Disinformation from the misinformers

Radio NZ reports:

The recent visit by British anti-trans rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull has sparked a massive increase in the level of online hatred directed at the trans community here.

Analysts monitoring online extremism say it has hit new lows with one researcher describing it as “genocidal”.

When a so called researcher describes the expression of words as genocidal, you know that you are not dealing with serious people. It is in fact insulting to victims of actual genocide.

Meanwhile, the researchers say the amount of hate being directed at the Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is now as bad as that towards former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

I guess labelling an entire race as being responsible for all the violence in the world pisses people off. Of course people should not react with personal abuse, but the context is important. If a right wing MP said that (for example) Maori men were responsible for all the violence in NZ, then I am sure that MP would also have an increase in online hate towards them.

I wish NZ had an organisation that actually objectively measured online disinformation. But the Disinformation Project is not that. Whenever I see them in the media, they talk in sweeping generalisations, and use hyperbole. I don’t see hard data. I don’t see any details of what they classify at disinformation or hate. I don’t see analysis of what the reach of those saying hateful things is. All I see is hysterical statements like the one above.