“GB News commentators have made no secret of their desire to see Trumpism replicated in Britain."
Campaign group Stop Funding Hate has launched a crowdfunder to help it take the fightback to right-wing channel GB News, which it says is taking the country down a dangerous path as it seeks to see ‘Trumpism replicated in the UK’.
GB News has come in for a lot of criticism since its launch, for whipping up fears about migrants, Muslims, trans people, refugees and minorities as well as for platforming misinformation. It has also been found to have breached impartiality rules by media watchdog Ofcom.
Stop Funding Hate, which has run campaigns for advertisers to boycott the channel, has now launched a new crowdfunder to take the fight back to GB News.
It states on its crowdfunder: “GB News commentators have made no secret of their desire to see Trumpism replicated in Britain.
“And like Trump, the channel has been whipping up fear about migrants, Muslims, and trans people, putting communities at risk and dragging our politics to the extremes.
“We’ve seen such narratives before – they led to violence on Britain’s streets last summer. And we’re seeing the devastating impact in Trump’s America, where Fox News-style media has fuelled a wave of extreme, hate-filled politics.
“When a marginalised community is demonised by the media, it doesn’t stop at words. Politicians exploit the fear and hatred created by those stories, and before long, basic human rights and dignity are stripped away from migrants, LGBTQ+ people, and other minority groups.”
Stop Funding Hate has driven a massive advertising boycott of the channel – forcing major companies to rethink their support for GB News’ divisive agenda, which it says has cost the channel over £100 million in just three years.
However the campaign group says that the fight-back is far from over, with
the far-right ‘emboldened by Trump’s re-election’, it adds ‘the next 12 months will be crucial’.
It has launched a crowdfunder which it says will help it to run more campaign actions to increase pressure on GB News advertisers, do more extensive monitoring to track the channel’s toxic output and to create more social media content to build the campaign.
Stop Funding Hate says it will also use the funds raised to escalate campaigns to Ofcom and government leaders, ‘demanding proper regulation that holds them to the same standards as every other broadcaster’.
You can find a link to the crowdfunder here.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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