[Thread] Good morning everyone! Another important attack on media in the UK (and the world). The coverage of #DominicCummings may have subsided, but attacks of journalists using the "media scum" and "scum media" hashtags have not let up. Here's an analysis of 33,000 tweets
2/ This data involves around 10,290 accounts, with most tweets taken from the last three days (Jun 1- 3). The main targets (individuals not orgs) are @piersmorgan @susannareid100 @BethRigby @bbclaurak @peston @SamCoatesSky @campbellclaret @maitlis @adamboultonSKY @KayBurley 
3/ The most popular digital predators (those who pose a danger to press freedom by intimidating journalists or promoting anti journalist content) include @DVATW (Dave Vance altnews + very right wing), Ex UKIP @GerardBattenUK : @HHepplewhite : @Mich1971C : @RuleBrexitannia
4/ I analysed the biographies in the sample of those who used the hashtag. Most salient identifies are hundreds of pro-Trumpers and pro-Brexiteers. Lots of suspiciously generic profile terms like "love life". Lots of pictures of dogs...
5/ What's interesting is these digital predators have now moved on from criticising the media for holding Cummings accountable, and turned it into a race issue. Tweets like this from David Vance sum it up. A lot is whataboutism, "e.g. white person was killed why no protests"
6/ The volume is not trivial, including RTs, we are talking of hundreds of abusive tweets on the hashtag per day. On 1st and 2nd June @piersmorgan @GMB and @susannareid100 got hundreds of tweets using the scum hashtags.
7/ That's it for now. But I really think this is an urgent issue. Mostly right-wing accounts aggressively swarming British journalists in a manner designed to intimidate and perhaps silence them is a threat to democracy. I am inclined to believe many are not real either, but
8/ crucially, some are. Verified accounts like @DVATW who engage in race baiting, xenophobia are key to perpetuating and giving oxygen to such behaviour. With a US election involving Trump coming up, expect this to get worse cc @RSF_inter
