Twitter has grown to be a major hub for the spread of anti-Muslim propaganda which has a disastrous impact on the Muslim minority communities around the world. This was stated in a report prepared by the Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV), an apex Muslim body in the Australian state of Victoria which represents an estimated 270,000 community members.
As per the study published by Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) Headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey, social media users from India, the United States and the United Kingdom generated 86 percent of malicious content between 2017-19; online hateful content led to physical attacks on Muslims and mosques.
Last year, the United Nations strongly encouraged the international community to “take all necessary measures” to combat discrimination against Muslims and “prohibit any advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to violence” while warning that anti-Muslim hatred has reached “epidemic proportions.”
The report said social media companies have not paid any heed to such grave issues despite repeated hateful events witnessed in different parts of the countries.
This inaction is having a devastating impact on Muslim minority communities throughout the world, with the microblogging site Twitter becoming a primary source for the proliferation and amplification of anti-Muslim hatred.
The social media company should now focus its attention on user behaviour within three countries in particular, according to a new study, which found the US, the UK, and India contributed a staggering 86 percent of anti-Muslim content on Twitter during a three-year period, the report said.
The ICV study has found nearly four million anti-Muslim posts made during a 24-month period between 2017 and 2019.
The ICV also flagged a vicious cycle of hatred manifesting in both online and offline attacks on the community globally. Indian users alone generated more than half of these hateful and hurtful posts.
Among India-based Twitter users, researchers blame India’s ruling party – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – for the dissemination and amplification of anti-Muslim hate, saying, “(the) BJP has actively normalised hatred towards Muslims such that 55.12 percent of anti-Muslim hatred tweets now originate in India.”
ICV also pointed to discriminatory laws that deny Muslims citizenship and other civil rights for the rise of anti-Muslim hatred online among Indian Twitter accounts.
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