Russian trolls’ top priority in Britain is stirring hatred of Islam

Stoking division over Islam has been the primary tactic of Russian trolls targeting Britain on Twitter, according to research.

The Russian troll accounts with the biggest following were more likely to focus on Islam, the think tank said.

Stoking division over Islam has been the primary tactic of Russian trolls targeting Britain on Twitter, according to research.

Tweets about Islam far outnumbered those about Brexit and were also more widely shared, a forensic analysis of nine million posted by a troll factory in St Petersburg found. Last month Twitter released the dataset of the tweets, which had been posted by 3,841 blocked accounts affiliated to the notorious Internet Research Agency.

Initial investigations highlighted the prevalence of pro-Leave messages, including a co-ordinated push on the day of the 2016 vote. However, Demos, a cross-party British think tank, has since found that the messages most widely shared related primarily to Islam and stirring up Islamophobia.

The Russian troll accounts with the biggest following were more likely to focus on Islam, the think tank said, highlighting the number of UK-related tweets sent by these accounts, higher than previously estimated.

The study also revealed how the true origins of these accounts were “camouflaged” in the early years after their creation from 2011. They tweeted primarily about fitness and exercise and shared mainstream news in an attempt to look authentic. Many of their posts were automated.

The trolls achieved “minor Brexit vote visibility” in 2016 but “larger-scale visibility during the London terror attacks”. Demos found spikes in posts by the Russian trolls being shared after three terrorist attacks in Britain. After the Westminster attack in March last year 815 messages were posted by the trolls, which were shared 32,500 times. After the Manchester Arena bombing two months later 156 tweets were sent and shared 5,674 times. After the London Bridge attack in June last year, 544 tweets received 60,325 shares.

An analysis of the ten most retweeted messages between March and June last year revealed a focus on Islam. They included the post “Reminder: Mayor of London Sadiq Khan was a lawyer for a 9/11 terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui and has ties with Islamist movement worldwide”, which was retweeted 13,530 times. It was posted by @TEN_GOP, an account falsely purporting to represent Republican supporters in Tennessee.

The claim about Moussaoui was accurate and characteristic of “attempts to falsely amplify other news sources and to take part in conversations around Islam, and rarely … to spread ‘fake news’ or influence at an electoral level”, the study said.

Alex Krasodomski-Jones, of Demos, said: “Hostile actors have identified online news and media as a weak spot in our democracies and this data is a window into how they have looked to exploit it. It shows the moments we as a society are most vulnerable to falling for lies and disinformation, after a tragedy or an outrage, influence operations were at their most successful.”

Demos analysed the nine million Russian troll tweets released by Twitter of which 3.1 million were in English and 83,000 targeted at the UK. The British-linked tweets had 222,000 shares.

— The Times