The tragic killing of an 11-year-old boy on August 18 in Spain quickly became the subject of many unfounded claims. Dozens of posts were posted on social media falsely claiming that the attacker was a Muslim immigrant from North Africa – despite official statements that made it clear that the attacker was instead a 20-year-old Spaniard.

After the murder of three children in Southport, Great Britain, the false rumor that the killer was a Muslim immigrant was also spread – and in the following days riots of extreme violence followed across England and Northern Ireland, with various right-wing figures, influencers and online trolls they add fuel to the fire, even encouraging people to join the riots and attack mosques in their area.

Hate speech against Muslims and immigrants has been on the rise in Germany in recent days, following the Solingen attack. The attacker was reportedly an asylum seeker from Syria, who killed three people and injured eight. Although Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, the far-right AfD was quick to use the tragedy to criticize the government ahead of crucial state elections, claiming the attack was a result of the coalition’s policies of inclusion and diversity. .

The rising tide of Islamophobic disinformation – or the deliberate spread of false information – comes at a time when Islamophobia is intensifying in Europe. According to the official data, in 2023 there were twice as many Islamophobic crimes in Germany compared to the previous year. The trend is similar in Great Britain, Austria and other European countries.

The “classic” disinformation tactics

Lorena Martinez from the anti-disinformation research organization Logically, confirms that over the past week her team has seen a significant increase in hate speech against Muslims online. “It seems like there is a pattern that all disinformation campaigns in Europe follow,” Martinez told DW. “They take a breaking news story and bombard the public with content that they market in such a way that through a series of speculations the recipients are led to an inescapable conclusion: that Muslims and immigrants are an existential threat to Europe.”

The campaigns that have followed the recent tragedies have promoted photos and material that have nothing to do with the events, such as videos and photos of large gatherings of Muslims during a religious event, accompanied by captions such as “The growing problem of Europe with Muslim immigrants”.

This kind of material goes up on X, Telegram, but also on other platforms, sometimes even in multiple languages. Recently, such a misleading post was also promoted by Martin Zichert, an AfD member of parliament, further stating that “anyone who thinks that Solingen was an isolated incident is wrong. “Extremist Muslims are gaining ground everywhere in Germany.”

The same tactic is followed with videos showing an altercation between a person of color and other citizens, accompanied by captions portraying the person as a “hostile” Muslim immigrant – without providing any further evidence or information about the incident.

In addition to these, photos created through artificial intelligence are also published, which aim to generate or inflame the feeling of anger that some may feel towards Muslims. A typical example is a photo that recently spread on social media, in which some British police officers are seen kneeling in front of a row of men in costumes, allegedly Muslims. Although the photo is clearly a product of artificial intelligence, with distorted figures and unnatural proportions, it was widely used to accuse the police of pandering to the Muslim community.

The baseless conspiracy theory that Muslims receive preferential treatment from the authorities is often repeated by various right-wing figures in many European countries, such as in Germany, Sweden and elsewhere.

X and Telegram turning a blind eye?

X is giving a major boost to disinformation campaigns – and even Elon Musk seems to be on board. During the riots in Great Britain, Musk implied that the unrest was due to diversity, even claiming that “civil war is inevitable.” In addition, he did not fail to promote dozens of posts by various Right-wing influencers by uploading them to his own account, which is followed by approximately 196 million users. When British authorities asked him to delete posts that posed a threat to national security, he reportedly refused.

Other platforms, such as Telegram, show a similar tolerance for such phenomena. After the murders in Southport, Telegram channels with tens of thousands of members were created, which facilitated the organization of violent riots, as well as the attack on a mosque.

The EU is failing to curb hate speech

European states have long been trying to push social media platforms to take effective measures to crack down on hate speech against all communities, including the Muslim one.

Germany’s Social Network Surveillance Act (NetzDG) ​​and the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) are two of the many legal frameworks put in place to curb illegal online content.

Now the British government is also considering an amendment to the legislation on internet security, which will also place certain obligations on the companies that manage social media. Thus, it is possible to allow the imposition of penalties on companies that allow the posting of “legal but harmful” content, such as disinformation posts.

However, as long as these companies still have great freedom of movement in the countries where they are based, such as the USA or China, the implementation of such laws is difficult. As Barath Ganes, a researcher at the University of Amsterdam’s media and political communication department, points out to DW, “These companies can basically act like dictatorial regimes if they want to. To this day, they operate within a childish network of ideologies, which misinterprets the concept of freedom of expression. And the policies that follow usually make the situation worse.”

Edited by: Giorgos Passas