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.





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Extremist Content Online: Extreme Right Celebrates Anti-Muslim and
Anti-Immigrant Riots on Telegram and X


(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 afterdisinformation
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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 falselynamed
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a Muslim man as the perpetrator. On August 8, law enforcement officersarrested
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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.



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