How social media, aided by bots, amplifies Islamophobia online

In August 2021, a Facebook advertisement campaign criticizing Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, the United States' archetypal Muslim congresswomen, came nether aggravated scrutiny. Critics charged that the ads linked the congresswomen with terrorism, and immoderate religion leaders condemned the campaign arsenic "Islamophobic"—that is, spreading fearfulness of Islam and hatred against Muslims.

This was hardly the archetypal clip the brace faced Islamophobic oregon racist abuse, particularly connected the internet. As a communications prof who studies the authorities of contention and individuality online, I person seen that Omar is often a people of achromatic nationalist attacks connected Twitter.

But online attacks connected Muslims are not constricted to politicians. Twenty years aft the 9/11 attacks, stereotypes that subordinate Muslims with coercion spell acold beyond depictions successful newspapers and television. Recent probe raises the alarm astir rampant Islamophobia successful digital spaces, peculiarly far-right groups' usage of disinformation and different manipulation tactics to vilify Muslims and their faith.

Amplifying hate

In July 2021, for example, a squad led by media researcher Lawrence Pintak published probe connected tweets that mentioned Omar during her campaign for Congress. They reported that fractional the tweets they studied progressive "overtly Islamophobic oregon xenophobic connection oregon different forms of hatred speech."

The bulk of violative posts came from a tiny fig of "provocateurs"—accounts that effect Islamophobic conversations connected Twitter. Many of these accounts belonged to conservatives, they found. But the researchers reported that specified accounts themselves did not make important traffic.

Instead, the squad recovered that "amplifiers" were chiefly responsible: accounts that cod and circulate agents provocateurs' ideas done wide retweets and replies.

Their astir absorbing uncovering was that lone 4 of the apical 20 Islamophobic amplifiers were authentic accounts. Most were either bots—algorithmically generated to mimic quality accounts—or "sockpuppets," which are quality accounts that usage fake identities to deceive others and manipulate conversations online.

Bots and sockpuppets disseminated Islamophobic tweets primitively posted by authentic accounts, creating a "megaphone effect" that scales up Islamophobia crossed the Twitterverse.

'Cloaked' accounts

Twitter has a small implicit 200 cardinal regular progressive users. Facebook, meanwhile, has nearly 2 billion—and immoderate usage akin manipulation strategies connected this level to escalate Islamophobia.

Disinformation researcher Johan Farkas and his colleagues person studied "cloaked" Facebook pages successful Denmark, which are tally by individuals oregon groups who unreal to beryllium extremist Islamists successful bid to provoke antipathy against Muslims. The scholars' investigation of 11 specified pages, identified arsenic fakes, recovered that organizers posted spiteful claims astir taste Danes and Danish nine and threatened an Islamic takeover of the country.

Facebook removed the pages for violating the platform's contented policy, according to the study, but they reemerged nether a antithetic guise. Although Farkas' squad couldn't corroborate who was creating the pages, they recovered patterns indicating "the aforesaid idiosyncratic oregon radical hiding down the cloak."

These "cloaked" pages succeeded successful prompting thousands of hostile and racist comments toward the extremist Islamists that users believed were moving the pages. But they besides prompted choler toward the wider Muslim assemblage successful Denmark, including refugees.

Such comments often acceptable into a wider presumption of Muslims arsenic a menace to "Western values" and "whiteness," underscoring however Islamophobia goes beyond spiritual intolerance.

Dual threats

This is not to suggest that "real" Islamist extremists are absent from the web. The internet successful general and social media successful particular person agelong served arsenic a means of Islamist radicalization.

But successful caller years, far-right groups person been expanding their online beingness overmuch faster than Islamists. Between 2012 and 2016, achromatic nationalists' Twitter followers grew by much than 600%, according to a study by extremism adept J.M. Berger. White nationalists "outperform ISIS successful astir each societal metric, from follower counts to tweets per day," helium found.

A much caller survey of Berger's, a 2018 analysis of alt-right contented connected Twitter, recovered "a precise important beingness of automation, fake profiles and different social media manipulation tactics" among specified groups.

Social media companies person emphasized their policies to place and stamp retired contented from Islamic panic groups. Big Tech critics, however, reason that the companies are less consenting to constabulary right-wing groups similar achromatic supremacists, making it easier to dispersed Islamophobia online.

High stakes

Exposure to Islamophobic messages has sedate consequences. Experiments amusement that portrayals of Muslims arsenic terrorists tin summation enactment for civilian restrictions connected Muslim-Americans, arsenic good arsenic enactment for subject enactment against Muslim-majority countries.

The aforesaid probe indicates that being exposed to contented that challenges stereotypes of Muslims—such arsenic Muslims volunteering to assistance chap Americans during the Christmas season—can person the other effect and trim enactment for specified policies, particularly among governmental conservatives.

Violence toward Muslims, the vandalization of mosques and burnings of the Quran person been extensively reported successful the U.S. implicit the past 20 years, and determination are indications that Islamophobia continues to rise.

But studies pursuing the 2016 predetermination bespeak Muslims present acquisition Islamophobia "more often online than face-to-face." Earlier successful 2021, a Muslim advocacy radical sued Facebook executives, accusing the institution of failing to region anti-Muslim hatred speech. The suit claims that Facebook itself commissioned a civilian rights audit that recovered the website "created an ambiance wherever Muslims consciousness nether siege."

In 2011, astir the 10th day of 9/11, a study by the Center for American Progress documented the country's extensive Islamophobia network, particularly drafting attraction to the relation of "misinformation experts" from the far-right successful spreading anti-Muslim propaganda.

Five years later, the full state was awash successful speech of "misinformation" experts utilizing akin strategies—this time, trying to influence the statesmanlike election. Ultimately, these evolving strategies don't conscionable people Muslims, but whitethorn beryllium replicated connected a grander scale.

---

---

This nonfiction is republished from The Conversation nether a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.