Social media, including Facebook, must proactively block content inciting hatred and prevent online campaigns which target minorities, such as those undertaken in Myanmar, the United Nations human rights chief said on Wednesday.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, was speaking after U.N. experts accused Myanmar generals of “genocidal intent” and said Facebook had allowed its platform to be used to incite violence against Rohingya.

Facebook said on Monday it was removing several Myanmar military officials from the social media website and an Instagram account to prevent the spread of “hate and misinformation” after reviewing the content.

Zeid, whose spokesman said he has met with major tech companies in Silicon Valley, including Facebook and Google, in recent months, was speaking to a news conference before his four-year term ends on Aug. 31.

Zeid said he didn’t feel Facebook took the issue seriously at first but that the company’s attitude began to change after Yanghee Lee, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, told a Geneva press conference in March that Facebook was being used in the country to spread hate speech.

“But it shouldn’t be because the press or the human rights community highlights the problem for them then suddenly to respond. They should be aware of it ahead of time,” he said.

“So I don’t think they should wait until the crisis begins. They should be thinking proactively about what steps they will take to mitigate that,” he added.

Facebook said on Monday that while it was too slow to act in the case of Myanmar, it was now making progress, with better technology to identify hate speech and improved reporting tools.

However, Zeid said there was a danger that social media could be over-regulated in a way that breaches human rights law including the right to freedom of expression.

Tech giants should “keep the broadest space available and open to the exercise of freedom of expression”, relying on international human rights law for regulation, he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused Google’s search engine of promoting negative news articles and hiding “fair media” coverage of him, vowing to address the situation without providing evidence or giving details of action he might take.

Trump’s attack against the Alphabet Inc. unit follows a string of grievances against technology companies, including Twitter Inc and Facebook, which he has accused of silencing conservative voices.

Facebook Inc. said on Tuesday it had identified a new coordinated political influence campaign to mislead its users and sow dissension among voters ahead of November’s U.S. congressional elections.

It said it had removed 32 pages and accounts from Facebook and Instagram, part of an effort to combat foreign meddling in U.S. elections.

The company stopped short of identifying the source of the misinformation. But members of Congress who had been briefed by Facebook on the matter said the methodology of the influence campaign suggested Russian involvement.

“I can say I think with pretty high confidence I think this is Russian-related,” Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters at the U.S. Capitol.

Two U.S. intelligence officials told Reuters there was not sufficient evidence to conclude that Russia was behind the Facebook campaign, but one noted that “the similarities, aims and methodology relative to the 2016 Russian campaign are quite striking.”

A Russian propaganda arm tried to tamper in the 2016 U.S. election by posting and buying ads on Facebook, according to the company and U.S. intelligence agencies. In February, the U.S. Justice Department indicted 13 Russian nationals, and the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, for interfering in the 2016 U.S. election.

Moscow has denied involvement.

Facebook has been on the defensive about influence activity on its site and concerns over user privacy tied to long-standing agreements with developers that allowed them access to private user data.

‘ARMS RACE’

The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Lab, which was shown the suspended pages ahead of the takedown, said they showed similarities in language and approach to previously fake accounts from the Internet Research Agency, which is known as the “troll factory” because it stirs up public opinion on social media sites.

The lab cited “consistent mistranslation, as well as an overwhelming focus on polarizing issues at the top of any given news cycle.” It said, for example, the posts on the year-old, feminist Resisters page “took a liberal or left-wing stance on issues around gender, race, immigration, and human rights.” Other pages promoted racial pride among minority groups.

The group said the Resisters page was alarming because it was pushing for confrontation at multiple protests, including against “Unite the Right 2,” with a potential for violence.

A man who identified himself as an administrator of Resisters, Washington activist Brendan Orsinger, said on a video call with Reuters that he had been invited to help operate the page by someone he knew only through Facebook messages.

“I definitely had concerns, because people don’t usually invite me to accounts unless they know me,” Orsinger said. “But at the same time, this was an account we could use.”

He said that more than a dozen legitimate activist groups were still supporting the counter-rally and would now have to work harder to reconnect with people who had been following it through the Resisters page.

Orsinger said he was not yet sure that the account that had involved him was Russian, but that if it was, he was concerned about he and fellow activists being infiltrated and influenced.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, said on a call with reporters that the attempts to manipulate public opinion would likely become more sophisticated to evade Facebook’s scrutiny, calling it an “arms race.”

The White House said the administration was supportive of Facebook’s actions.

“We applaud efforts by our private-sector partners to combat an array of threats that occur in cyberspace, including malign influence,” said Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the National Security Council.

U.S. President Donald Trump has come under fire for discounting the threat of interference in the congressional elections.

During his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki earlier this month, Trump appeared to state that he believed Russia was no longer trying to influence the U.S. election process.

Trump later amended that, saying he was “very concerned” about Russian interference in the election. On Friday, Trump held a meeting with his national security advisers on election security.

DIVISIVE ISSUES

Facebook identified influence activity around at least two issues, including the counter-protest to the Unite the Right 2 rally set next week in Washington. The other was the #AbolishICE social media campaign aimed at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

In an online post, Facebook said it was disclosing the influence effort now in part because of the rally. A previous event last year in Charlottesville, Virginia, led to violence by white supremacists.

“This kind of behavior is not allowed on Facebook because we don’t want people or organizations creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they are, or what they’re doing,” the company said.

More than 290,000 accounts followed at least one of the pages and about $11,000 had been spent on about 150 ads, Facebook said. The pages had created about 30 events since May 2017.

Facebook officials on a call with reporters said one known account from Russia’s Internet Research Agency was a co-administrator of one of the fake pages for seven minutes, but the company did not believe that was enough evidence to attribute the campaign to the Russian government.

The company previously said 126 million Americans may have seen Russian-backed political content on Facebook over a two-year period, and that 16 million may have been exposed to Russian information on the Instagram photo-sharing app.

Over the past several months, the company has taken steps meant to reassure U.S. and European lawmakers that further regulation is unnecessary. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg says the company has 20,000 people working to police and protect the site.

As we move into 2016, it is important to reflect on what has been achieved for the public over the last year.

Tell MAMA is now moving into its fourth year of existence and the results over the last year have been humbling. But this has been about how we have made a difference. When we stop making a difference, then it is time for any project or organisation to re-assess its future.

So these are the successes over the last year which have helped in tackling anti-Muslim prejudice and in ensuring stronger and more cohesive communities, whilst also helping to push back far right groups and their narratives.

— We were the first organisation to call out the large spike in anti-Muslim hate incidents that were reported to us by members of the public after the horrendous terrorist killings in Paris in November 2015. We acted, again, as an early warning indicator against a rise in anti-Muslim prejudice and community tensions.

— We worked with Ministers and senior officials in informing them around risks relating to anti-Muslim prejudice and in the need to ensure better recording of anti-Muslim hate incidents.

— Our material was sourced by over 768 local, national and international press sources over the last year. This made Tell MAMA, the leading organisation in creating a wider awareness of anti-Muslim prejudice and we will continue to push hard in the coming year.

— We reached out to over 2.8 million people in the UK on-line and our reach has meant that we received cases from the US, South America and other countries. Whilst we would like to have helped, our main and key priority is the UK, hence we did not record or count these cases. (Only UK based cases are included in our annual reports).

— We were one of two organisations, (the other being the Community Security Trust), who signed a partnership and data sharing agreement with police forces in England and Wales. This means that we have started to receive data from forces to add to the self-referrals for assistance that we receive in Tell MAMA. This year, our projections are that we will have over 2,000 anti-Muslim hate incidents logged.

— We have now assisted over 5,600 people with casework, advice, emotional and signposting support since we started work in March 2012.

— We have been successful in achieving over 524 arrests and 412 prosecutions since March 2012. These are figures from police forces who have fed results back to us and the figure may well be higher.

— We have disrupted far right activity on-line and ensured that over 1,370 acounts have been closed on Facebook and Twitter. Again, these are from figures that we have received when social media providers have fed this information back to us.

— We have developed an extensive network of police contacts who work on tackling hate crimes in forces in England and Wales.

— We were instrumental in advising the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service), in looking for keywords that may associate evidence and cases with anti-Muslim prejudice. Those key words are now included in the Prosecutor’s Guidance on anti-Muslim hostility.

— We have developed a wide information network which feeds in anti-Muslim material which is circulated by far right networks to us. This allows us to be pro-active and to feed in the material to law enforcement, ensuring the safety of communities.

These are just some of the achievements to date. In all of this, we must not forget the victims of anti-Muslim prejudice, who are predominantly Muslim women who are visible, (who wear the Hijab or the Niqab). To many, we have been a key point of support and as we go into 2016, let us think about our impacts on society. Let us collectively stand up for the weak, those who have no voice and those who deserve peace. If we can stand up for the most marginalised and the voiceless in our communities, then we really are making a real difference.

The post Our Achievements in Tell MAMA as We Move into 2016 appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The self-styled “nationalist, fascist, theorist and supporter of white rights” Joshua Bonehill-Paine, of Yeovil, Somerset, has been sentenced to three years and four months in prison following his conviction for inciting racial hatred.

Police arrested Bonehill-Paine ahead of a planned neo-Nazi rally in Golders Green in July – the heart of London’s Jewish community.

Bonehill-Paine had created antisemitic images to promote his ‘anti-Jewification’ rally. One image included weed killer sprayed over the entrance of Auschwitz. The image ridiculed the horrors of the Holocaust. And called for the ’round-up’ and removal of Jewish communities from Golders Green.

A racist and antisemitic caricature of a Jewish man underscored much of the propaganda. During the trial, the prosecution argued that the ‘O’ of Golders Green referenced the SS. Forensic analysis of Bonehill-Paine’s laptop revealed many versions of the flyer.

Owing to public outrage and a fear of disorder, the Met Police moved the protest to Westminster. More than 2,000 signed-up to a counter protest online. The ‘Golders Green Together’ campaign helped raise community awareness and counter-narratives.

Members of the neo-Nazi group New Dawn also had a part to play in the Golders Green protest.

Bonehill-Paine was arrested in February on suspicion of malicious communications after Labour MP Luciana Berger. Garonn Helm, 21, of the neo-Nazi group Nazi group National Action, received a four-week prison sentence after sending Ms Berger an antisemitic tweet last year.

Another neo-Nazi, Zack Davies, made headlines in June after he attempted to decapitate a Sikh dentist. He used a claw hammer and machete to attack Dr Sarandev Bhambra, shouting: “This is for Lee Rigby.”

Davies uploaded an image of himself in a balaclava with a large knife and the flag of National Action before the attack.

HOPE not hate linked Bonehill-Paine to National Action in early 2015. The Hackney Citizen highlighted his earlier political affiliations.

Bonehill-Paine’s asinine and sometimes delusional online posts provides succour to neo-Nazis offline and online. On June 25, the Jewish Chronicle reported that a Holocaust survivor had neo-Nazis knock his door. They performed a Nazi salute on his doorstep and asked him he if supported Bonehill-Paine. Before leaving, they handed the pensioner a blue Star of David with the message “Jew go home” written on it.

The interconnectivity of far-right groups online allows them to share materials outside of traditional borders. One of the United States most popular white supremacist hate sites endorsed Bonehill-Paine’s march. In the end though, counter-protestors outnumbered twenty neo-Nazis.

In a separate high-profile incident, Bonehill-Paine forced The Globe, in Leicester, to temporarily close. A malicious blog claimed that the pub had banned military personnel to avoid offending migrant groups. As it grew in popularity, people threatened to firebomb the premises and kill or assault its staff. After admitting malicious communication, he received a community order. He had his community order extended after breaching its terms in April 2015.

Propaganda from Bonehill-Paine’s Daily Bale made national headlines in 2014. A poster appealing for help to find a ‘missing’ six-year-old girl at the hands was a racist hoax. It included the message: “It is believed Amy has been kidnapped by an Asian grooming gang.” Another racist hoax appeared in Leicester.

Bonehill-Paine’s viciousness and cowardice online has real-world consequences. Earlier this year, he carried out a sustained campaign of racist and homophobic abuse via an online pseudonym. Bonehill-Paine would humiliate and defame individuals he disagreed with via his Daily Bale website. He even tarnished some as paeodophiles.

He targeted Sara Roocroft and her children online. Ms Roocroft later suffered respitory failure due to the distress of his lies. Doctors believed she almost died due to his “vile and slanderous actions”.

This sustained online harassment and slander resulted in a suspended prison sentence.

In April, Bonehill-Paine claimed police had detained him over homophobic tweets sent to Guardian columnist Jack Monroe.

In response to Bonehill-Paine’s conviction, a victim of his online hate campaign, who wishes to remain anonymous said:

“Joshua took it upon himself to share fake hoax stories and target vulnerable members of our communities on social media. Innocent victims were falsely accused and their lives tarnished by his hate campaigns. He recruited others with his ‘White Genocide’ narrative to target Jewish communities.

“Many are unaware that during this campaign accomplices of Bonehill-Paine targeted children on social media with multiple troll accounts that harassed victims and their families. Joshua worked with other racists and neo-Nazis to spread his hate campaigns. I trust these offenders will also face justice through the court system.

“Some use social media to spread hate rapidly and globally. We need new laws to protect online victims. Social media companies must be held accountable when neo-Nazi groups like National Action use their platforms to spread hate and recruit.

“Will the government also monitor extremists like Joshua Bonehill and his accomplices? Measures need to be put into place to protect communities online and deter racists from reoffending.

I would encourage others to report online hate to police – it assists with investigations – especially if you see racists bullying children online. As a community we cannot ignore hate as it destroys innocent lives.”

The post Joshua Bonehill-Paine jailed for inciting antisemitic hatred appeared first on Religious Reader.

H&M’s latest new fashion campaign ‘Close the loop‘ has drawn the ire of Britain First supporters.

The source of their indignation is a Muslim model named Mariah Idrissi. Britain First concluded that ‘As the number of Muslims in Britain increases, so will their prominence in the media’. Though that logic presents a flaw, as Ms Idrissi told Fusion “It always feels like women who wear hijab are ignored when it comes to fashion.”

Nor did Britain First inform supporters that the campaign also features a diverse cast: from an amputee model, to plus-sized models, and a group of Sikh men. Funny that.

So why the single focus? Forget H&M or Mariah Idrissi for a moment. It is not about that. The story serves a wider purpose – to play on the insecurities individuals hold towards Muslims in Britain.

A variety of comments called for boycott of H&M. Others opined that ‘Islam belongs in the desert away from the civilised world’. One user wrote that ‘I’m SICK of turning on the tv and seeing Muslims on it. I don’t pay a licence to see that sort of vermin’.

To stray from a perceived notion of cultural identity invokes bigoted, racist, and at times, dehumanising responses.

Yet, for many young Muslims, this positive image aids self esteem and self-identification. To be a stakeholder in society requires a sense of identity that translates across mediums. H&M may prove the outlier; but some fashion companies do embrace a level of diversity among emerging markets.

Some Daily Mail readers followed a similar logic in a desire to boycott H&M.

The post Britain First supporters boycott H&M over its use of Muslim model appeared first on Religious Reader.

We have commented on the mosque fire at the Baitul Futuh mosque today. Yet, a simple search of Facebook pages where the fire was highlighted, such as the Evening Standard Facebook page, shows the following vile hateful comments below. These are just a few snapshots of comments which are made at the start of the Evening Standard Facebook page, yet it shows two issues. The first being – no moderation. This is simply not acceptable and major newspapers should have the ability to moderate their pages. The second is that some Muslims seeing the vast amount of hate and intolerance towards them and their mosques could well be influenced by counter or cumulative extremist views which can play into the hands of groups like Islamic State. This is the last place that anyone should consider going to, but given the sheer amount of anti-Muslim hatred out there and which has partly reared its ugly head today, there are real potential problems ahead.

Newspapers must moderate their comments and especially given the fact that far right groups mobilise and direct sympathisers to make anti-Muslim posts on mainstream platforms, so as to legitimise their views. Sadly, this is the environment we are in today and we cannot allow everyday platforms to be hijacked by any extreme group.

Furthermore Facebook’s response to this is to tell us to report in each comment. This is simply ludicrous when the vast majority of Muslims will not report in and for Facebook to suggest that we spend our limited resources to sit every day and report in tens of thousands of anti-Muslim comments is simply ludicrous. We have said before and we will say it again, these platforms, which are profit-making, give little if nothing back to civil society groups and their platforms are being used to promote open hatred and threats. Much of the former is not removed meaning that the volume sits and builds up for eternity. Also, given the loads on the Crown Prosecution Service, Police forces, civil society groups and police forces, it is time pressure was put on these social media platforms to get them to set up a significant civil society fund for counter-speech.

The post Thousands of Anti-Muslim Posts Today Could Fuel Reverse Extremism appeared first on TELL MAMA.

A decision not to charge a 17-year-old with a hate crime contradicts Illinois hate crimes law, according to the Sikh Coalition.

On September 8, Inderjit Singh Mukker, 53, and a father of two, faced of torrent of racist abuse when driving down a Chicago suburb. Shouts of “Terrorist!” “Bin Laden!” “Go back to your country!”came from the car behind.

Mukker pulled over when the vehicle began tailgaiting; instead of passing by, the driver got out and reached into Mukker’s car to assault him.

The Coalition claim that Mukker required treatment for a fractured cheekbone, bruising and blood loss and six stitches for the lacerations on his face.

In a statement, Harsimran Kaur, of the Sikh Coalition said: “In fact, in my many years of representing hate crime victims, the hate crimes charge is as clear and as obvious as it gets. To ignore the racial element of the crime sends a clear message that State’s Attorney Robert Berlin is not interested in protecting vulnerable communities.”

“I am appalled and disgusted by this decision,” said the victim, Mr Mukker. “What happened to me on Tuesday night is the definition of hate.”

The attack on Mukker is a synechode. It forms the fabric of a larger story: the frequent attacks and abuses Sikhs experience due to the racialisation of Muslim identity. Among other consequences, it punishes the diversity of religious expression. One study found that 60 per cent of Americans are ignorant to the Sikhism of those around them. When shown a photo of a smiling Sikh man in a turban, 28 per cent of respondents thought he was Middle Eastern and a fifth believed he was Muslim. Just 11 per cent of people identified the man in the photo as Sikh. Nor did the study find that ignorance was gender specific.

That research mirrors Stamford University’s 2013 survey ‘Turban Myths’. It found that about half of the public associates the turban with Islam and believes that Sikhism is a sect of Islam. It found that media bias inflames bias towards Sikhs and religiosity.

On September 15 2001, Frank Silva Roque shot dead Balbir Singh Sodhi as he planted flowers at the petrol station he owned. Hours before his crimes, Roque bragged at a local bar of his intention to “kill the ragheads responsible for 9/11″. In a phone conversation with a colleague on September 12 2001, Roque expressed a desire to shoot some ‘rag heads’.

It was not enough for Roque to murder Sodhi; 20 minutes later and he shot at but missed a petrol station clerk of Lebanese descent. Roque then fired several rounds into the home of a family of Afghan descent, but hit no one.

When the police arrived, Roque threw hims arms in the air and said “I’m a patriot and American.  I’m American.  I’m a damn American.”As the arresting officers took Roque away, he yelled  “How can you arrest me and let the terrorists run wild?”

Roque faced the death penalty for Singh’s murder; but in 2006, Arizona’s Supreme Court reduced this sentence to life imprisonment without possibility of release.

A year later, another member of the Sodhi family, Sukhpal, died from gunshot wounds while driving his taxi in San Francisco. Though police established no motive, the family and others, mourned a new crime.

Another family member, Rana Sodhi, recalled how a week after the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London, a man entered his petrol station and yelled ‘Go back to your country’.

The FBI recorded a 1,7000 per cent spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes following 9/11. In 2001, it recorded 481 incidents compared to just 28 hate crimes in 2000.

Less than a fortnight after the towers fell, a man telephoned a Sikh Temple in California to lower their flag to half-mast. When staff refused, the man threatened to return. The next morning, he did return and barricaded both temple entrances with a tractor and truck and trailer. Phillip John Lucas later received felony vandalism and trespassing charges.

A molotov cocktail, thrown threw the window of Kulwant Singh’s home, hit his three-year-old son Mantej in the head. In New York, a gang of men assaulted a 66-year-old Sikh named Attar Singh.

The Sikh Coalition recorded at least 300 cases of violence and discrimination against Sikhs in the U.S. a month after 9/11. 14 years later and the Coalition received hundreds more. In 2009, the Coalition found that 9 per cent of Sikh adults in New York experienced violence and slurs painting them as terrorists.

Three years after a neo-Nazi murdered five men and one woman at a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee, the locals must now ring a buzzer for a security guard to let them inside. Though the experience brought the community closer, a fear of racist violence in places of faith, fosters a deep unease.

The FBI have recorded 13 mass murders at religious buildings since 1963.

Bigotry also extends to the classroom. In 2014, the Sikh Coalition found that half of Sikh students experience bullying in U.S. schools; that figure increases to more than two-thirds for students wearing the turban. One Sikh schoolboy filmed himself facing racist abuse on a school bus in Georgia – it went viral and created a conversation about bullying.

Others sought to invert the pains of racial abuse into a positive. Vishavjit Singh became a global sensation after becoming the living embodiment of his cartoon – a superhero with a beard and a turban that fights bigotry. When dressed as Captain America, Singh draws positive and negative responses.

“I’m still seen by many as the ‘ultimate other’ in American society – a radical Muslim. Harassment goes up and down depending on the news,” he told the BBC.

In the UK, Sikh communities have experienced bigotry in wider anti-Muslim backlashes.

After the London bombings in 2005, individuals firebombed two gurdwaras in Kent and Leeds. On July 9 2005, a spokesman for the Sikh Commission on Racism & Cohesion said: “Following 9/11, visible communities like the Sikhs and Muslims became immediate targets of public racism. Anyone that was considered to be Muslim … was targeted with vicious verbal racism, taunts and also physical attacks.”

London experienced 68 “faith hate” crimes the first three days after 7/7. Met Police recorded 269 religious hate crimes  in the three weeks that followed the London bombings, compared with 40 in the same period of 2004. A majority involved verbal abuse, minor assaults, and damage to Islamic institutions.

Race hate in response to 7/7 went beyond Muslim and Sikhs. On August 11 2005, Ranjit Ratsingham, of the Hindu Shree Ghanapathy Temple said: “We have had incidents of young boys being attacked by youths. A lot of people are very, very nervous.”

“The police are concerned and it seems to be coming from the far-Right.

“It’s bad enough they are attacking innocent Muslims, but extending that to the whole Asian community is wholly despicable.”

On August 16 2005, a Sikh man had his turban pulled off and was racially abused in Northants. A decade later and a neo-Nazi attempted to murder a Sikh dentist in revenge for Lee Rigby’s murder.

The victim, Dr Sarandev Bhambra, 24, a dentist, experienced ‘life-changing’ injuries. Without the intervention of an ex-serviceman, Dr Bhambra would be dead.

Following the attack, Sikh Council UK Community Safety Sub-committee Chair, Bal Kaur Sandhu said, “Following the recent terrorist attacks in Europe, we have seen a rise in hate attacks with victims coming from all communities.  Often following such atrocities, Sikhs due to their visible identity have also faced attacks.  We totally condemn hate attacks against any person of any background and urge all Sikhs to remain vigilant and report any such crimes to the police authorities.”

Since the attack, Dr Bhambra has undergone intense physiotherapy and rehabilitation. The severity of the injury to his hand may still prevent him from pursuing his dentistry career.

The family have questioned why Davies was not considered a ‘terrorist’ given his beliefs.

Davies hit Dr Bhambra with a machete ‘five’ or ‘six’ times. They also heard shouts of ‘White f*cking power’, and ‘This is for Lee Rigby’. Others heard: “I am doing this for the whites, I am doing this for you, for the UK”.

Police raided Davies’ apartment and recovered a copy Mein Kampf. Hunter, a book written by William Luther Pierce, the founder of the US-based National Alliance.

Davies owned a copy of the Turner Diaries that influenced Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh. Copies of these texts also belonged to another neo-Nazi terrorist, Pavlo Lapshyn.

Other white supremacist materials included a book on the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging. Promotional materials for the neo-Nazi group National Action were also found.

Davies must now serve a life sentence.

On occasion, racists have daubed Islamophobic slogans on Sikh temples. In April 2015, members of the Sikh community in Glasgow found the message ‘F**k Islam No Sharia!’ next to a Nazi swastika on a wall of Glasgow Central Gurdwara.

Surjit Singh Chowdhary, Vice-President of Central Gurdwara Singh Sabha, said: “The Sikh community completely abhors the hateful ideology of Islamophobia”.

At the Shri Guru Nanak Gurdwara and Sikh Community Centre in Thornaby, vandals spray painted ‘White power,’ ‘Death to Allah,’ and ‘Die Muslims Die’ on the outside wall.

Others used the hashtag #AfterSeptember11 to highlight the racist backlash.

The post Why do Sikhs also experience anti-Muslim violence and hate? appeared first on Religious Reader.

Individuals are using manga to drown out ISIS propaganda. The birth of ISIS-chan (Japanese: ISISちゃん, Aishisu Chan) took place in January to damage ISIS’ image SEO.

ISIS-chan’s popularity increased after hacktivist group Anonymous targeted and exposed sympathetic ISIS Twitter accounts.

The use of ISIS-chan comes with its own set of rules: do not insult Islam, avoid Islamic iconography and avoid naming Allah or the Prophet Muhammad. Alongside a strict no-gore, no-porn policy.

At the turn of 2015, an alleged ISIS account attempted to spread propaganda on unrelated Japanese hashtags. Examples included ‘Daikan’ (a term to describe the coldest day of the year) and ‘Zuwaigani‘ (queen crab). A hashtag dedicated to Hitoshi Saito, the two-time judo Olympic gold medalist, who died on January 20, after a battle with cancer, became a target.

The propaganda depicted the impeding peril of hostages Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa. Some created the hashtag #ISISクソコラグランプリ (ISIS kusokora guranpuri or ISIS crappy collage grand prix) to invert fear and ridicule the terror group.

#ISISクソコラグランプリ pic.twitter.com/PR3BwpJevL

— temmo kun (@temmo5) January 20, 2015

ISIS had threatened to murder both men unless Japan paid a $200m ransom – the same amount President Shinzo Abe donated to countries fighting the group.

Yukawa’s murder preceded Goto‘s; both died at the hands of Muhammad Emwazi (Jihadi John). Goto’s murder became Japan’s ‘own 9/11‘.

A minority shattered the collective national grief as six Japanese mosques and a Muslim organisation received threatening emails and phonecalls a month later. Messages included “Get out of Japan right now if you don’t want to be killed” and “Religion of murderers”. But as news of abusive messages towards a mosque in Nagoya spread – individuals responded with a bouquet of flowers that bloomed into messages of support and tolerance.

These hashtags prove that flooding online channels with counter-speech can work with images, not just words.

The post How Twitter users are ridiculing ISIS with cartoon memes appeared first on Religious Reader.

Twitter’s new ‘Safety Centre‘ offers a streamlined service for users concerned about online abuse.

The promotion of “good digital citizenship” points you in the direction of extended FAQs relating to existing features.

So for individuals new to the platform it helps. There is specific information breakdowns for teachers, students, and parents.

But some changes could help tackle online Islamophobia: an updated violent threats policy now extends to “threats of violence against others or promot[ing] violence against others”. To their credit, Twitter acknowledge that the previous policy was too narrow when dealing with specific types of abuse.

An added “enforcement option” gives the support team a chance to lock abusive accounts for a period of time. There is another interesting development relating to abusive users in the pipeline.

Shreyas Doshi, Twitter’s Director of Product Management blogged in April that: “we have begun to test a product feature to help us identify suspected abusive Tweets and limit their reach. This feature takes into account a wide range of signals and context that frequently correlates with abuse including the age of the account itself, and the similarity of a Tweet to other content that our safety team has in the past independently determined to be abusive. It will not affect your ability to see content that you’ve explicitly sought out, such as Tweets from accounts you follow, but instead is designed to help us limit the potential harm of abusive content. This feature does not take into account whether the content posted or followed by a user is controversial or unpopular”.

On the surface, the changes, like at Facebook, are superficial and tailored towards ease of access. But dealing with non-direct threats and abuse could limit the capacity of anti-Muslim trolls – and is a welcome change.

The big test is to see how Twitter implements these changes. But their intention to tackle all forms of online abuse with added vigour helps.

The post Will Twitter’s new safety policies tackle online hate? appeared first on TELL MAMA.