The decline of traditional local journalism has left a dangerous void in our communities, one that is increasingly being filled by digital echo chambers. A new report from the Social Media Foundation (SMF) confirms a stark reality: in areas where local newspapers and trusted community news sources have shuttered, misinformation on platforms like Facebook and Nextdoor thrives at nearly three times the rate found in regions with active, professional media. When people lose access to verified, fact-based reporting about their neighborhoods, they don’t stop seeking information; instead, they turn to social media groups where rumors, prejudices, and outright falsehoods are frequently presented as community news. This shift represents more than just a change in how we get our alerts—it is a fundamental erosion of the shared reality necessary for a healthy, functioning society.
The sheer volume of this digital toxicity is staggering. Analyzing over 125,000 posts across X, Facebook, and Nextdoor, researchers found that the content is rarely benign community chatter. Instead, the platforms are being weaponized to amplify hate, with immigration-related misinformation and Islamophobic content topping the list. On X, this is often compounded by alarmist narratives regarding public health, but the overarching theme remains a calculated effort to paint migrants and asylum seekers as an existential, criminal threat to women and children. By framing vulnerable groups—particularly Muslims and refugees—as “the other” or a “demographic threat,” these posts tap into deep-seated fears, transforming community forums into breeding grounds for toxicity and division.
Even more concerning is the sophistication of the technology being used to sustain these narratives. The report highlights that roughly a quarter of anti-migrant content on Facebook—and over a third on X—relies on “replacement” conspiracy theories that falsely suggest an orchestrated effort to dismantle national identity. We are no longer just dealing with angry comments; we are seeing the rise of AI-generated misinformation that is often indistinguishable from reality. From doctored images to sophisticated memes playing on racialized tropes, these tools are being used to depict Muslims and migrants as violent, menacing invaders. Because many users lack the digital literacy to identify these AI fabrications, the falsehoods spread with terrifying speed and legitimacy, convincing neighbors that threats are lurking where none exist.
One of the most insidious aspects of this crisis is how this content moves through our digital ecosystem. The SMF report notes that the vast majority of the fake news identified wasn’t created by the average user; it was curated, repackaged, and reshared from fringe influencers or organized far-right groups. People aren’t necessarily waking up and choosing to manufacture hate; they are being fed it by algorithms and content creators who benefit from outrage. Whether it is anti-vaccine conspiracies circulating on X or xenophobic memes being shared into local Facebook groups, the process is the same: misinformation is moved cross-platform, laundering it through different social circles until it arrives on your newsfeed looking like a familiar, shared concern.
This is a problem we at Tell MAMA have been tracking with extreme urgency for years. Our own research consistently mirrors these findings, revealing how technology is being exploited to dehumanize Muslim men and women. We have documented the alarming trend of content migrating from the dark corners of Telegram—where extremist ideologies flourish—to mainstream spaces like TikTok and Facebook. It is particularly chilling to see these themes packaged as “comedy” on self-styled pages, which use AI to depict acts of violence against migrants and refugees. This is not just harmless trolling; it is the normalization of cruelty, where human lives are reduced to political props in a manufactured culture war that seeks to destroy the fabric of our communities.
The time for passive observation has passed. We can no longer treat online misinformation as a nuisance that will simply go away on its own. We urgently need a coordinated effort, led by government strategy and anchored by robust social media literacy programs, to help citizens of all ages navigate this complex digital landscape. We must demand greater accountability from the tech platforms that profit from this engagement, and we must rebuild our local media ecosystems to provide the objective, factual reporting that communities are clearly starving for. Without a concerted push to teach voters and neighbors how to spot a fabrication, we risk allowing these digital distortions to permanently replace the truth, leaving us in a world where we can no longer speak the same language or trust our own neighbors.