UK riots: Who are far-right groups organising over Telegram, Facebook, X, TikTok? What you should know

UK Southport stabbing case riots: The United Kingdom's worst rioting in 13 years took place over the past few days after three girls were killed in a stabbing attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport. The rioting in Southport and other northwestern areas of Britain, which UK PM Kier Starmer called "far-right thuggery", was organised by far-right fringe groups on social media and chat apps like Telegram.

These far-right groups and influencers fuelled online rumours that the killer of the children was a Muslim or migrant. That was factually incorrect, but by the time it was verified, the rioters had run amock first in Southport, and later in several parts of UK including London, Hartlepool, Manchester and Aldershot.

The fringe groups and self-proclaimed 'influencers,' with mainly white supremacist, anti-migrant and anti-Muslim ideas, have been resurrected after Starmer became the first Labour PM in nearly two decades after a long and raucous Conservative rule. Many of the far-right groups and influencers had been banned earlier from social media platforms, but found oxygen now after sites like Elon Musk's X revoked the bans.

The rioters and protesters are a ragtag group of far-right factions and their supporters, soccer fans and anti-Muslim campaigners, according to a report by New York Times.

What happened at Southport? The stabbing incident

On 29 July, a children’s dance and yoga class themed around Swifties- fans of American musician Taylor Swift- was targetted in a knife attack in Southport. Three girls died. Eight other children and two adults were injured. Two of the girls – Bebe King aged six and Elsie Dot Stancombe aged seven, died on the spot while the third one, Alice Dasilva Aguiar aged nine, died in hospital the next day.

How the rioting happened in Southport and spread to other cities

By July 30, hundreds of people descended on Southport via buses or trains from other parts of Britain. They attacked mosques and injured at least 50 cops, looted property and set vehicles on fire. The riots spread in London on July 31. At least 100 people were arrested. Violence broke out in other cities and towns such as Manchester, Hartlepool and Aldershot. By the end of the week, similar riots were reported from Sunderland and Northumbria. This past weekend, more violence took place in Hull, Leeds, Nottingham, Stoke-on-Trent,  Belfast, and Liverpool. A hotel believed to be housing asylum seekers was also targeted by the rioters who pelted stones.

Watch | UK riots linked to misinformation about Southport stabbing?

Disinformation: Was the Swifties knife attack killer a migrant?

Ahead of the riots, a false rumour was spread online that Axel Rudakubana, the culprit in the Southport stabbings, was a Muslim. This led to rioters targeting mosques. In fact, Rudakubana was a Cardiff, Wales-born, Rwandan-origin Christian.

Who are the groups and people behind the riots?

Those who either called for, organised or appeared at the protests and rioting include members or former members of the English Defence League and Patriotic Alternative. But overall, it is a motley crew of people, not a centrally-led group. “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 traditional organisation," BBC Verify quoted Joe Mulhall, head of research at anti-racism research group Hope Not Hate as saying, in a report on the riots.

Here is what you should know about these groups and their leaders and influencers associated with them:

English Defence League 

The English Defence League started in 2009 mainly on an anti-Muslim, anti-immigration plank. EDL is pro-white and xenophobic. Now practically defunct, EDL was founded by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon also known as Tommy Robinson. After parting ways with EDL over ideological and leadership differences, he spent most of the recent years spreading his messages on social media. EDL calls Luton its home, and was reportedly founded in reaction to a group of Islamic extremists there. Luton is also the base of  Al Muhajiroun, an Islamist group that was linked to the 2005 London bombings.

Robinson was earlier part of the British National Party and involved in football hooliganism.

EDL is notorious for organising anti-Muslim protests in opposition to building of new mosques. Some EDL members allegedly put pig heads at Muslim areas.

Also read | PM Starmer offers 'full support' to police as anti-immigrant 'extremists' wreak havoc in UK cities

Robinson left the UK on Sunday, ostensibly to escape a court hearing that could have led to his detention. He had been rebuilding his social media profile since a ban on his X account was revoked in 2023, with at least 800,000 followers now, who liked or shared his posts on Southport stabbing several thousand times.

Other EDL figures like Rikki Doolan, who calls himself a preacher, and Jesse Clarke were at the Southport stabbing protests. Doolan said in a video: “I’m British and proud, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.” Clarke posted videos of the protests from London, saying: “We’re outside Downing Street now.”

An influencer on X associated with Yaxley-Lennon, who posts under the name of “Lord Simon”, was among the first to publicly call for nationwide protests, according to BBC. He was among those spreading the rumour that the Southport attacker was an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK by boat. “We have to hit the streets. We have to make a huge impact all around the country. Every city needs to go up everywhere,” Simon said in a video.

National Action

National Action is a neo-Nazi group banned by UK government as a terrorist organisation in 2016. Its leader Matthew Hankinson served six years in jail, and was released in 2023. On an X post, Habnkinson said he was “documenting live” the Southport demonstration with videos. He called the situation a “police oppression of peaceful protesters concerned about the murder of white children”. 

Patriotic Alternative

Patriotic Alternative is a smaller, neo-Fascist group associated with the Southport riot.
One of its leaders, David Miles, posted pictures of himself at Southport. “Enough is Enough” is slogan of Patriotic Alternative which was widely used in social media posts ahead of the rioting.

Also read | 'You will regret': PM Starmer issues warning as rioters set fire to Rotherham hotel that housed migrants

How does the far-right in UK organise riots?

Always under the watch of UK security agencies, the far-right groups have used social media posters and Telegram groups to organise the protests and rioting. The violence is first instigated by online influencers, BBC Verify said in its report, while noting that there is "no single organising force at work."

Soon after the Southport attack, hundreds of posts flooded social media sites like X, Facebook, and Telegram groups. The initial posts were soon shared further on TikTok, YouTube and other platforms. 

Posts were also shared by other far-right groups such as the National Front. Users called for a protest on St Luke’s Street in Southport, where the local mosque is located, on July 30. These calls eventually led to the riots.

Several online posters and illustrations promoting the protest were shared on the Telegram channels. Those posters later multiplied on accounts in TikTok, X and Facebook, where they were shared widely.

One such poster asked protesters to conceal their faces, with a call: "No face, no case". Another poster said "Enough is enough", with the main contention that whites were being attacked by migrants. Yet another poster called for “mass deportations,” based on the conspiracy theory that UK's crimes were perpetrated by migrants.

(With inputs from agencies)