55 Percent Of Anti-Muslim Content On Twitter Comes From India: Report

Nearly 86 per cent of anti-Muslim posts on social media come from the US, the UK and India, a report by the Australian-based Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) has found. The study revealed that there were at least 3,759,180 Islamophobic posts during a three-year period made on Twitter between 28 August 2019 and 27 August 2021.

In 2021, 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.”

However, this appeal has fallen largely on deaf ears, particularly within the executive boardrooms of social media companies, which have done little or nothing to remove anti-Muslim content from their platforms, reports TRT World. 

Anti-Muslim Content

The ICV researchers analysed that India produced highest content, with 871,379 Islamophobic tweets, followed by the US with 289,248, and the UK, with 196,376.

The study also identified four key themes that normally ran on Twitter playing upon its Islamophobic content. The connection between Islam and terrorism, the portrayal of Muslims as sexual assaulters, the conspiracy that makes false claims that Muslim immigrants are displacing white people in the West and Hindus in India, and labeling of Halal as an inhumane practice.

“We conclude from this that Twitter is drastically failing at removing anti-Muslim content,” the report noted. “This is unsurprising given that they do not automatically screen posts for hate, but rather only act once a report has been filed.

"In practice, however, even when Islamophobia is brought to their attention, a mere 3 percent of flagged tweets end up being removed.”

ICV suggests that Twitter should end the policy of not screening tweets and should automatically detect and remove hateful content. It also recommends that Twitter establish an independent oversight body to evaluate the effectiveness of its moderation policies.

“Indeed, in the event that no changes are made,” the report states, “it is all the more likely that the problem of online Islamophobia will grow to a point of intractability.”

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