Online hate crime: digging into London Mayor’s mentions

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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has spoken out about racist and Islamophobic messages he has received through social media, calling for social media companies to address the issue of hate speech online. Speaking on 12 March at the South by Soutwest festival in Texas, Khan revealed that he was called a ‘terrorist’ and faced death threats on Twitter. Khan also released a video, in which he read out some of the abusive tweets he has received since becoming mayor.

Social media users have been quick to react to his message and he has received thousands of tweets related to his speech.

An analysis of about 18,000 tweets he received between 14-23 March revealed that the most common words used in the tweets sent to him were related to his speech, such as hate, crime, speech and Muslim.

Although ‘frequent word’ analysis doesn’t say much about the content of the tweets, a word network visualization with R studio clearly shows how the words relate to one another, and the frequency of related use. The diagram revealed that the word ‘Muslim’ was frequently used together with words like ‘gangs’ and ‘rape’.

The words ‘Muslim’  and ‘gangs’ appear together in 104 tweets in Khan’s mentions. Most of the tweets contain hate speech and Islamophobia. One of them can be seen below.

@SadiqKhan Supports Terrorism & muslim rape gangs in the #UK Behind The scenes Is Trying to destroy The culturalism of the #Britain By turning a blind eye to Terrorist Muslim refugees He is Truly a POS!

— Bill The Butcher (@WakeTheFukupYo) March 24, 2018

The diagram also included words like ‘death threats’, ‘terror attacks’ and ‘Sharia law’. Most of the other tweets were about local issues, such as acid attacks, knife crime and homelessness.

Although the frequency of the words relating to Khan’s speech decreased a week later (23-30 March), he has still been receiving considerable numbers of hate tweets. Analysis of about 18,000 tweets showed that he was called ‘terrorist’ 140 times. The word was used in conjunction with related words, such as ‘sympathiser’ and ‘Muslim’, as seen in the graph below.

@SadiqKhan I see your shithole is only getting worse. In my lifetime you have to be the worst Mayor of London I've seen, to make matters worse you're a terrorist sympathiser too. https://t.co/xQXORz7AJY

— RKWH (@DC84118) March 22, 2018

The London mayor also received considerable amounts of curse words. Searching the word ‘shit’ amongst his mentions showed that the word is used against him over 250 times, together with other words seen in the graph below.

And the more Londoners get stabbed and blown up by terrorists.  Enjoy turning #London into @SadiqKhan’s shit hole Labour voters! https://t.co/MjiwdFqZgL

— malcolm cowing (@atillatherover) March 25, 2018

Islamophobic hate crimes in London increased by 40%

The number of Islamophobic hate crimes has significantly increased, not only on social media, but also on the streets of London.

According to Met Police figures, hate crimes in London have risen by almost 40 per cent over the past year. The figures revealed that 1,660 Islamophobic hate crimes were recorded in 2017, up from 1,224 in 2016.

The number of hate crimes soared between May and July 2017, after the Manchester and London Bridge terror attacks. June 2017 saw a record figure, with 368 hate crimes reported.

The Met Police data also showed that 6,133 Islamophobic hate crimes have been recorded in the capital since 2010. Westminster has been the worse borough for Muslims, with 462 Islamophobic hate crimes recorded in total. Westminster is followed by Tower Hamlets, where the figure is 388.

The least Islamophobic boroughs are Richmond Upon Thames and Bexley, with 51 and 38 hate crimes recorded respectively.