet contained the same content, also sent on 13th May
8/ So to sum up. This suggests to me that Keir's Ramadan tweet prompted an an Islamophobic backlash that dredged up implicit issues such as paedophilia and grooming gangs. This then created a lot of right wing activity that perhaps created a febrile environment for propaganda
9/ which the 3 Tory MPS latched onto/fell victim to (depending on your perspective). Had the Tory accounts not deleted their tweets I'd expect to see even more of this behaviour directed at Starmer. Note: This is a smallish sample, but it would be interesting to see how
10/ this behaviour played out over time. Anyway, it goes to show that in this case, Starmer's attempts to exhibit his religious tolerance prompted a wave of abuse, and also disinformation, about Muslims and paedophilia. Let me know if you have any questions.
