UK – Katie Hopkins Uses the Persecution of Jews to Push Far-Right Narrative
This article is part of the Media Monitoring Highlights of June, a monthly overview of the most significant results of our monitoring of traditional and new media in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, and the United Kingdom.
Date of publication: 5 June 2020
Public figure: Katie Hopkins
Platform: Twitter
Description of the antisemitic content: In response to images and videos circulated of police officers kneeling at Black Lives Matter protests in support of the movement, Katie Hopkins shared a tweet which stated: “Here are some Nazis in the 1930s after demanding Jews ‘took a knee’ in front of them. Slightly different methodology, same end result. Humiliation and debasement of one race in order to allow the other to feel and act superior”. This was shared along with a related image. Hopkins shared this tweet with the words: “Treat every day like Sept 1st 1939. The sands of time are moving fast against white people in the U.K.”
Myth debunked: Many were outraged by Hopkins’ comparisons between the atrocities against Jews during the second world war, and police offers kneeling to show support for Black Lives Matter. On Twitter, Jewish News UK online editor Jack Mendal described the incident as Hopkins “using persecution of Jews by Nazis, to spread white supremacism.” He further added: “Jews were being forced to clean the pavement next to Nazi guards. People 'taking the knee' today are showing solidarity with an oppressed community in America [and globally], after centuries of institutionalized racism.” Not only do Hopkins’ comments look to associate the plight of Jews during the second world war with the far-right idea that white people are being ‘overtaken’, but it also looks to pit two oppressed groups against one another. Hopkins has since been permanently suspended from the platform. This action came after multiple temporary suspensions of Hopkins’ account due to violations of Twitter’s hate speech policies, with her most recent suspension just months prior in January 2020. Twitter did not point to any specific tweets as rationale for her suspension, however, Hopkins has a clear history of spreading hate speech on the platform. Hopkins tweeted this content 2 weeks before her permanent suspension. In those 2 weeks the tweet was pinned to the top of her profile, easily accessible to her over 1 million followers.
More to read:
Katie Hopkins permanently removed from Twitter
