Far-right activists used social media to organise riots across the UK (Picture: Getty Images)
One week on from the horrific stabbing spree in Southport, the country is in flames.
Last Monday, 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, from Lancashire, appeared in court charged with murder and attempted murder after three girls were killed at a children’s dance class in the north-west seaside town.
He is due to appear at Liverpool Crown Court again later this year.
Within hours after the attack, false information about who the knifeman could be was circulating on social media, and far-right groups seized on the momentum to hijack a vigil in memory of the victims the following day to stage a ‘protest’ against Islam, which quickly descended into violence.
By the end of the night, Southport was burning and a wave of fascist street violence had swept the country.
Yet despite wanting to give the impression of a spontaneous outburst of anger, this week’s activities have been anything but.
An investigation by Metro.co.uk into the organising tactics of the far-right reveals a sophisticated network of influencers working to seed anti-Muslim and Islamophobic narratives, spread misinformation and stage violent demonstrations in some of the UK’s most vulnerable communities.
Here’s how the far-right used social media to manipulate the Southport attacks to stage a fascist uprising.
Calls for protest were circulated on far-right Telegram channels
Calls for an uprising begun just hours after the Southport attacks
SOUTHPORT
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks in Southport, rumours began to circulate on X that the alleged attacker was a ‘migrant’ on the ‘MI6 watch list’, who had ‘come to the UK by boat last year’.
The claims were quickly debunked by Merseyside police, but were uncritically amplified by far-right accounts claiming to be ‘news outlets’. Channel3 News, a fake news account masquerading as an American news channel, falsely named the suspect as ‘Ali al-Shakati’ in a now-deleted article, which was shared by a number of accounts including Russian state broadcaster RT, social media influencer Andrew Tate, and an X account called ‘End Wokeness’, which has 2.8 million followers.
Meanwhile on TikTok, search results for ‘Southport’ recommended ‘Ali al-Shakati arrested in Southport’ as a suggested query that ‘Others searched for’. Through these recommended algorithms, the falsehood spread even after the police had confirmed the name was incorrect.
Far-right activist Daniel Thomas, aka Danny Tommo, was among the first to call for action in Southport (Picture: AFP)
One of the first to call for direct action was Daniel Thomas aka ‘Danny Tommo’, a far-right activist previously considered to be Tommy Robinson’s ‘right-hand man’ who posted an eight-minute clip on YouTube on July 29 in which he told followers: ‘We have to hit the streets. We have to make a huge impact all around the country. Every city needs to go up everywhere.’
He added: ‘What are we going to do? Wait until one of our kids is gone? Wait until our kids are attacked? It has to go now. We have to literally mobilise.’
The clip was soon reposted on Twitter by far-right influencer Lord Simon, where it has been viewed over a million times.
TELEGRAM
Far-right Telegram channel incited racial hatred
Muslim centres throughout the country were targeted
Following the announcement, a now-deleted TikTok account created specifically to advertise a protest in Southport emerged on July 30, and posted a number of videos calling for support, which received tens of thousands of views, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) reported.
The account’s videos, which called for ‘mass deportation’ and included a number of neo-nazi symbols, were soon screenshotted and disseminated on Telegram, a messaging platform favoured by far-right activists and conspiracy theorists.
Although the Telegram channels have relatively small subscriber numbers, they are used by a number of prominent far-right activists, many who struggled to keep an online presence after being repeatedly banned from X.
Within hours of being posted on these far-right channels, most notably two named ‘Southport Wake Up’ and ‘Enough is Enough’, posters calling for action on July 30 had spread like wildfire on TikTok, Snapchat and X.
Posters from Telegram were shared on Twitter, TikTok and Snapchat
Riots took place across the UK in the aftermath of the Southport attacks (Picture: Joel Goodman/LNP)
Although it is not known who actually organised the demonstration, anti-racism research group Hope Not Hate claims the earliest known mention comes from a Telegram user named ‘Stimpy’, the founder of the ‘Southport Wake Up’ channel who was the first to encourage people to gather at the mosque on St Luke’s Road at 8pm on Tuesday.
On July 30, ahead of the protests, one of the posters titled ‘Enough is Enough’, bearing a handprint and a silhouette of figures holding hands, was shared by a known-far-right activist with links to Patriotic Alternative (PA), a proscribed neo-Nazi organisation considered to be the successor to the British National Party (BNP).
Members of PA were also identifiable in footage taken at the eventual demonstration.
Telegram groups disseminated racist content to their followers
AFTERMATH
Others who shared Stimpy’s calls for protest included PA’s Welsh Regional Organiser Jeff Marsh, who has several convictions for violent offences, as well as the neo-nazi group British Movement.
But Joe Mulhall, head of research at Hope Not Hate, told the BBC: ‘There’s not been a single driving force’ behind the movement.
‘That reflects the nature of the contemporary far-right. There are large numbers of people engaging in activity online but there’s no membership structure or badge – there are not even formalised leaders, but they are directed by social media influencers. It’s like a school of fish rather than a traditional organisation.’
He added: ‘The language is coming from far-right individuals but the organisation is much more organic.’
There have been calls for further acts of violence
‘There are local Facebook groups emerging. They take the lead from the influencers and pass the information around locally. The weather is made on Twitter, but the organising happens elsewhere.’
Following the riot on July 30, more ads calling for anti-Islam demonstrations began to spread on local groups, which were collated and shared on the Southport Wake Up channel. Calls to attack a mosque in Liverpool for ‘Round 2’ were posted by the channel’s admin the next day, along with similar posters advertising a demo in Manchester city centre.
The ‘Southport Wake Up’ group is still active, and following this weekend’s outbursts of violence has posted calls for similar disruptions at Muslim centres and immigration offices in 40 cities across the UK this week.
In an address to the nation, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer condemned the ‘far-right thuggery’ of the rioters, and told those involved ‘we will find you.’
Telegram and TikTok have been contacted for comment.
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