Far-right channels promoting white supremacy, anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry on a popular encrypted messaging platform are seeing a steady growth in followers.
The news comes after recent warnings by United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres that far-right extremism should be considered a transnational threat.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has also warned of an increase in right-wing extremist activity in recent years and an Australia Day outing at the Grampians by members of the National Socialist Network was a stark reminder that groups advocating anti-Semitism and theories of Aryan supremacy promoted by Adolf Hitler still exist.
Appearances by members of local chapters of the Proud Boys — a group dedicated to Western chauvinism — at various protests have also raised concerns.
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There is evidence that both organisations are experiencing a growth in interest in their worldviews, but one is getting greater traction online: the number of Telegram users following the National Socialist Network channel — created on January 8 last year — rose by 304 over a 10 day period.
A jump from 3285 on February 12 to 3417 on February 15 coincided with the weekend of the third Victorian lockdown — but that may not offer a complete explanation for the increase in interest in Nazi ideology, as the identities and locations of those who join a public channel are not visible.
Channel users gradually increased to 3589 by February 22.
Contrast this with its presence on Gab, an online platform that has less stringent moderation than Twitter and Facebook. The National Socialist Network’s profile was also created in January 2020 but has attracted only 360 followers over the same period.
The public face of the National Socialist Network, Thomas Sewell, regularly publishes to his personal Telegram feed — created in June 2020 — and this is being read by 4283 followers as of February 22. That represents an increase of 480 followers over seven days.
There is also a preliminary insight into how groups with similar ideological backgrounds help each other build an online following.
One group spreading extreme right views had 1141 people following its public channel on February 17, but its numbers increased to 1988 by February 22 after a post by the National Socialist Network encouraging its audience to join that page.
The Proud Boys Australia account — established in August 2019 — tells a different story when it comes to the growth of an online following on Telegram. It recorded 934 followers on February 22, representing an increase of 17 followers since February 16.
There is a Gab account carrying the title Proud Boys Australia that was established in August 2018. It has 420 followers but only four posts. Three of those posts bear the date August 3, 2018 and the account has been dormant since.
Newer Proud Boys accounts for chapters in NSW and Victoria have been established on Telegram over the past two months and their user numbers tell a similar tale.
Proud Boys Victoria, which was established on January 31, had 322 followers on February 22, an increase of 15 over seven days.
Proud Boys NSW, which was only created on February 6, had 121 followers on February 22 — up from the 109 seven days earlier.
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I am flabbergasted that Jewish LNP parliamentarians such as Friedenberg, Shama and the Trade Minister are not active in moving to clamp down on these Nazi activists.
They have their eyes on the trade union movement – profits for private enterprise more important than anti semitism as they probably don’t see it yet as a social danger.
Sharma is not himself Jewish, though he apparently suggested moving our Israeli embassy to Jerusalem.
This government won’t ban right-wing extremists, if it did it would have to ban itself.
To slightly change the topic, I stopped reading the Guardian over its pursual of Jeremy Corbyn for alleged anti-Semitism. It is unbelievable that with all these proper right-wing groups agitating and advocating violence against Jews, that Corbyn should have his campaign so relentlessly attacked for being an anti-Semite.
Of course, the pro-Israel lobby hated Corbyn’s stance on Palestine, and the hypocritical Guardian could not stand Corbyn’s Fabian social democracy. But at some point, you have to call bullsh*t and wonder whether they would all prefer the National Front marching down their streets waving union jacks and beating Jews.
I no longer trust the Guardian because it is hypocritical and full of fake commitment to progressive causes.
The Guardian was founded by, among others, CP Snow, an ardent Zionist. Murdoch is an ardent Zionist. Interesting times ahead as the gutter press will react against AS just as much as the apparently liberal press.
Thank you – exactly my belief and my disgust with the Guardian.
The Guardian is also awful and ignorant on anything to do with Latin America and progressive movements and governments over there.
Spot on. Anti Israel (ie a political state) is not antisemitism (ie clear racial prejudice).
I am sure that quite a few members would be also affiliated (unknowingly) with ASIO. Unless our economy goes down the toilet, I don’t think these groups will amount to much more than a branch office of a biker club.
In any case, they are a good antidote to the threat of young Muslim boys being raided and arrested for having a kitchen knife at home or children being kept in detention by ex cop politician’s.
Watching the fraying deterioration of the edges of civil society, I often wonder what it would have been like around the rise of the brown shirts, black shirts and whatever other coloured shirts were all the rage. Because I don’t think there’s the soap been invented that is going to wash this staining away.
And what it would have been like if they’d had social media, the sort of cameras and such, that we have today, back then.