Study reveals: massive online attacks on British politicians during the election campaign
Study reveals: massive online attacks on British politicians during the election campaign
As part of a comprehensive investigation, the University of Sheffield found that the most prominent politicians in the United Kingdom were confronted with a flood of online attacks during the general election period. This study shows that between May 1 and July 30, more than 85,000 obviously offensive messages were sent to five of the most frequently attacked politicians: Rishi Sunak, Keir Strandmer, Diane Abbott, Suella Braverman and Sadiq Khan. However, the high scope of abuse could insufficiently reflect reality, since not all insulting messages were recorded.According to the data analyzed by the researchers, more than 6 % of all answers to the tweets of these five politicians were clearly offensive between May and July. It was particularly alarming that the politicians involved often received their first insulting answer within one to two minutes after the publication of a post, which was described as "exceptionally quickly".
The type of attacks
The study documented a variety of insulting news that ranged from relatively milder articles in which politicians were called liars, to more serious attacks with personal attacks as well as racist and sexist insults. Over 8,000 messages that these politicians reached contained the word "liar", followed by 3,000 times "Schißkerl" and 2,000 times "criminal". It is also frightening that almost 20 % of the attacks were explicitly sexist or misogynia.
The majority of the attacks concerned topics such as democracy, foreign policy as well as borders and immigration. Sadiq Khan and Rishi Sunak in particular received most of the insults. In this context, the abuse volume increased significantly throughout the Junis, when the election campaign was in full swing, with particularly high tips in the days before the election date on July 4th and after the first television debates between Sunak and Strandmer.
Research emphasizes that Khan, Sunak, Abbott and Braverman were exposed to racist attacks, which among other things included the request to "return to where they came from". These overarching racist insults are alarming in a country that is often perceived as tolerant. MPs who come from racial minorities have to face special challenges because they are often selected as the goal of such attacks.
Diane Abbott became the head of the attacks, especially in March and June, when controversial comments came up with an important donor from the conservative party and issued questions about re -election. Abbott commented and emphasized that during the general election in 2017 she received more online attacks than all other female MPs together.
The highly dramatic topic of online abuse is also addressed by Sadiq Khan, who demands the need for improved legislation to combat such attacks. He is currently criticizing the UK Online Safety Act, which in his opinion is not effective enough to pursue such violations of communication.
In view of the changes on platforms such as X, which were restricted by the purchase by Elon Musk, the possibility of analyzing attack patterns on the platform was significantly more difficult. Access to the database to record such data now costs at least $ 42,000 per month, which is unaffordable for many researchers.