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  1. I am shocked, shocked I tell you to discover that a party that advocates for the mass deportation of people has some racist and Islamophobic members, who could have seen that coming.

  2. From the article :

    “A series of Facebook groups set up and **administered by Reform UK officials** are full of racist and Islamophobic posts and conspiracy theories, which have been left entirely unchallenged by the party”

    One such group for the party’s Kent supporters is listed as being “promoted by Carol Comey for and on behalf of Reform UK”. Comey is the Kent County Organiser for Reform.

    Posts in this group included the claim that it is “hardwired into [Muslims’] belief system to kill non-believers”, that Israel is made up of “people who despise us and haven’t done a single thing for us apart from take our money and dilute our country with foreign invaders”,an iteration of the extreme right ideology of Great Replacement Theory which blames Jews for undermining the white race through migration.

    “Hitler was a good actor and played his part” and a post appearing to claim that Muslims “will face public lynching one day once everyone gets off the news and starts reading more books”.

    Other posts in the group included claims that the pandemic and Southport murders were parts of a coordinated plot to cover up problems in the UK.

    Reform UK Gloucestershire is another public Facebook group, which was established by Lee Bunker, Reform UK’s Regional Coordinator for the South West.

    The group contains a post shared from the page of the far-right Traditional Britain Group, of the Dutch influencer Eva Vlaardingerbroek promoting the Great Replacement Theory. Vlaardingerbroek once claimed in an interview with Winston Marshall that she “would love to be the new Nigel Farage” and take the Netherlands out of the EU.

    Also shared in the Reform UK Gloucestershire group was a video claiming that wherever they go Muslims “are the problem” as well as conspiracy theories claiming that fluoride in water is poisonous and that “climate change is a scam”.

    ***Byline Times*** **identified more than two dozen Reform UK council candidates present in groups in which racist material or conspiracy theories were shared.** In the Reform UK Cornwall group several council candidates act as admins for the group.

    This did not stop the sharing of racist material. Candidate for Probus and St Erme in Cornwall, Jacqueline Francesca Wall who is one of the groups admins can be seen in the group replying to posts claiming that Britain is becoming an Islamic Caliphate and the statement “what bothers me more than anything is that a Muslim is leading the Reform Party” without challenging the substance of the claims. The posts remain up in the group.

    …all the crazy posts we see in UK reddit threads are starting to make sense now.

  3. Is that just the official ones, or does it include the local residents pages that get spammed by Reform bots too?

  4. After-Dentist-2480 on

    In other news, next Pope likely to be Roman Catholic and ursine creatures observed defecating in areas with lots of trees.

  5. I’m sure if they were challenged on it the response would be that “they’re just saying what everyone’s thinking”, which of course, we’re not.

  6. Do we also have confirmation on the popes religion and the location of where bears defecate?

  7. In other news, phobic tendencies generally indicate a lack of emotional intelligence associated with an ability to accept differences in others.

  8. But I was told that Reform supporters just have some concerns, and they definitely aren’t racist!

  9. Trouble is though there are a lot of people in this country lapping this up right now.

    I mean, if you think FB is bad then don’t go anywhere near the toxic cesspit that was once Twitter..

  10. Facebook as a social media platform has seemingly had to fight constantly against disinformation and conspiracy theories from being spread.

    I imagine it’s gotten worse since they decided to bin fact checking.

    As for Reform specifically, I’m not surprised, the party is built by stoking hatred and uniting against a generalised target.

    foreign policy should be discussed, but it seems to be very much framed like a race or religious matter, and that only makes the conversation messy.

  11. Racist far right Islamophobic conspiracist Facebook groups full of racist far right Islamophobic conspiracy posts. Great journalism lol

  12. richmeister6666 on

    How many of these pages are filled with bots? Every politician Facebook pages are either filled with low lives or clear as day bots (usually with a lion profile picture in front of St George’s flag and a grand total of 4 friends).

  13. Facebook is full of pensioners, so it’s not surprising.

    Many of the Boomer demographic are often full of impotent rage. Angry, but without the physical strength to actually do anything to inconvenience the people they dislike. So they have little other option but to mouth off on social media.

  14. Really? I would have thought they would be full of meaningful political debate and policy discussion.