Thread by @StopFundingHate

The year that #StopFundingHate launched in 2016, there were over 100 anti-migrant front pages across UK newspapers - most especially in the Sun, Daily Mail and Express. 1/

Together we've shown that when enough of us speak out, advertisers will respond - and it can make a real difference. In recent years, there's been a marked reduction in anti-migrant UK front pages. #StopFundingHate works: thedrum.com/news/2019/08/0… /2

But now the Daily Mail & other UK media have shifted towards a new target. They are repeatedly running toxic & inflammatory "clickbait" stories about trans people, and the problem is escalating. /3 pinknews.co.uk/2022/01/25/cou…

Anti-trans rhetoric in the UK media is fuelling a climate of hostility, amid a surge in hate crime targeting trans people / 4 edition.cnn.com/2021/10/09/uk/…

It didn't have to be this way. In 2018, the Daily Mail changed its editor, and word went out that the newspaper was "detoxifying" amid advertiser concerns. For a while, there seemed to be a marked change in tone, & a move in a more positive direction. theguardian.com/media/2018/jun… /5

As one commentator put it in December: "The excesses of intemperance have had to be curtailed. Why? ...The problem is that the advertisers will not support them"

Yet now it seems that the Mail is "retoxifying" on trans issues /6
prospectmagazine.co.uk/society-and-cu…

In 2018 it was revealed that over *265* advertisers had pulled out of the Daily Mail prior to its decision to move in a less toxic direction.

Big brands know that aligning with hateful content is bad for their image - and therefore bad for business: pressgazette.co.uk/geordie-greig-… /7

With the Daily Mail now doubling-down on hate by whipping up a moral panic around trans people, it's time for advertisers - especially those who returned in 2018 amid a promise the Mail was "detoxifying" - to rethink their association with the paper. /8

https://twitter.com/StopFundingHate/status/1512713539613507584

Trans people are being attacked by extremist media on both sides of the Atlantic. To fully understand what's happening in Britain we also need to look at the situation in the US, where Fox News has been vilifying trans sports stars & other trans people: /9 mediamatters.org/fox-news/doom-…

As far back as 2017, the US far-right was openly advocating a strategy to "separate the T" from the rest of the LGBT community, and pushing talking points that have since been widely aired in both US & UK media. /10 splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017…

Did you know that the same moral panics around trans people now being promoted by the Daily Mail & Fox News have been repeatedly used by the Russian Government's toxic propaganda channel RT as part of their effect to sow division in western societies? /11

The Mail on Sunday claims to have "led the way" in promoting concerns about trans participation in sport - but actually the Russian Government's propaganda channel RT has been pushing this theme for years.

If anyone has "led the way" on this, it's Vladimir Putin... /12

Meanwhile a similar toxic narrative is also being pushed by Murdoch-owned Sky News Australia. Follow @Slpng_Giants_Oz for more on this: