Ilhan Omar won the largest share .. Disclosure of artificial campaigns against Muslim candidates for Congress

Mohamed Minshawi-Washington

US President Donald Trump leaves no chance to attack the two Muslim members of the US House of Representatives, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, but take advantage of them.

The Trump attack does not appear to happen in a vacuum, "but the pattern, language and objectives of the attack are consistent with a two-day study by the US Social Science Research Council (SSRC)."

The study concluded that "the existence of artificial campaigns on the media in general, and on the application of Twitter in particular, fueled the discourse of Islamophobia and hatred and defamed Muslim candidates in the midterm elections in 2018."

The study examined the election campaigns of two Muslim members of the House of Representatives, Representative of Minnesota Ilhan Omar, and Representative of Michigan State Rachida Tlaib during the 2018 elections.

It also examined the election campaigns of another 166 Muslim candidates, including those running in the primary on the party card for congressional elections, and a number of candidates running in local elections at the level of the mayor or state congress.

Hate speech
According to the 97-page study, Muslim candidates were subjected to organized racist campaigns aimed at defamation and intimidation by broadcasting hate speech and anti-Islam on social media.

She explained that a working group backed by a global network of automated bots worked to amplify the campaign and make a series of the most popular tweets on Twitter, taken from some conservative sites on the Internet, and then retweet thousands of times. The pattern of republishing these lies revealed that organized and effective networks were behind them.

According to the study, the campaigns were based on defamation using false allegations of Islamic law and that Muslim candidates were targeting them, and some of them aimed to impose the veil on US women; as well as allegations of taqiyya, anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel.

Conservative sites have reprinted the artificial tweets, notably the White House affiliate, Pritbat, which was previously run by President Donald Trump's strategic adviser and campaign manager for 2016.

They adopted a speech in support of President Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign, and supported his anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim rhetoric, which allowed the publication of an anti-Muslim hate speech around which many Trump supporters drew around.

Other sites have not hesitated to republish the allegations and lies, including news sites such as Power Line, Daily Kohler, BG Media, and sites of right-wing hate groups such as Act for America and American Freedom.

The study focused on the incitement of hate speech and threats by many Muslim MPs during their campaign for the 2018 congressional elections, many of which came from artificial electronic accounts.

Fabrications
The study analyzed 113,000 tweets targeting Muslim candidates, some of which included describing the candidate as inappropriate or offensive.

It also included false accusations about some untrue behaviors, "that all Muslims are terrorists," and that "Muslim candidates want to impose the values ​​of evil doctrine on Americans."

The study revealed that MP Ilhan Omar - of Somali origin, which has become seen as a model of political ambition for American Muslims - received the largest share of threats and expressions of hatred, which has been republished and tweeted thousands of times.

One of the most widespread lies was published by Power Lane, claiming that Ilhan Omar was "married to her brother", of course, without providing any evidence for the allegations.

The study compiled 1,600 terms used by far-right groups and anti-Muslim hate propaganda sites, saying that spreading lies "works like viruses, spreading at unexpected speeds."

"It is a wake-up call for all of us. It is clear that social media organizations have not taken the threats of extremist groups of pro-white ethnic groups seriously," said Ilhan Omar, the Washington Post.

The study was edited by four researchers, Lawrence Pintak of Washington State University, Jonathan Albright of Columbia University, Brian Boa of West Washington University, and Shaheen Pasha of Pennsylvania State University.

"Few people control and control the way many others know about Twitter, and without serious interference from the Twitter administration to enforce the site's no-hatred policies, they will continue to Spreading those lies and allegations. "

Twitter finds itself in an unenviable position, especially after the federal authorities made a number of official accusations of former employees of spying for Saudi Arabia, and the consequent doubling of oversight and congressional audits imposed by major social media companies.