At a time of increasing polarisation, with the far-right on the rise, incidents of Islamophobia are increasing, with the number of Islamophobic social media posts aimed at the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan doubling in a year.
According to analysis commissioned by the Greater London authority (GLA), almost 28,000 social media posts referring to Khan included a key Islamophobic phrase last year, a huge increase on the 12,000 sent a year earlier and a more than eight-fold increase from 2022.
The vast majority of abuse was posted on X. It comes after Trump supporter and owner of X Elon Musk reinstated the accounts of far-right figures like Tommy Robinson and also significantly reduced the number of content moderators.
The research also found that 89% of the offending Islamophobic posts about Khan since 2015 had originated on X.
Earlier this year, Khan warned that progressives faced a century defining challenge with the ‘far right on the march’. He called on governments to ratchet up the pressure on social media companies to tackle lies, hate and misinformation, taking particular aim at Musk.
He also said that we should ‘challenge so-called mainstream politicians who are normalising the ideas and language of the far right’.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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