(New York, N.Y.) — The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) reports weekly on the methods used by extremists and terrorist groups on the Internet to spread propaganda and incite violence. Last week, multiple extreme right Telegram channels celebrated and promoted anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant riots in the United Kingdom. Several white supremacist Telegram channels encouraged disorder, while an X account with almost 60,000 followers encouraged their audience to harass British police departments, news organizations, and politicians online.
Additionally, a Telegram channel for England’s national-level Active Club chapter returned to the platform the same day it was deleted. The admins claimed their channel had 2,800 followers when it was removed on August 5. Three days later, the new channel had almost 5,200 followers.
CEP researchers also found multiple posts on 4chan that encouraged Americans to troll online live chats used by British law enforcement to tie up resources and mock police agencies.
Extreme-Right Celebrates Anti-Muslim/Anti-Immigrant Riots on Telegram and X
Dozens of Telegram channel administrators and chat members celebrated and promoted anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant riots in the United Kingdom, which occurred after disinformation was spread regarding the perpetrator of a knife attack on a dance class for children on July 29 in Southport. Shortly after the deadly assault, where three children were killed and ten other people, including eight children, were injured, users on social media falsely named a Muslim man as the perpetrator. On August 8, law enforcement officers arrested a woman from the Chester area, suspected of “publishing written material to stir up racial hatred.”
Telegram channels affiliated with the white supremacist group Patriotic Alternative highlighted the group’s anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant propaganda activities in the days after the July 29 attack. Mark Collett, the leader of Patriotic Alternative, blamed the British government, police, and media for all violence following July 29, claiming that they were anti-white.
Other prominent extreme right channels praised violence, celebrated the riots, and made a large number of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant posts. On August 5, a white supremacist channel linked to the Active Club movement with over 11,800 subscribers posted a video implying that immigrants were spreading chaos and had to be stopped. The message had over 16,000 views on the main channel and was shared by several other accounts, including a white supremacist channel with over 36,000 subscribers. An alleged British white supremacist channel created in May shared photos and videos of rioters throwing projectiles at police officers and declared, “England lives.” The same channel, which had over 1,400 followers, also posted videos of protesters yelling anti-Muslim slogans and urged their followers not to let the moment “go to waste.” A European neo-Nazi channel with over 30,800 subscribers that mainly posts photos of soccer hooligans and fascist groups made anti-Muslim posts and comments supporting the riots.
Multiple channels also made anti-police posts. A message from an alleged British Telegram channel declaring that “police are now our enemy” was also shared in a European neo-Nazi chat on August 4. On August 2, an accelerationist neo-Nazi Telegram channel with over 13,000 followers dedicated to information and operations security encouraged violence and declared, “It’s time to make police afraid again.”
An extreme right X (formerly Twitter) account with over 36,000 followers repeatedly posted “it’s war” and encouraged abusive online behavior towards X accounts belonging to the British Home Office and local police departments. Two X users, with 3,000 and over 850 followers, respectively, made posts supporting the riots and posted images glorifying the 2019 Christchurch attacker who murdered 51 Muslims. An X account with over 58,000 followers encouraged their followers to harass news organizations, politicians, police departments, and individuals, stating that if their European followers tagged specific individuals, they would attempt to get Americans to participate to avoid any European laws against hate speech.
Telegram post on July 30 supporting British rioters. Screenshot taken on August 8.
Telegram post on August 2 from an accelerationist neo-Nazi Telegram channel that promoted racist anti-immigrant narratives and declared, “It’s time to make police afraid again.” Screenshot taken on August 8.
Telegram Channel for Active Club England Removed, Returns to the Platform, Almost Doubling Followers
On August 5, Telegram removed the main channel for England’s national-level Active Club chapter. The white supremacist group created a new account the same day. In their inaugural post, they claimed that their old account had been removed after accruing 2,800 total followers, including 2,000 followers since rioting in the United Kingdom began. Telegram did not remove the main contact account the group uses for recruitment. On August 8, the new channel had almost 5,200 followers, nearly double the subscribers of the previously deleted account. The channel thanked nine other channels, including two allegedly from the UK, for helping to spread the new link. CEP researchers also located 11 other Telegram accounts that spread the link for the new channel, including Active Club accounts, a pro-Proud Boys media account, and a Telegram channel that spreads antisemitic propaganda videos.
In a post on August 5, the new Active Club channel declared that the British government was on the verge of “total system collapse” and that while the group ostensibly does not endorse violence, it claimed that organizing was necessary to prevent whites from “being scrubbed from existence in the lands of your ancestors.”
4chan, X, and Telegram Users Advocate Trolling British Police Online Chats, Making False Reports
On August 7, multiple threads on 4chan encouraged Americans to troll online live chats used by British police departments as an act of solidarity with far-right British protesters and rioters. 4chan users posted the URLs of at least 23 police departments, including online chat contact forms, encouraging trolling behavior and making false reports to take up resources.
Several X users encouraged the same behavior, including one neo-Nazi account allegedly belonging to a British individual with over 86,000 followers that posted links to police department websites.
Multiple Telegram channels also encouraged trolling and making false reports in chats used by British law enforcement. On August 8, the main channel for the British chapter of the Proud Boys shared screenshots from live chats with the flimsy caveat that their followers should not do it, a common tactic of online propagandists seeking to avoid responsibility.