1/ Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, a surge in hate speech has been reported. I can't speak to this, but an #antisemitic hashtag "The Noticing" suddenly picked up, although this was probably more to do with @kanyewest's reinstatment on Twitter
2/ The hashtag 'The Noticing' is being used to promote antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes, often posted as memes. Below you can find some examples. I counted around 36000 tweets from a 3 week period (26 - October - 16 Nov).
3/ The acceleration of the hashtag coincided with @kanyewest's re-appearance on Twitter on 28th October after weeks of being suspended for antisemitism. For context, Musk entered Twitter with the sink on 26th October. As you can see, the trend picked up on 28th
4/ Tweets like below also highlight that after the Musk-sink moment and pre-Kanye reinstatement, accounts were talking about Kanye's antisemitism prompting 'the noticing'. This makes sense given Kanye's remarks
5/ While some celebrated Musk's tenure as a boon for *free (hate) speech*, many ppl were reporting the antisemitism to Elon Musk - which is also why Musk's account was mentioned a lot.
6/ @elonmusk denied having anything to do with @kanyewest's reinstatement, saying the decision happened before he completed the takeover.
7/ Here are some of the most influential accounts sharing antisemitic content on the hashtag (see image on left). One of them, @KekIntelPro, who appears to be sharing Russian-aligned propaganda, also brags about getting 'paid for' verification!
8) So some takeaways. A new antisemitic hashtag is currently getting a lot of engagement on Twitter, including from accounts who are using paid for verification. Remember, the purpose of this paid-for verification is to prioritise their comments (in this case antisemitism)
9) Also, the hashtag is probably less to do with @elonmusk taking over, and more to do with the reappearance of @kanyewest on Twitter in the wake of antisemitic remarks. Having said that, Musk's libertarian stance probably encouraged the trend.
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🧵1/ Thought I'd zoom in on the data from the Southport riots, especially given the recent arrest of a man in Pakistan - which has prompted some commentators & news outlets to use it as an opportunity to target people of colour once again. Let's look at what happened
2/ A man in Pakistan, Farhan Asif, who ran Channel3NowNews, was just arrested for spreading misinfo. Channel3NowNews used the made-up name "Ali Al Shakati," However, contrary to some right-wing i/allusions, Channel3NowNews was NOT the first to tweet this name, or be arrested
3/ The first known person to post the name "Ali Al Shakati" on X was actually Artemisfornow, aka Bernie Spofforth, a wealthy woman from Cheshire. She tweeted the name over an hour before Channel3NowNews. She was arrested over a week ago, and released on bail.
🚨Important thread highlights how X under Musk is putting people at risk
1) This account impersonating a man who helped stop a knife attack in London is still live, & has accumulated well over 1 million impressions.
2) It's history indicates it is a pro-Putin "bot" connected
possibly to Pakistan. However, it also has pro-Ismail Haniyeh & Hamas content
3) Regardless of what you think of Hamas, this is far right rocket fuel. Tommy Robinson already tweeted out the fake account, wrongly accusing him of supporting an "islamist genocidal regime"
4) Despite Musk claiming he would clamp down on impersonator accounts this account has not been suspended yet. This is happening amidst a wave of anti -immigrant and anti-muslim violence in the UK.
🧵🚨This account @abdullahfromuk is impersonating a man who stopped a knife attack in London's Leicester Square. His original account handle was ZartashaPti and he has been tweeting pro-Imran Khan content in Urdu and English for most of his account history.
It has also tweeted content that would suggest it's pro-Vladimir Putin (although not in any particularly sophisticated way). The account is in the process of deleting its tweets, and it looks like a classic sockpuppet farm, for-hire type account.
@jneill has already highlighted some other content from the account, which again includes some Putin apologism
🧵🚨New analysis showing ALL tweets mentioning both "Muslim" & "UK" with over 500 retweets since 29 Jul. Graph shows which accounts got most impressions over time. Red/pink dots show anti-Muslim &/or anti-immigrant tweets, brown=neutral, green=tweets defending Muslims #UKRiots
2/ I grouped the tweets into the following three categories, 'anti', 'in defense of', and 'neutral'. Sadly the impressions gained by the number of 'anti' tweets was over 155 million (65%) while those 'in defense of' around 31 million. Neutral tweets were about 50 million.
3/ Parsing them finer we see that that the majority of the tweets were anti-Muslim, with half as many being both anti immigrant and both anti-Muslim. Some were solely anti-immigrant. #UKRiots
🧵🚨1/Somewhat depressing graph. I calculated whether all X posts with over 500 retweets mentioning the words "Muslim" and "UK" sent since 29th July were anti-muslim, anti-immigrant (red), neutral (blue), or in defense of muslims and/or immigration (green). #Ukriots #hatespeech
2/ I grouped the tweets into the following three categories, 'anti', 'in defense of', and 'neutral'. Sadly, the impressions gained by the number of 'Anti' tweets was over 159 million (67%), while those in defense of around 28 million. Neutral tweets were about 50 million
3/ Some of the most xenophobic and anti-muslim accounts include. @radiogenoa @goldingbf @tpointuk @jimfergusonuk @ashleasimonbf @europeinvasionn The degree of hate varies, from outright conspiracy theories, to suggestions that Muslims enjoy special treatment by the police.
🧵🚨I wanted to do another thread on the account @EuropeInvasionn. It's been one of the most widely viewed anti-immigrant & anti-muslim disinfluencers on X since the #Southport murders. Read more to learn about its shocking reach, disinformation, & hate speech #UKRiots
2/ Reminder. @Europeinvasionn is engaged in deception. We can tell this because it's a hijacked account. The account was created in 2010, but hacked/sold & scrubbed & has only tweeted since Feb 24. It's previous handle was makcanerkripto. Note the 'crypto' red flag...
3/ First up. Impressions. Since 27th July, the account has racked up over 133,475,023 impressions. To put that in words, that's one hundred thirty-three million four hundred seventy-five thousand and twenty-three. That is phenomenal.