Facebook, Twitter, Youtube face hate speech complaints in France

Community Organisations Tackling Hate Incidents and Hate Crimes Come Together in France Three French anti-racism associations said on Sunday they would file legal complaints against social networks Facebook, Twitter and Google’s Youtube for failing to remove “hateful” content posted on their platforms. French law requires websites to take down racist, homophobic or anti-semitic material and

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Help us challenge hate speech on Facebook

Our growing presence on Facebook means our work reaches new audiences daily. This growth benefits our service users who may want to contact us about a case. Or appeal to individuals who remain concerned about anti-Muslim hate. Growth allows for disagreement and a range of opinions. That is welcome. Hate speech is not. We recently

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Meet Finland’s new anti-Islam street movement

Europe’s continued anxieties towards the refugee crisis has allowed fringe groups to exploit tensions. Finland’s “Soldiers of Odin” is one such example. This ‘street patrol’ movement promises to protect native Finns from immigrants and Muslims.  It considers itself “a patriotic organisation fighting for white Finland”. They claim that Islam causes insecurity and increased crime. At protests they have carried signs that read “Migrants not welcome”. You can trace the origins of the movement to a protest in the town of Kemi, near the northern city of Tornio, last October. Its founder Mika Rana, justified their patrols under the guise of security. Social media allowed the movement to connect online. And share their anxieties (and hatred) of different cultures. A Facebook post alleging that asylum seekers housed near a school in Kemi had spied on young girls brought them onto the streets. Rana’s own social media account reveals his white supremacist beliefs. His Facebook ‘likes’ include Holocaust denial, nostalgia for Nazism, and a ‘Stop Islam’ page. The Internet has always enabled far-right ideologues and groups to disseminate materials with ease. Social media serves to intensify the process. And it allows groups to mirror other far-right groups across Europe. Take for example, [...]

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Our Achievements in Tell MAMA as We Move into 2016

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

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Facebook Founder’s Post Shows Why Jewish Muslim Relations Are Fundamental to Protect

Muslim and Jewish communities have so much in common. From food, to religious practices and to the fact that both communities live so closely in various parts of the globe, the history of Muslim and Jewish communities have always been intertwined. Sometimes these relationships have been strained because of Israel and Palestine, but on the

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Why extremist groups want you to ban their online content

Facebook briefly banned Britain First’s page on 30 November, sparking momentary cries of celebration on social media. But within an hour, the far right organisation’s page was restored, claiming Facebook’s censorship to be a ‘fascist attack’. Britain First currently has over 1 million likes on its Facebook page—more than Conservatives and Labour combined. Its page on average generates hundreds of likes for posts. Immediately following restoration, likes spiked into the thousands. Despite their inflammatory material, banning social media sites like Britain First is a highly ineffective approach. Research points to the negative consequences that arise from exercising bans. The International Centre for Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) found through in-depth analysis that a systematic blocking of sites with extremist material is both impractical and counterproductive. It found that strategies which include removing websites, filtering content for accessibility, and hiding search engine results, have little to no effect hindering such networks. This is due to the particular challenges of internet regulation. The scale of website traffic makes identifying and monitoring content extremely difficult, as well as resource-intensive. Even when web page takedowns do occur, sites and forums tend to re-emerge rapidly. The far-right website, Gates of Vienna, was taken down twice in [...]

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No, a dinner lady was not sacked for sharing burqa joke on Facebook

A campaign to re-instate a dinner lady sacked for gross misconduct is growing online. Nita O’Dell, 54, had worked at the Billesley Primary School in Birmingham for almost 21 years. On her Facebook, she had shared a meme that read “Guide dog for a Muslim woman. It’s called a Barka.” Variations of this meme have

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‘Anti-Muslim hate is normal’: research reveals impact of Islamophobic attacks

A new report’s revealed Muslims targeted in Islamophobic attacks are reluctant to report incidents and often receive little support from onlookers. Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) commissioned the report, which found that ‘trigger’ events such as the terrorist attacks in Tunisia and Paris, the murder of Lee Rigby and the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal

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“We Fear for Our Lives”: Offline and Online Experiences of Anti-Muslim Hostility

This report looks at the impact of on-line and off-line experiences of anti-Muslim hostility on British Muslims in the UK. It highlights how some male Muslims are failing to report in Institutional anti-Muslim prejudice for fear of being targeted and for fear that they will be seen to be ‘weak’ in the eyes of their […]

Thousands of Anti-Muslim Posts Today Could Fuel Reverse Extremism

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

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