[Ramrod]

A supposed outpouring of online hatred against Jo Cox, a murdered MP, was exaggerated

In the month after the killing at least 25,000 people sent more than 50,000 tweets celebrating her death or praising her murderer, Thomas Mair, Hope Not Hate said.

Britain’s largest newspapers leapt to publish the shocking findings. The story was shared far and wide. Angela Eagle, a Labour MP, cast its conclusions as “staggering and appalling”. The news struck as Britain was coming to terms with an increase in hate crimes. The discovery that such hateful attitudes were not isolated, and that tens of thousands of members of the public were willing to voice them openly, was deeply troubling.

Yet the story was wrong. An investigation by The Economist has found that Hope Not Hate misrepresented the findings of its own report when first releasing it to the press.