A hashtag apparently calling for terrible violence towards the global Muslim population has been trending on mico-blogging platform Twitter today to the chagrin of many, but this event, and the outrage surrounded it appears curiously confected.
A simple count of subject matter in the most recent 100 tweets posted suggests this is not, as the BBC suggest, “shocking” but rather a uniquely self-fulfilling prophecy. At the time of writing, out of the last 100 posted tweets containing the hashtag #KillAllMuslims, of the tweets in which intention could be clearly discerned 24 appeared to intend serious harm against Muslims, while 60 wished to shield them from harm. Of those tweets, 21 of the harmful tweets were from a single spam account, which appears to have been tweeting fairly solidly for over eight hours on the subject. It is unclear is ‘Brian Keith Davis’ is indeed a real person at this stage:
#KillAllMuslims Secret weapon to take over America revealed http://t.co/un76UZgzab — Brian Keith Davis (@kbdavis07) January 13, 2015
Within the 60 tweets that sought to defend Muslims from violence, there were some more concerning trends. 23 of the tweets also included the hashtag #KillAllJews, and 9 included #KillAllChristians. While some appeared to wish genuine harm on Jews:
#KillAllMuslims i wish Hitler had succeed in wiping out every jew.
— Ibrahim Sheikh (@wasad114) January 13, 2015
Others appeared more fixated with Christians, making reference to Jesus Christ:
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