Our new report, Stoking the Flames, assesses how far-right activity is being enabled by mainstream politics and media. We have analysed the relationships between British far-right messages on the messaging platform Telegram, government statements and policy proposals around migration, and articles from three major newspapers: The Daily Mail, The Daily Express and The Sun.
The data finds that both government statements and media coverage play a role in driving far-right engagement around migration. For example, the level of daily online anti-migrant messages on far-right channels on Telegram increased by 149% from 2021 to the first few months of 2023 around the escalation of the ‘Stop the Boats’ campaign. We have also identified clear overlaps in rhetoric between media coverage of migration and far-right messages.
Our key ask: We are calling on politicians and the media to take real responsibility and drop their line of inflammatory language that incubates the far right.
You can find the report here.
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