Within an hour after a horrific knife attack took place in Belfast on Monday night, far-right UK activist Tommy Robinson had shared a video of the incident on X, a post that racked up six million views. Within hours Elon Musk, the owner of the platform, weighed in, agreeing with a post calling for “consequences” for politicians.
By Tuesday morning, supercharged by X, the video was everywhere, and groups on Facebook were organizing protests across Northern Ireland and the UK. Far-right figures in the US and UK continued to pour fuel on the fire online, framing the incident as part of a broader anti-white agenda being perpetrated in Western countries.
By Tuesday evening, violent protests had broken out in Belfast, with masked rioters setting fire to vehicles, kicking in the doors of homes they believed housed immigrants, and setting those homes on fire.
Politicians were quick to criticize Musk and Robinson, who did not reply to requests for comment, for their role in fomenting the violence, but what no one appeared to notice was the role played by the white supremacist Active Club movement and its Youth Club wing in not only stoking tensions, but advising and orchestrating the masked youths who spearheaded much of the violence.
A WIRED investigation has documented how this global network activated within hours of the incident, showing how groups across the US helped promote the violence in Belfast. The movement is already analyzing how the protests played out and using them as a template for others to follow, highlighting the “organisation and professionalism” of those involved.
“Active Clubs, the fastest growing neo-Nazi movement around the globe, never miss an opportunity to exploit a tragedy for their own hateful purposes,” says Wendy Via, cofounder and president of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. “The protests in Belfast had hardly started before Active Club senior voices were functioning as a support network for the racist riots and encouraging replication in other countries.”
Around 10:30 pm local time on Monday night, emergency services were called to the Kinnaird Avenue area in north Belfast. Soon after, a video was shared online by an unknown person which showed a horrific knife attack against Stephen Ogilvie, who was left hospitalised with severe injuries to the face and neck, including the loss of his left eye.
Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old Sudanese man, was arrested at the scene and has since been charged with attempted murder.
After Robinson posted the footage, it quickly gained steam on mainstream social media platforms. US-based X account End Wokeness, which specializes in sharing culture war and ragebait content, shared a screenshot from the video, with the caption: “African migrant just tried to behead a white man in North Belfast, Ireland. Video is too graphic to post.” The post has been viewed over 16M times.
Musk posted dozens of times about the incident in the following days, drawing the ire of politicians in the UK, but away from mainstream platforms like X and Facebook, other groups were also mobilizing and being much more explicit about the reason they believed a strong response was necessary.
Just hours after the attack took place, at 2:19 am on Tuesday morning, a Telegram channel called “White Youth In Revolt”—named after a phrase used across the Active Club and Youth Club movements—shared a screenshot of the video, writing: “Negro invader just attempted to behead a white man in the United Kingdom.”
The account typically shares content from Active Clubs in the US, but given the network’s growing footprint outside of America, it has a lot of followers in Europe.
