To feel very uneasy at the latest 'conspiracy?' theory doing the rounds on social media?

I'm always wary of these threads- is it people wanting a racist pile on, or people, who see racism round every corner, wanting to prove that MN allows racist posts. Either way, I'm not playing the game. 👋

I’ve seen this shared a couple of times. I’m a massive worrier and an over thinker but I know this is just something that’s been made up by racists.

Nope, for the last two weeks MN has been absolutely awash with racist rumour spreading threads. I ignored them but now I report and call out.

Read better stuff then.

The algorithm on Facebook, X etc is designed to play back to you messages that you've shown interest in. So if you've engaged with / read / commented on posts about migrants / the boats / migrant hotels / concerns about the NHS being overwhelmed then you'll start to be fed more and more of them, so you interact with more and more of them, and it's a self fulfilling circle. The algorithms are also designed to promote negativity over positivity because negativity is more sticky, ie it generates more comments and reactions than nice stories.

Get off social media and / or actively change what you show interest in. This includes everything you read online, you don't have to comment or react for the algorithm to 'note' your interest and prioritise / play back similar themes to you.

Let's be realistic, if there were cells in the UK planning attacks the last place they'd be talking about it is on social media, where rumours spread like wildfire and they'd soon be tracked down. Be kind to yourself and get off social media.

Oh I abolutely stand by it. Posts tarring 'migrants' - lovely catch all phrase- as terrorists are racist.
Do report me

Well obviously I would prefer if you were right! But I do think something like this will happen.

It's posts like these that make teens beat up a six year old Indian girl which happened this week, because migrants are dirty. Faux wide eyed " Should I be scared of the brown man". Nope, I won't be kind.

I dont know anyone keeping their kids out of school.

I haven't seen the specific conspiracy theories but there are probably all sorts of dodgy people on those boats, like the 8 Iranian terrorists arrested earlier this year who I think came in on boats/lorries and claimed asylum. Not to mention all the rapists.....

The part about sleeper cells about to launch an attack.

I didn’t catch the ‘hiding among migrants’ part of your OP.

I don’t know about that - but I do think sleeper cells here are a real thing.

It makes me uneasy too - that racists are causing distress to vulnerable people by starting such rumours, knowing that they will be spread by both fellow racists and the vulnerable people themselves and the danger this poses to not just refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, but to all people who are of different ethnicities/faiths or could be perceived to be.

The pretending to be a normal, worried, concerned 'I'm not a racialist [sic], but...' posts are also worrying. Not just because they exist in the first place, but because not everybody recognises them as such.

But it's been at least 6 hours since the last racist thread started on Mumsnet, so we're probably overdue another one by now.

It’s very reminiscent of the anti German propaganda of the First World War - rumours of thousands German spies already landed and working on the south coast as barbers etc. It led to people and businesses with German sounding names being attacked. Quite often these people were Jewish.

I don’t get involved with social media and so haven’t seen these scare stores, however I am not unrealistic. Due to the sheer numbers of unknown people being allowed into the country it is statistically very likely that this is happening.

It's designed to scare people into hating all immigrants.

I have seen this posted a few times on Facebook but always by people who are not the brightest and I wonder why they aren’t embarrassed.
Ask yourself what sort of terrorist organisation would be advertising something like this? One that wants to get caught before they can carry out their plan it seems.

I am on SM and have not seen this. Your algorithms are sending you the same right wing conspiracy theory shite.

Most posts on MN can be answered with " Get off Tik Tok".

I work with migrants from every country. Most too busy jumping through immigration hoops to bother bombing us.

Will there be some ISIS chaps in the UK? Yes. But many will be born here.

Security in schools increased fairly markedly around 2016 in the UK. Most have restricted entrances and are blocked off from road traffic by fences and gates now. The same happened at airports and train stations where you can no longer drive right up to them in the same way. Large planters, benches and cement balls appeared along pavements in towns making it hard or impossible to mount the pavements in many town centres. I think threats of all sorts are mitigated for but life can never be completely safe. Sleeper cells are not something I would lose sleep over.