There has been an unprecedented 12-fold increase in hateful social media content being referred to specialist police officers since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, according to the UK’s Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit.

Once focused on propaganda shared by the Islamic State group (IS) and the fall-out online following UK-based attacks, much of the unit’s focus has shifted to assessing whether hateful and extreme social media posts breach anti-terror legislation.

The team says it has received more than 2,700 referrals from the public - shared via an online form - since Hamas attacked Israel, and Israel launched waves of air strikes on the Gaza Strip in return.

It is a spike in hate that leaves young Britons increasingly exposed to radicalisation by algorithm.

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  • bedrooms@kbin.social
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    6 months ago

    Took me a while to see what the article means by “radicalization” because these days radicalism can mean anything between far right antisemitism and the smallest critique on Israel.

    Can’t even trust the wording of BBC anymore when it comes to this.