1/ 🧵Just did a network analysis of the "far right thugs unite" hashtag. It largely seems to be a simulated scandal/outrage to promote the Reform Party and Nigel Farage and - while also being an attack on Keir Starmer.
2) The campaign is ostensibly a reaction to Starmer saying that the recent riots have been conducted by a 'tiny minority' of 'thugs'. He has also blamed the far right, although he never used the term 'far right thugs'. In fact, as we'll see later, this term was used by Farage.
3/ Starmer is the largest node in the network as many people are tagging him to express solidarity with the 'far right'. This is based on the false accusation that Starmer somehow called 'ordinary brits' far right thugs - which he didn't. #disinformation
4/ Weirdly now, it's led to people claiming to be in solidarity with the 'far right'. Indeed, the narrative almost seems to be trying to normalise the term 'far right', and make it synonymous with 'average Reform voter'
5/ An analysis of the biographies of the accounts tweeting on the hashtag reveals something interesting. Most are pro-Reform accounts. The most common biographical term is in fact 'Reform'. (Woke is there but only in the context of 'anti-woke'
6/ The first known example of the trend came from a pro Reform account, who pasted a weird message that looks like a network-building attempt, "Apparently I’m a ‘Far Right Thug’ I want to follow fellow ‘Far Right Thuggish’ ordinary UK citizens Please, like, repost and follow❤️"
7/ The same account also mentioned something that seemed like the underlying message of this campaign "anyone centrist is a mindless far right thug, apparently". Again, it seems like an attempt to create the idea that Starmer was calling ordinary citizens far right thugs
8/ Another bizarre element to this is that the majority of the content on the hashtag in terms of impressions is copy and paste. The copy and paste messages constitute 66% of all impressions.
9/ What's weird, it's not clear who told them to copy and paste.Why do people not just retweet. Is it normal behaviour to automatically copy and paste a message and post it? These copy and paste message got lots of impressions, despite the accounts not having that many followers
10/ Another interesting element is that the account with the most impressions on this hashtag is ReformUK member, @TalkTV Host, and former employee of Cambridge Analytica's parent company SCL Group @ThatAlexWoman (Alexandra Philips)
11/ Again this sequencing of tweets shows how many of those getting lots of impressions were simply copy and pasting the same content. Here you can see the green dot, which is Alexandra Philips.
12/ Another Reform element of this campaign was that although @nigel_Farage did not tweet the hashtag, his video directed at Keir Starmer was one of the most important nodes within the network.
13/ In the video Farage falsely suggests that Starmer is blaming everything on the far right 'His Conclusion, is very simple, it's all the Far Right'. He goes on to justify the existence of the far right as a response to fear, discomfort and unease shared by 'tens of millions'
14/ Ironically, Farage also uses the term 'far right thugs' in this. But ultimately Farage is attempting to suggest Starmer is branding non-violent right-leaning voters as 'far right thugs' - which Starmer did not do. It's effectively an anti-Starmer disinfo campaign designed
15/ to falsely create a grievance and scandal. The copy and paste tweets, and huge engagement, look like an organized campaign. It's also an attempt to reposition those who support or endorse the violence as victims of a labour smear.
16/ If I didn't know better I would say this is a crafted campaign designed to help ReformUK deflect from the right-wing nature of the current violence by trying to reframe it as a Labour failure and Starmer attack on 'White British' values.
- Not all bad though - Someone created Starmer in a pride Abaya and Hijab. Deranged.
Also strange accounts like this. Joined in May 2023 but only 5 spammy TEMU tweets and then a tweet about "far right thugs unite" with what looks like an AI generated headshot #disinformation
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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.