White racists use unrest in Britain as online recruitment campaign

Article content

(Bloomberg) — White supremacist groups have seized on the unrest in Britain as a recruitment opportunity, using the messaging portal Telegram to spread conspiracy theories and incite violence to recruit new members.

Hardline organizations previously designated as domestic terrorists by the UK are calling for the overthrow of the British government in posts titled “The revolution has begun.” Some extremist Telegram users have openly discussed how to exploit anti-immigrant sentiment in the UK to steer Britons into radicalized communities, according to findings from Logically, a UK-based company that tracks online disinformation.

Article content

British authorities are trying to quell unrest fuelled by online instigators following the July 29 murder of three schoolgirls in the British town of Southport. Internet trolls falsely claimed the suspected killer was a foreign asylum seeker, prompting authorities to say the suspect was a teenager born in Cardiff, Wales. A heavy police presence on British streets and the participation of thousands of anti-racism protesters have helped contain violent demonstrations.

“Even though this incident is based on false information about the attacker’s place of birth, it is an easy way for them to provide ‘evidence’ that immigration is a threat,” said Katherine Keneally, director of threat analysis and prevention at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that studies extremism.

Extremists use such arguments to draw sympathetic people into their ecosystem and then try to radicalize those newbies, Keneally said. By slowly introducing recruits to violent memes and racist ideas, they normalize the philosophy of white supremacy. Some novices will then be ready to take action in the real world, say researchers who track terrorism.

Article content

Article content

“By drawing attention to the arrests of rioters, they can also ‘prove’ that the government is also against the whites and is planning this conspiracy to get rid of the whites,” Keneally said.

According to ISD, 16 known Telegram channels and groups have posted, hosted and forwarded anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant content since the unrest began. Researchers found that posts on X and Telegram containing false claims and inflammatory racist content from white supremacist groups were viewed millions of times.

Neither X nor Telegram responded to requests for comment on Friday. A Telegram spokesperson had previously said that the site’s moderators would remove calls for violence.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned on Friday that social media platforms are “not a lawless zone” and that his government would consider broader regulation. One step would be to revive a key provision of the Online Safety Act that gives authorities more power to clamp down on harmful content, Bloomberg reported.

According to Bloomberg, British authorities are investigating possible foreign involvement in the false online posts about the crime and its aftermath. According to Logically, at least 13 international Telegram channels are focusing on the unrest.

Article content

Neo-Nazi organizers urged their followers to “mask up” and show up at immigration offices across the country, where they can hand out “balaclavas” to other rioters, Logically noted. Users linked to the so-called Atomwaffen Division, a militant group split into small cells that promotes social breakdown and racial conflict, have been planning riots in recent days in locations popular with the Islamic community.

Other U.S.-based channels are also working to spread the news of the unrest, says Bjørn Ihler, founder and CEO of Revontulet, a company that monitors extremist activity. Groups within these Telegram channels are linked to Terrorgram, an online network that distributes instructions on how to commit violence against minority communities.

In April, the British government declared Terrorgram a terrorist organization, making it illegal to join or support the group. Its members have frequently praised notorious figures such as Adolf Hitler online.

A coalition of so-called Active Groups is also spreading Telegram messages about the unrest in the UK to attract new followers. Active Groups are looking for white men who want to improve their mental and physical fitness. Such communities around the world encourage their members to take part in street fights, put up racist stickers in their neighbourhoods with QR codes that direct visitors to Telegram, and post pictures of members holding white supremacist paraphernalia.

Article content

Extremism researchers say the clubs exist to bring new followers into the white supremacist ecosystem and to act as a kind of permanent militia in the event of violent protests or disputed elections.

Active groups

One active group on Telegram posted the message “No more immigration” along with a list of refugee centers that its members could contact. Other active groups based in Canada, New York, the US Midwest and elsewhere have sent messages related to the unrest in the UK, relying heavily on Islamophobic posts and portraying young Muslim men as the aggressors in recent street fighting.

Well-known members of the Terrorgram collective in the US also spread the messages of British extremists, according to Ihler of Revontulet. Such targeted propaganda broadcasts are the result of an informal network of small militant organizations that support each other from different parts of the world, the researchers said.

Neither the FBI nor the U.S. Department of Homeland Security responded to questions about possible concerns about the violence spreading to the United States.

— With assistance from Daniel Zuidijk, Mark Bergen and Ellen Milligan.

Article content