Shortly before the French presidential election, a large number of emails from Emmanuel Macron’s ... more Shortly before the French presidential election, a large number of emails from Emmanuel Macron’s campaign were leaked online. The details of the leak quickly spread on social media, but mainstream news organisations in France were prohibited from publishing the material. Wasim Ahmed and Joseph Downing present an analysis of how the leak spread and what lessons it can provide for future campaign hacks in high profile elections.
Security studies literature neglects social media’s potential for lay actors to become influentia... more Security studies literature neglects social media’s potential for lay actors to become influential within security debates. This article develops the concept of ‘security influencers’, bringing literature from marketing into the security debate to understand how social media enables individuals to ‘speak’ and contest security and how lay actors exert influence. Methodologically, this article applies a multi-methods approach to 27,367 tweets to identify and analyse the top four most influential actors in 48 hours following the 2017 bombings by keywords ‘Manchester’ and ‘Muslims’. This article builds a typology of security influencers nuancing definitions of the passive ‘security broadcaster’ and the active ‘security engager’, both of which emerge from obscurity or influence within non-security domains. Furthermore, a dichotomy emerges within influential messages and contestation; messages discussing Muslims in banal terms as diverse individuals register high levels of agreement, wher...
BACKGROUND Since the beginning of December 2019 COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the world whic... more BACKGROUND Since the beginning of December 2019 COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the world which has led to increased discussions across online platforms. These conversations have also included various conspiracies shared by social media users. Amongst them a popular theory has linked 5G to the spread of COVID-19 leading to misinformation and the burning of 5G towers in the United Kingdom. The understanding of the drivers of fake news and quick policies oriented to isolate and rebate misinformation are key to combating it. OBJECTIVE To develop an understanding of the drivers of the 5G COVID-19 conspiracy theory and strategies to deal with such misinformation METHODS This paper performs a Social Network Analysis and Content Analysis of Twitter data from a 7-day period, Friday 27 March 2020 to Saturday 04 April 2020, in which the #5GCoronavirus hashtag was trending on Twitter in the United Kingdom. Influential users are analyzed through social network graph clusters. The size of the...
Background: Since the beginning of December 2019, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread r... more Background: Since the beginning of December 2019, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread rapidly around the world, which has led to increased discussions across online platforms. These conversations have also included various conspiracies shared by social media users. Amongst them, a popular theory has linked 5G to the spread of COVID-19, leading to misinformation and the burning of 5G towers in the United Kingdom. The understanding of the drivers of fake news and quick policies oriented to isolate and rebate misinformation are keys to combating it. Objective: The aim of this study is to develop an understanding of the drivers of the 5G COVID-19 conspiracy theory and strategies to deal with such misinformation.
This article intervenes in critical terrorism studies and conceptions of vernacular security to a... more This article intervenes in critical terrorism studies and conceptions of vernacular security to argue that social media has become an important arena for everyday constructions of terrorism and (in)security. Rich, multimodal, social media data provide important means to understand digital forms of everyday constructions of (in)security that discuss, subvert, and parody dominant terrorism and security narratives in the wake of the rise of the Islamic State group. Methodologically, this argument is pursued through a thematic analysis of a YouTube video authored by a French Muslim that defies an ISIS threat to his hometown of Marseille and the resulting, multiauthored Twitter response. By tracking this vernacular discussion of (in)security across social media platforms, this article demonstrates that, while some intertextuality exists, the crossing of platforms changes both the form and substance of security discussions. Within this, symbols, features and properties of the local urban environment of Marseille are the dominant symbolic resources that are utilized, reconstructed, and deployed to structure and subvert everyday discussions of (in)security. The dominant theme that crosses both YouTube and Twitter is that users perceive the French security services as impotent, and that resistance to ISIS can paradoxically only come from local vectors of insecurity, crime, and violence linked to the ongoing proliferation of organized crime in Marseille. This demonstrates not only that the ability of political satire to enable the powerless to resist the powerful applies in the context of (in)security but also that it enables the powerless to resist "powerful" coercive nonstate actors.
The Grenfell fire has yet to be analysed to understand the event's implications in relation to co... more The Grenfell fire has yet to be analysed to understand the event's implications in relation to construction of social boundaries for British Muslims. In this current research, two methodological approaches are applied to gain understandings of social boundary construction on twitter: thematic analysis of the content of tweets and social network analysis (SNA) of how messages are diffused and contested. Twitter is shown to be an important platform in spreading positive narratives about Muslims during the fire, enabling individuals to spontaneously contest fake news and hate narratives. Social media acts counter to established knowledge, demonstrating that it is not, per se, a conduit for fake news and hate speech. Furthermore, it demonstrates how twitter offers Muslims an international space to voice and articulate themselves where they can be influential in debates that effect Muslim diasporas in other national contexts.
Media blackouts or election silence periods feature in several European democracies. However, thi... more Media blackouts or election silence periods feature in several European democracies. However, this article argues that they have become democratic vulnerabili-ties in the context of increased Internet-based electoral meddling such as during #MacronLeaks. Using both discourse and social network analyses, this study shows that the vacuum created by the inability of politicians and established media outlets to comment on the leaks empowered unregulated and unreliable sources which sought to drag the direction of the election away from the centre and towards the far right. Our findings have broad implications for understanding how social media activity is structured under the conditions of information leaks. The findings of this study may be relevant to other political events which involve the release of sensitive information via social media.
Victimhood remains under analysed in the Critical Terrorism Studies
literature, including the abi... more Victimhood remains under analysed in the Critical Terrorism Studies literature, including the abilities of Muslim victims of terror attacks to blurring social boundaries and possibly de-securitise Muslims in Europe. This is of specific importance in France, which has not only suffered the most terror incidents in Europe in the past five years but also is a country where Muslims have been securitised for decades. This paper uses a mixed methods approach to analyse twitter data for the #jesuisahmed hashtag used to commemorate the Muslim police officer killed in the Charlie Hebdo attacks, and the le monde online memorials created in the wake of the Paris and Nice terror attacks. This analysis demonstrates French Muslim victimhood attacks blur Muslim social boundaries, influences the way that terror events are constructed and also present opportunities for the desecuritisation of Muslims in France. Muslim victimhood does this through three key themes – Muslims being situated as defenders of European values on twitter, Muslimbiographies demonstrating “banality” in the le monde online memories and visual nuances of group identity through victim photos included in the le monde memorial. However, these narratives also can re-enforce a problematic good/ bad Muslim dichotomy.
Macron is correct: even at the heart of Europe the EU has a serious image problem Emmanuel Macron... more Macron is correct: even at the heart of Europe the EU has a serious image problem Emmanuel Macron's words on Sunday morning regarding the result of a hypothetical 'Frexit' referendum shouldn't come as a surprise, writes Joseph Downing (CNRS Aix-Marseille Université). Whilst located at the heart of Europe, France has a serious Eurosceptism problem. This, however, does not mean that it is actually heading for a 'Frexit', he cautions. Britain has often been framed as the Eurosceptic outsider, a somewhat provincial island nation nostalgic for empire, and juxtaposed with an otherwise Europhile continent standing shoulder to shoulder in ever closer integration. Nowhere is this trope of the stereotype Europhile nation so repeated, as it is with France. Not only is France presented as a lynchpin of the Franco-German alliance and as one of the central pillars of the contemporary European project, but as historically central to the very idea of Europe, founded on notions of individual freedoms, democracy and liberty. That is why Emmanuel Macron surprised many Sunday morning when he said that if France had a 'Frexit' referendum, it would have had the same result as Brexit, with French votes wanting to leave the EU. How could France's centrist leader, so vital in France's renewed interest in foreign policy both near and far, possibly suggest that the country would vote for 'Frexit'? This should not be such a big surprise, however, because looking into the polls on Euroscepticism in France and the recent brutal election campaign demonstrate that France has a serious Eurosceptism problem. In France, a country traditionally protective of its generous social welfare and solid worker's rights, the European project has a serious image problem. Macrons remarks were certainly not a surprise for me. Having spent a lot of time in France in the past decade conducting research on marginalised communities, to hear that France is deeply Eurosceptic was somewhat old news. During this research, I have come across deep-rooted mistrust towards many aspects of the European project from both those on the left and right of French politics. I was even congratulated profusely by passers-by when I was living and working in the southern city of Marseille the day after the Brexit result was announced.
Grenfell Tower fire tragedy reveals ugly flaws of regeneration agenda https://theconversation.com... more Grenfell Tower fire tragedy reveals ugly flaws of regeneration agenda https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-fire-tragedy-reveals-ugly-flaws-of-regeneration-agenda-79452 I grew up in social housing. It provided a stable and secure (albeit overcrowded and cold) home for my family, for life. As fire tore through Grenfell Tower, just 500 metres from where I was staying in London, I witnessed the complete and terrible destruction of 120 homes just like the one I grew up in. In the morning, I passed the police cordon and saw dozens of fire fighters standing in complete, abject shock. At least 12 lives were lost, and many more are still feared for. Yet as the ashes settle, it is clear that the threat of ruin extends well beyond Grenfell Tower. Indeed, the policies which I argue have contributed to this disaster have been rolled out across social housing projects both in the UK, and across Europe. Earlier this year, not far from Grenfell, local residents in Westminster voted against any form of refit to their notoriously poorly-maintained Brunel Estate. And many residents across London fear the prospect of " urban regeneration " , seeing it as a type of social cleansing, shorthand for a modern form of slum clearance. Residents worry that any improvements will set them on a slippery slope to gentrification and eventual displacement. Over the years, I have watched with dismay as successive governments – both Labour and Conservative – have depleted the available housing stock through schemes such as right-to-buy, while also running down the standard of the remaining housing stock with constant budget Tragedy. Andy Rain/EPA
Shortly before the French presidential election, a large number of emails from Emmanuel Macron's ... more Shortly before the French presidential election, a large number of emails from Emmanuel Macron's campaign were leaked online. The details of the leak quickly spread on social media, but mainstream news organisations in France were prohibited from publishing the material. Wasim Ahmed and Joseph Downing present an analysis of how the leak spread and what lessons it can provide for future campaign hacks in high profile elections. Emmanuel Macron pulled off one of the biggest upset victories in recent political history, taking the French presidency from a standing start in nine months without the backing of a political party. However, this is not the only reason that his campaign was historic. The 2017 French presidential election will also be remembered for an attempt by outside forces to intervene on the eve of the vote with a leak of significant amounts of hacked data. The election added a new and worrying dimension to the role of 'fake news' in shaping electoral outcomes in democracies across the world. In addition, the specificities of the French case meant that French media were unable to report on the details of the leak due to the traditional press blackout that takes place before the final vote. Adding to worries about the role of these incidents, a picture in which alternative media sources and far-right political figures emerge as the most influential figures on twitter also raises significant concerns about the transmission and reception of information in the social media age. Although the information used in the Macron leaks was obtained through phishing attacks in April, it was not leaked until an hour before official campaigning stopped in the election, meaning that neither Macron nor Le Pen could respond to the content of the documents. As the French press were barred from speaking substantively about the leaks, social media, particularly Twitter, soon became the primary space where the content could be discussed. As such, the issue offers an opportunity to better understand the role of Twitter in political incidents where conventional media sources are prohibited from participating in the coverage of events. An important theme in the use of Twitter during this event was the speed with which tweeting about the leak spread around not just France, but the world. This is important because it shows the importance of substantive foreign involvement and interest in the election. In examining the Twitter response to the #MacronLeaks hashtag, we can know that by 9.30am UK time there were at least 207,600 tweets using the hashtag #Macronleaks, and many of these tweets were retweets (177,800 – 86%), while 4,300 (2%) were replies. This means that there were around 25,500 individual unique tweets that were sent in a very short amount of time. Figure 1 below is a heat map which shows the location users were tweeting from up to 9.30am. Figure 1: Heat map which plots the location of users that were tweeting
Emmanuel Macron emerged from one of the most brutal and eventful election campaigns in recent Eur... more Emmanuel Macron emerged from one of the most brutal and eventful election campaigns in recent European history as France’s next president. This was a campaign in which France’s domestic security, in the shadow of repeated terror attacks, was never far from the centre of broader debates about France’s future.
Macron has promised to increase security spending, strengthen internal security services and introduce new centres to integrate people returning from fighting for so-called Islamic State. But solving the riddle of France’s recent security woes is going to require wide-ranging action and reform. This will present the new president with one of the biggest challenges of his presidency.
Emmanuel Macron's win in the French presidential elections not only means the death of 'Frexit', ... more Emmanuel Macron's win in the French presidential elections not only means the death of 'Frexit', but has wide-ranging implications not just for the European project, but also for the ongoing Brexit negotiations. His victory will give Europe a resurgent strength and a leader who is not only passionate about the project but willing and able to be a strong presence in an international arena where France has been missing since the end of the Sarkozy administration. However, with a cornucopia of domestic issues, and the economic constraints of the Franco-British relationship, his impact on Brexit will be mixed, writes Joseph Downing. In November 2016 Emmanuel Macron entered the French presidential campaign without a party and running on a centrist, pro-Europe platform. In the shadow of Brexit and with rumours of a eurosceptic wave sweeping the continent many saw this is pure insanity with zero chance of success. Only 6 months later he stands as Frances first elected president in a generation not hailing from one of the two major parties – the centre-left socialists or the centre right republicans. In one of the strangest political upsets in what has been a year of political firsts, Macrons election demonstrates that it has been easy to overstate the importance of Euroskepticism as an issue in an election fought on an extremely diverse set of political fronts. Image by enmarchefr (Instagram). This presidential campaign has been beset with such a plethora of wide-ranging issues it has been hard to pick apart what is driving voters behaviour. The far right Marine Le Pen and the far left Jean-Luc Melenchon polled 40% of the first round votes on two very different but highly Eurosceptic platforms. Le Pen, who in the second round polled around 33.9 per cent of the final vote even went as far as to promise a 'Frexit' referendum on France's EU membership and succeed domestically from the Euro, moves that would have thrown Europe into a turmoil from which it may never have fully recovered from. However, it is too easy to read these successes as products of a deep sense of euroskepticism. Importantly, both candidates had extremely wide-ranging campaigns which covered a large swathe of political concerns – for le Pen migration and security, for Melenchon economic precarity and the
Shortly before the French presidential election, a large number of emails from Emmanuel Macron’s ... more Shortly before the French presidential election, a large number of emails from Emmanuel Macron’s campaign were leaked online. The details of the leak quickly spread on social media, but mainstream news organisations in France were prohibited from publishing the material. Wasim Ahmed and Joseph Downing present an analysis of how the leak spread and what lessons it can provide for future campaign hacks in high profile elections.
Security studies literature neglects social media’s potential for lay actors to become influentia... more Security studies literature neglects social media’s potential for lay actors to become influential within security debates. This article develops the concept of ‘security influencers’, bringing literature from marketing into the security debate to understand how social media enables individuals to ‘speak’ and contest security and how lay actors exert influence. Methodologically, this article applies a multi-methods approach to 27,367 tweets to identify and analyse the top four most influential actors in 48 hours following the 2017 bombings by keywords ‘Manchester’ and ‘Muslims’. This article builds a typology of security influencers nuancing definitions of the passive ‘security broadcaster’ and the active ‘security engager’, both of which emerge from obscurity or influence within non-security domains. Furthermore, a dichotomy emerges within influential messages and contestation; messages discussing Muslims in banal terms as diverse individuals register high levels of agreement, wher...
BACKGROUND Since the beginning of December 2019 COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the world whic... more BACKGROUND Since the beginning of December 2019 COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the world which has led to increased discussions across online platforms. These conversations have also included various conspiracies shared by social media users. Amongst them a popular theory has linked 5G to the spread of COVID-19 leading to misinformation and the burning of 5G towers in the United Kingdom. The understanding of the drivers of fake news and quick policies oriented to isolate and rebate misinformation are key to combating it. OBJECTIVE To develop an understanding of the drivers of the 5G COVID-19 conspiracy theory and strategies to deal with such misinformation METHODS This paper performs a Social Network Analysis and Content Analysis of Twitter data from a 7-day period, Friday 27 March 2020 to Saturday 04 April 2020, in which the #5GCoronavirus hashtag was trending on Twitter in the United Kingdom. Influential users are analyzed through social network graph clusters. The size of the...
Background: Since the beginning of December 2019, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread r... more Background: Since the beginning of December 2019, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread rapidly around the world, which has led to increased discussions across online platforms. These conversations have also included various conspiracies shared by social media users. Amongst them, a popular theory has linked 5G to the spread of COVID-19, leading to misinformation and the burning of 5G towers in the United Kingdom. The understanding of the drivers of fake news and quick policies oriented to isolate and rebate misinformation are keys to combating it. Objective: The aim of this study is to develop an understanding of the drivers of the 5G COVID-19 conspiracy theory and strategies to deal with such misinformation.
This article intervenes in critical terrorism studies and conceptions of vernacular security to a... more This article intervenes in critical terrorism studies and conceptions of vernacular security to argue that social media has become an important arena for everyday constructions of terrorism and (in)security. Rich, multimodal, social media data provide important means to understand digital forms of everyday constructions of (in)security that discuss, subvert, and parody dominant terrorism and security narratives in the wake of the rise of the Islamic State group. Methodologically, this argument is pursued through a thematic analysis of a YouTube video authored by a French Muslim that defies an ISIS threat to his hometown of Marseille and the resulting, multiauthored Twitter response. By tracking this vernacular discussion of (in)security across social media platforms, this article demonstrates that, while some intertextuality exists, the crossing of platforms changes both the form and substance of security discussions. Within this, symbols, features and properties of the local urban environment of Marseille are the dominant symbolic resources that are utilized, reconstructed, and deployed to structure and subvert everyday discussions of (in)security. The dominant theme that crosses both YouTube and Twitter is that users perceive the French security services as impotent, and that resistance to ISIS can paradoxically only come from local vectors of insecurity, crime, and violence linked to the ongoing proliferation of organized crime in Marseille. This demonstrates not only that the ability of political satire to enable the powerless to resist the powerful applies in the context of (in)security but also that it enables the powerless to resist "powerful" coercive nonstate actors.
The Grenfell fire has yet to be analysed to understand the event's implications in relation to co... more The Grenfell fire has yet to be analysed to understand the event's implications in relation to construction of social boundaries for British Muslims. In this current research, two methodological approaches are applied to gain understandings of social boundary construction on twitter: thematic analysis of the content of tweets and social network analysis (SNA) of how messages are diffused and contested. Twitter is shown to be an important platform in spreading positive narratives about Muslims during the fire, enabling individuals to spontaneously contest fake news and hate narratives. Social media acts counter to established knowledge, demonstrating that it is not, per se, a conduit for fake news and hate speech. Furthermore, it demonstrates how twitter offers Muslims an international space to voice and articulate themselves where they can be influential in debates that effect Muslim diasporas in other national contexts.
Media blackouts or election silence periods feature in several European democracies. However, thi... more Media blackouts or election silence periods feature in several European democracies. However, this article argues that they have become democratic vulnerabili-ties in the context of increased Internet-based electoral meddling such as during #MacronLeaks. Using both discourse and social network analyses, this study shows that the vacuum created by the inability of politicians and established media outlets to comment on the leaks empowered unregulated and unreliable sources which sought to drag the direction of the election away from the centre and towards the far right. Our findings have broad implications for understanding how social media activity is structured under the conditions of information leaks. The findings of this study may be relevant to other political events which involve the release of sensitive information via social media.
Victimhood remains under analysed in the Critical Terrorism Studies
literature, including the abi... more Victimhood remains under analysed in the Critical Terrorism Studies literature, including the abilities of Muslim victims of terror attacks to blurring social boundaries and possibly de-securitise Muslims in Europe. This is of specific importance in France, which has not only suffered the most terror incidents in Europe in the past five years but also is a country where Muslims have been securitised for decades. This paper uses a mixed methods approach to analyse twitter data for the #jesuisahmed hashtag used to commemorate the Muslim police officer killed in the Charlie Hebdo attacks, and the le monde online memorials created in the wake of the Paris and Nice terror attacks. This analysis demonstrates French Muslim victimhood attacks blur Muslim social boundaries, influences the way that terror events are constructed and also present opportunities for the desecuritisation of Muslims in France. Muslim victimhood does this through three key themes – Muslims being situated as defenders of European values on twitter, Muslimbiographies demonstrating “banality” in the le monde online memories and visual nuances of group identity through victim photos included in the le monde memorial. However, these narratives also can re-enforce a problematic good/ bad Muslim dichotomy.
Macron is correct: even at the heart of Europe the EU has a serious image problem Emmanuel Macron... more Macron is correct: even at the heart of Europe the EU has a serious image problem Emmanuel Macron's words on Sunday morning regarding the result of a hypothetical 'Frexit' referendum shouldn't come as a surprise, writes Joseph Downing (CNRS Aix-Marseille Université). Whilst located at the heart of Europe, France has a serious Eurosceptism problem. This, however, does not mean that it is actually heading for a 'Frexit', he cautions. Britain has often been framed as the Eurosceptic outsider, a somewhat provincial island nation nostalgic for empire, and juxtaposed with an otherwise Europhile continent standing shoulder to shoulder in ever closer integration. Nowhere is this trope of the stereotype Europhile nation so repeated, as it is with France. Not only is France presented as a lynchpin of the Franco-German alliance and as one of the central pillars of the contemporary European project, but as historically central to the very idea of Europe, founded on notions of individual freedoms, democracy and liberty. That is why Emmanuel Macron surprised many Sunday morning when he said that if France had a 'Frexit' referendum, it would have had the same result as Brexit, with French votes wanting to leave the EU. How could France's centrist leader, so vital in France's renewed interest in foreign policy both near and far, possibly suggest that the country would vote for 'Frexit'? This should not be such a big surprise, however, because looking into the polls on Euroscepticism in France and the recent brutal election campaign demonstrate that France has a serious Eurosceptism problem. In France, a country traditionally protective of its generous social welfare and solid worker's rights, the European project has a serious image problem. Macrons remarks were certainly not a surprise for me. Having spent a lot of time in France in the past decade conducting research on marginalised communities, to hear that France is deeply Eurosceptic was somewhat old news. During this research, I have come across deep-rooted mistrust towards many aspects of the European project from both those on the left and right of French politics. I was even congratulated profusely by passers-by when I was living and working in the southern city of Marseille the day after the Brexit result was announced.
Grenfell Tower fire tragedy reveals ugly flaws of regeneration agenda https://theconversation.com... more Grenfell Tower fire tragedy reveals ugly flaws of regeneration agenda https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-fire-tragedy-reveals-ugly-flaws-of-regeneration-agenda-79452 I grew up in social housing. It provided a stable and secure (albeit overcrowded and cold) home for my family, for life. As fire tore through Grenfell Tower, just 500 metres from where I was staying in London, I witnessed the complete and terrible destruction of 120 homes just like the one I grew up in. In the morning, I passed the police cordon and saw dozens of fire fighters standing in complete, abject shock. At least 12 lives were lost, and many more are still feared for. Yet as the ashes settle, it is clear that the threat of ruin extends well beyond Grenfell Tower. Indeed, the policies which I argue have contributed to this disaster have been rolled out across social housing projects both in the UK, and across Europe. Earlier this year, not far from Grenfell, local residents in Westminster voted against any form of refit to their notoriously poorly-maintained Brunel Estate. And many residents across London fear the prospect of " urban regeneration " , seeing it as a type of social cleansing, shorthand for a modern form of slum clearance. Residents worry that any improvements will set them on a slippery slope to gentrification and eventual displacement. Over the years, I have watched with dismay as successive governments – both Labour and Conservative – have depleted the available housing stock through schemes such as right-to-buy, while also running down the standard of the remaining housing stock with constant budget Tragedy. Andy Rain/EPA
Shortly before the French presidential election, a large number of emails from Emmanuel Macron's ... more Shortly before the French presidential election, a large number of emails from Emmanuel Macron's campaign were leaked online. The details of the leak quickly spread on social media, but mainstream news organisations in France were prohibited from publishing the material. Wasim Ahmed and Joseph Downing present an analysis of how the leak spread and what lessons it can provide for future campaign hacks in high profile elections. Emmanuel Macron pulled off one of the biggest upset victories in recent political history, taking the French presidency from a standing start in nine months without the backing of a political party. However, this is not the only reason that his campaign was historic. The 2017 French presidential election will also be remembered for an attempt by outside forces to intervene on the eve of the vote with a leak of significant amounts of hacked data. The election added a new and worrying dimension to the role of 'fake news' in shaping electoral outcomes in democracies across the world. In addition, the specificities of the French case meant that French media were unable to report on the details of the leak due to the traditional press blackout that takes place before the final vote. Adding to worries about the role of these incidents, a picture in which alternative media sources and far-right political figures emerge as the most influential figures on twitter also raises significant concerns about the transmission and reception of information in the social media age. Although the information used in the Macron leaks was obtained through phishing attacks in April, it was not leaked until an hour before official campaigning stopped in the election, meaning that neither Macron nor Le Pen could respond to the content of the documents. As the French press were barred from speaking substantively about the leaks, social media, particularly Twitter, soon became the primary space where the content could be discussed. As such, the issue offers an opportunity to better understand the role of Twitter in political incidents where conventional media sources are prohibited from participating in the coverage of events. An important theme in the use of Twitter during this event was the speed with which tweeting about the leak spread around not just France, but the world. This is important because it shows the importance of substantive foreign involvement and interest in the election. In examining the Twitter response to the #MacronLeaks hashtag, we can know that by 9.30am UK time there were at least 207,600 tweets using the hashtag #Macronleaks, and many of these tweets were retweets (177,800 – 86%), while 4,300 (2%) were replies. This means that there were around 25,500 individual unique tweets that were sent in a very short amount of time. Figure 1 below is a heat map which shows the location users were tweeting from up to 9.30am. Figure 1: Heat map which plots the location of users that were tweeting
Emmanuel Macron emerged from one of the most brutal and eventful election campaigns in recent Eur... more Emmanuel Macron emerged from one of the most brutal and eventful election campaigns in recent European history as France’s next president. This was a campaign in which France’s domestic security, in the shadow of repeated terror attacks, was never far from the centre of broader debates about France’s future.
Macron has promised to increase security spending, strengthen internal security services and introduce new centres to integrate people returning from fighting for so-called Islamic State. But solving the riddle of France’s recent security woes is going to require wide-ranging action and reform. This will present the new president with one of the biggest challenges of his presidency.
Emmanuel Macron's win in the French presidential elections not only means the death of 'Frexit', ... more Emmanuel Macron's win in the French presidential elections not only means the death of 'Frexit', but has wide-ranging implications not just for the European project, but also for the ongoing Brexit negotiations. His victory will give Europe a resurgent strength and a leader who is not only passionate about the project but willing and able to be a strong presence in an international arena where France has been missing since the end of the Sarkozy administration. However, with a cornucopia of domestic issues, and the economic constraints of the Franco-British relationship, his impact on Brexit will be mixed, writes Joseph Downing. In November 2016 Emmanuel Macron entered the French presidential campaign without a party and running on a centrist, pro-Europe platform. In the shadow of Brexit and with rumours of a eurosceptic wave sweeping the continent many saw this is pure insanity with zero chance of success. Only 6 months later he stands as Frances first elected president in a generation not hailing from one of the two major parties – the centre-left socialists or the centre right republicans. In one of the strangest political upsets in what has been a year of political firsts, Macrons election demonstrates that it has been easy to overstate the importance of Euroskepticism as an issue in an election fought on an extremely diverse set of political fronts. Image by enmarchefr (Instagram). This presidential campaign has been beset with such a plethora of wide-ranging issues it has been hard to pick apart what is driving voters behaviour. The far right Marine Le Pen and the far left Jean-Luc Melenchon polled 40% of the first round votes on two very different but highly Eurosceptic platforms. Le Pen, who in the second round polled around 33.9 per cent of the final vote even went as far as to promise a 'Frexit' referendum on France's EU membership and succeed domestically from the Euro, moves that would have thrown Europe into a turmoil from which it may never have fully recovered from. However, it is too easy to read these successes as products of a deep sense of euroskepticism. Importantly, both candidates had extremely wide-ranging campaigns which covered a large swathe of political concerns – for le Pen migration and security, for Melenchon economic precarity and the
Introduction
With the largest Muslim population in Western Europe, France has faced a number of c... more Introduction With the largest Muslim population in Western Europe, France has faced a number of critiques in its attempts to assimilate Muslims into an ostensibly secular (but predominantly Catholic) state and society. This book challenges traditional analyses that emphasise the conflict between Muslims and the French state and broader French society, by exploring the intersection of Muslim faith with other identities, as well as the central roles of Muslims in French civil society, politics and the media.
The tensions created by attacks on French soil by Islamic State have contributed to growing acceptance of the Islamophobic discourse of Marine Le Pen and her far-right Front National party, and debates about issues such as headscarves and burkinis have garnered worldwide attention. Downing addresses these issues from a new angle, eschewing the traditional us-and-them narrative and offering a more nuanced account based on people’s actual lived experiences. French Muslims in Perspective will be of interest to students and scholars across sociology, politics, international relations, cultural studies, European Studies and French studies, as well as policy makers and practitioners involved in immigration, education, and media.
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Papers by Joseph Downing
literature, including the abilities of Muslim victims of terror attacks to
blurring social boundaries and possibly de-securitise Muslims in
Europe. This is of specific importance in France, which has not only
suffered the most terror incidents in Europe in the past five years but
also is a country where Muslims have been securitised for decades.
This paper uses a mixed methods approach to analyse twitter data
for the #jesuisahmed hashtag used to commemorate the Muslim
police officer killed in the Charlie Hebdo attacks, and the le monde
online memorials created in the wake of the Paris and Nice terror
attacks. This analysis demonstrates French Muslim victimhood
attacks blur Muslim social boundaries, influences the way that terror
events are constructed and also present opportunities for the desecuritisation
of Muslims in France. Muslim victimhood does this
through three key themes – Muslims being situated as defenders of
European values on twitter, Muslimbiographies demonstrating “banality”
in the le monde online memories and visual nuances of group
identity through victim photos included in the le monde memorial.
However, these narratives also can re-enforce a problematic good/
bad Muslim dichotomy.
Macron has promised to increase security spending, strengthen internal security services and introduce new centres to integrate people returning from fighting for so-called Islamic State. But solving the riddle of France’s recent security woes is going to require wide-ranging action and reform. This will present the new president with one of the biggest challenges of his presidency.
literature, including the abilities of Muslim victims of terror attacks to
blurring social boundaries and possibly de-securitise Muslims in
Europe. This is of specific importance in France, which has not only
suffered the most terror incidents in Europe in the past five years but
also is a country where Muslims have been securitised for decades.
This paper uses a mixed methods approach to analyse twitter data
for the #jesuisahmed hashtag used to commemorate the Muslim
police officer killed in the Charlie Hebdo attacks, and the le monde
online memorials created in the wake of the Paris and Nice terror
attacks. This analysis demonstrates French Muslim victimhood
attacks blur Muslim social boundaries, influences the way that terror
events are constructed and also present opportunities for the desecuritisation
of Muslims in France. Muslim victimhood does this
through three key themes – Muslims being situated as defenders of
European values on twitter, Muslimbiographies demonstrating “banality”
in the le monde online memories and visual nuances of group
identity through victim photos included in the le monde memorial.
However, these narratives also can re-enforce a problematic good/
bad Muslim dichotomy.
Macron has promised to increase security spending, strengthen internal security services and introduce new centres to integrate people returning from fighting for so-called Islamic State. But solving the riddle of France’s recent security woes is going to require wide-ranging action and reform. This will present the new president with one of the biggest challenges of his presidency.
With the largest Muslim population in Western Europe, France has faced a number of critiques in its attempts to assimilate Muslims into an ostensibly secular (but predominantly Catholic) state and society. This book challenges traditional analyses that emphasise the conflict between Muslims and the French state and broader French society, by exploring the intersection of Muslim faith with other identities, as well as the central roles of Muslims in French civil society, politics and the media.
The tensions created by attacks on French soil by Islamic State have contributed to growing acceptance of the Islamophobic discourse of Marine Le Pen and her far-right Front National party, and debates about issues such as headscarves and burkinis have garnered worldwide attention. Downing addresses these issues from a new angle, eschewing the traditional us-and-them narrative and offering a more nuanced account based on people’s actual lived experiences. French Muslims in Perspective will be of interest to students and scholars across sociology, politics, international relations, cultural studies, European Studies and French studies, as well as policy makers and practitioners involved in immigration, education, and media.