This analysis of the Twitter trolls abusing Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a fascinating and important read

You will probably already be aware of the astonishing and outrageous level of abuse that has been directed at Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe after she criticised the government for taking too long to secure her release.

Finally freed six years after she was first detained by the Iranian authorities, Twitter trolls and various ‘commentators’ have suggested she’s just not grateful enough.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – “I don’t agree with Richard on thanking the Foreign Secretary, because I have seen 5 Foreign Secretaries over the course of the 6 years.. I was told many times that we’re going to get you home, but that never happened.. I’m not going to even trust you” pic.twitter.com/XS1RH7o6yO

— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) March 21, 2022

These are surely the only 3 responses you need to these people.

A man actually rang into @LBC today to moan "it just would've been nice of Nazanin to say thank you."

The international-hostage equivalent of 'you'd be pretty if you smile more.'

— Rachael Venables (@rachaelvenables) March 22, 2022

If you're criticising Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe for having the "bad manners" to criticise this government, whose incompetent leader was partly responsible for her imprisonment in the first place, then might I politely suggest that you fuck right off?

— Otto English (@Otto_English) March 22, 2022

Those criticizing Nazanin have got it so wrong. She doesn’t owe us gratitude: we owe her an explanation…

— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) March 22, 2022

And we mention it because of this piece of analysis of the some of those trolls criticising her which has just gone viral on Twitter.

It was done by @marcowenjones and it’s a fascinating and important read.

1.

🧵1/I have done an analysis of those responding to #NazaninZaghariRatcliffe‘s interview, specifically focusing on those calling her an ‘ungrateful cow’ for not showing enough deference or gratitude to the UK government. The Brexit partisanship on the topic is startling. Read on! pic.twitter.com/AOlDFl9Jph

— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) March 22, 2022

2.

2/ First up. Accusations that Nazanin was ‘ungrateful’ started surfacing following her press conference that went viral on Twitter yesterday. She was calm and assertive, as was her husband Richard. Watch the video here https://t.co/aaHQak8WDT #NazaninZaghariRatcliffe

— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) March 22, 2022

3.

3/ I analysed around 14,000 tweets involving around 8600 unique accounts. I downloaded tweets that included the hashtag “send her back” and “ungrateful cow” and the keywords “Nazanin and ungrateful”. (horrendous I know). The below network graph of tweets was generated pic.twitter.com/ICi0jsa3Fd

— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) March 22, 2022

4.

4/ Now bear in mind such searches return tweets hating on Nazanin as well as those supporting her/ criticizing the haters. As the graph below shows, there are two distinct clusters, 1 and 2.

Cluster 1 are those defending Nazanin
Cluster 2 are those criticizing Nazanin pic.twitter.com/sn2Bgp4ZnL

— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) March 22, 2022

5.

5/ Now what can we say about each group. Well, if we analyse the bios of group 2, the haters, we find that the third most common descriptor is Brexit. If we check the concordance, they are pro-Brexit. Woke comes in 6th! (as in, anti-woke) EU is mentioned in 12, (as in anti-EU). pic.twitter.com/oFlOxJFNyY

— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) March 22, 2022

6.

6/ Brexiteer and conservative come in 11th and 12. Back Boris is also in 15th. So a very distinctly pro-Brexit and conservative community are generally the ones labelling Nazanin as ungrateful on Twitter.

What about group 1? Well let’s see…

— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) March 22, 2022

7.

7/ FBPE (Follow back pro EU) is in 4th place, with ‘socialist’ in 5th. Brexit is 6th, but concordance shows it’s all pro-EU. ‘Johnson Out’ is in 7th place. So those defending Nazanin are indeed, more likely to to be pro-EU and left-leaning! pic.twitter.com/P1xHTjrGbm

— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) March 22, 2022

8.

8/ As for the ‘ungrateful cow’ crowd. Here are a few of the most influential people on the hashtag accusing Nazanin of being an ‘ungrateful cow’. Note the gratuitous use of caps, misogyny, and general unpleasantness. #NazaninZaghariRatcliffe pic.twitter.com/G1q3IimqxT

— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) March 22, 2022

9.

9/ So there you have it, proof that hating on a newly released hostage of the Iranian regime – who also happens to be a female person of colour, who has missed 6 years of their life and daughter growing up & endured hellish jail conditions – is more a right-wing Twitter past time

— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) March 22, 2022

10.

10/ Also proof that those who are pro-EU and left-leaning tend to be the ones exhibiting more empathy in the case of Nazanin. How many of those people are real is a different question, & one that I will not try to answer right now. Twitter is awash with anonymous generic accounts

— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) March 22, 2022

11.

11/ Some may ask about the cluster in the middle – well it’s @JuliaHB1 – who actually features in the middle of the map between the two communities. While saying that Nazanin ‘moaned’, Julia also did say she would have punched someone if she was Nazanin. pic.twitter.com/cwGVpdvvld

— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) March 22, 2022

12.

12/ I will update keywords later but interesting to see who else is involved. Brexit campaign-funder and Putin apologist @Arron_banks has been joining the pile on casting aspersions on #NazaninZaghariRatcliffe – and getting a lot of engagement pic.twitter.com/f1EfJ8ARWL

— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) March 22, 2022

And here are just a few of the things people were saying about it today.

Nice work Mark. Unsurprising. Saddening.

— Stephen Allenson (@AllensonStephen) March 22, 2022

Look at this. It's official: Nazanin is the Brexiteers' new punchbag. Same old names, same old tactics: hate, misogyny, shame.

This research is so valuable. We can all see it happening but having these network charts makes it visible. Thank you @marcowenjones. https://t.co/FijTv1JogY

— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) March 22, 2022

Very interesting. Unsurprising, perhaps, but it’s good to see this confirmed.

— Somersetlass 🇺🇦💙 #StandWithUkraine (@ClaireCopperman) March 22, 2022

Thanks Mark, great work and visuals, unsurprising results but a great confirmation of what we all suspected. 😘

— McNaughty 🇪🇺🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿⭐️💙🖤3.5% #JohnsonOut (@susiemcnaughty) March 22, 2022

This thread is astounding. It’s also proof that what was said about Brexiters was correct: that many of them *are* racist, xenophobic, reactionary bigots. https://t.co/meJ23YEQ24

— Miffy (@miffythegamer) March 22, 2022

This is really brilliant. Well done x

— Laura Kuenssberg Translator (@BBCLauraKT) March 22, 2022

READ MORE

This anti-vaxxer explained freedom of speech and everyone’s irony meter exploded

Source Twitter @marcowenjones