A Facebook group set up to place pressure on the Icelandic government to accept more refugees has come under heavy attack by foreign racists and xenophobes. The local news site visir.is reports that the page has come under sustained attack by foreign racists who flood it with hate-speech and xenophobia.
Bryndís Björgvinsdóttir set up the page last week, as a forum where ordinary Icelanders can offer refugees a place to stay or other help and place pressure on the government to accept more refugees this year.
Ordinary Icelanders offer to feed, clothe and house refugees
On Sunday Bryndís Björgvinsdóttir created a Facebook event addressed to the Minister of Welfare Eygló Harðardóttir, “Dear Eygló Harðar – Syria is Calling” to collect offers of help to Syrian refugees. Over 14,000 people have joined the event and more than a thousand people have used the event to make offers of help, including everything from money, clothing or food to housing and airline tickets.
Related: Icelandic crowdfunding campaign to help a Syrian refugee goes viral
Several of those who have offered to support refugees have told Iceland Insider they simply want to do their bit to help solve the humanitarian crisis. Others have added that they wish to prove that Iceland can do more. A common refrain by those who have opposed calls to accept more refugees has been that Iceland is already doing as much as it can, and that Icelanders cannot afford to accept more than 50 refugees this year.
International attention
The campaign has generated considerable attention, both in Iceland and abroad. International media has covered the campaign extensively. The Guardian, The Telegraph and Time have all covered the campaign. Bryndís Björgvinsdóttir, who is an author and adjunct professor at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts, told the local news site visir.is that she does not have time to answer all requests for interviews from foreign media.
More seriously, though, she has been forced to recruit a number of friends to help delete racist messages and hate speech from the Facebook event.
Related: The Icelandic Pagan Association receives hate-mail from reactionary pagans abroad
Racist spam and hate-speech
Bryndís told visir.is that she is categorically opposed to censorship in any form, but that she was forced to take action to ensure the Facebook wall of the event did not drown in spam or hate-speech.
“I have eight good friends of mine helping me keep hate-speech at bay. I have noticed that people are sharing the event and news coverage of the campaign in European racist discussion groups, and what they are really doing is to attack the page. It has become so intense it feels like spam which threatens to take over the page.”
Bryndís told visir.is that they only remove messages which are clearly not intended as a contribution to the discussion of the topic at hand and contain attacks on specific groups. But despite the racist attacks on the page the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
“The original intention was to collect possible offers of assistance and create a forum to think and discuss what could be done to increase the number of refugees Iceland accepts from fifty, to something more, whatever that final figure will be. I think we have achieved that goal; we have many good ideas and offers and we have created a great deal of pressure on the authorities. But now our campaign is morphing into some global phenomena.”
Bryndís added that she will continue the campaign and keep the page alive in the hope that it will have an international effect and help sway public opinion.
A Facebook group set up to place pressure on the Icelandic government to accept more refugees has come under heavy attack by foreign racists and xenophobes. The local news site visir.is reports that the page has come under sustained attack by foreign racists who flood it with hate-speech and xenophobia.
Bryndís Björgvinsdóttir set up the page last week, as a forum where ordinary Icelanders can offer refugees a place to stay or other help and place pressure on the government to accept more refugees this year.
Ordinary Icelanders offer to feed, clothe and house refugees
On Sunday Bryndís Björgvinsdóttir created a Facebook event addressed to the Minister of Welfare Eygló Harðardóttir, “Dear Eygló Harðar – Syria is Calling” to collect offers of help to Syrian refugees. Over 14,000 people have joined the event and more than a thousand people have used the event to make offers of help, including everything from money, clothing or food to housing and airline tickets.
Related: Icelandic crowdfunding campaign to help a Syrian refugee goes viral
Several of those who have offered to support refugees have told Iceland Insider they simply want to do their bit to help solve the humanitarian crisis. Others have added that they wish to prove that Iceland can do more. A common refrain by those who have opposed calls to accept more refugees has been that Iceland is already doing as much as it can, and that Icelanders cannot afford to accept more than 50 refugees this year.
International attention
The campaign has generated considerable attention, both in Iceland and abroad. International media has covered the campaign extensively. The Guardian, The Telegraph and Time have all covered the campaign. Bryndís Björgvinsdóttir, who is an author and adjunct professor at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts, told the local news site visir.is that she does not have time to answer all requests for interviews from foreign media.
More seriously, though, she has been forced to recruit a number of friends to help delete racist messages and hate speech from the Facebook event.
Related: The Icelandic Pagan Association receives hate-mail from reactionary pagans abroad
Racist spam and hate-speech
Bryndís told visir.is that she is categorically opposed to censorship in any form, but that she was forced to take action to ensure the Facebook wall of the event did not drown in spam or hate-speech.
“I have eight good friends of mine helping me keep hate-speech at bay. I have noticed that people are sharing the event and news coverage of the campaign in European racist discussion groups, and what they are really doing is to attack the page. It has become so intense it feels like spam which threatens to take over the page.”
Bryndís told visir.is that they only remove messages which are clearly not intended as a contribution to the discussion of the topic at hand and contain attacks on specific groups. But despite the racist attacks on the page the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
“The original intention was to collect possible offers of assistance and create a forum to think and discuss what could be done to increase the number of refugees Iceland accepts from fifty, to something more, whatever that final figure will be. I think we have achieved that goal; we have many good ideas and offers and we have created a great deal of pressure on the authorities. But now our campaign is morphing into some global phenomena.”
Bryndís added that she will continue the campaign and keep the page alive in the hope that it will have an international effect and help sway public opinion.
