Hours after a deadly knife attack within the metropolis of Southport within the north of England in July final yr, Andrew McIntyre created a Telegram channel referred to as “Southport Wake Up”. Amid posts crammed with anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant abuse, he urged folks to take to the streets, directing them to a mosque and calling for “struggle”.
Mr McIntyre, 39, who starred in two of the several riots that rocked Britain final summer time, it was convicted to seven years in jail final Monday.
He pleaded responsible to selling dysfunction and inflicting legal harm, in addition to possessing a knife. A day after his conviction, Elon Musk, the billionaire tech mogul, lamented Mr McIntyre’s sentence in a submit on his social media platform X, saying: “Over 7 years in jail for social media posts… Whoever gave this sentence , deserves jail alone.”
“I believe it is actually vital to notice right here how excessive the people who Musk is defending and fascinating with in Europe and the UK in latest months,” stated Joe Mulhall, director of analysis for Hope Not Hate, a British charity. primarily based advocacy group that investigates extremism, notably on the far proper.
Whereas Mr. Musk used his platform to broaden Tommy Robinson, Britain’s most famous far-right extremistthe tech billionaire additionally spoke out in favor of lesser-known figures akin to Mr McIntyre. In doing so, Mr Mulhall stated Mr Musk had expressed assist for a neo-Nazi who had beforehand been a member of fascist teams.
Mr. Musk didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Summer time riots adopted lethal assault at a dance class in Southport on July 29, through which a knife-wielding attacker killed three younger women and injured a number of others. The misinformation soon spread on social mediaclaiming that the suspect who was later recognized as Axel Rudakubanais a Syrian asylum seeker who arrived on a small boat, though he was truly born in Wales.
A survey conducted by Hope Not Hate showed that Mr McIntyre used a Telegram account inside hours of the Southport assault to name for violence after which created a TikTok account and a Telegram channel to advertise, calling the latter ‘Southport Awakening’. He shared a submit underneath a pseudonym on that Telegram channel encouraging an indication the following day on St Luke’s Street in Southport, close to the location of the knife assault, and drew a purple circle round a mosque on that street. He added the message “time for 🔥WAR TIME”.
On July 30, a violent mob focused the mosque that Mr. McIntyre had highlighted, and dozens of cops have been injured. Days of unrest rocked Britain over the following week as rioters clashed with police, torched automobiles, attacked mosques and looted companies.
Later, pulling collectively numerous accounts operated by Mr. McIntyre on social media and messaging platforms, Hope Not Hate discovered posts by him on August 3 stating that “Mosques ought to be burned”, and on August 6, calling for the killing of all Jews, Muslims and blacks and including: “White energy.”
His extremism stretches again years earlier than the riots. Mr McIntyre posted a selfie in July 2022 giving a Nazi salute and after his arrest police discovered a replica of ‘Mein Kampf’, Hitler’s political manifesto, in his dwelling.
Merseyside Police, which oversees policing within the Liverpool space, stated Mr McIntyre’s Telegram messages inspired others to have interaction in violent dysfunction and trigger legal harm in Southport. He additionally made different “unsuccessful makes an attempt to trigger disturbances elsewhere,” police stated in a press release.
Mr McIntyre was concerned in riots in Southport on July 30 and in Liverpool on August 3, police stated, and had a knife when he was arrested on August 8.
Detective Inspector Paula Jones, from Merseyside Police, stated Mr McIntyre performed a key position in coordinating the July 30 riot, utilizing social media to encourage folks to journey to Southport and Liverpool to hold out legal harm .
Mr McIntyre’s social media footprint consists of graphic threats of rape and violence towards different customers. “It is also a helpful case research for understanding the hypocrisy on the coronary heart of Musk in terms of discussing Britain,” Mr Mulhall stated. “On the one hand, Mr. Musk is complaining abuse of women by gangs for womenwhereas defending the rights of individuals to make use of social media to ship rape and dying threats to ladies.
Mr Musk’s resolution to reinstate the once-banned accounts of different members of the far proper in Britain, together with Mr Robinson, has considerably boosted their profile and helped unfold extremist ideology, in accordance with teams that monitor the far proper. (Mr. Robinson is he is currently in jail for contempt of courtthough his X account stays lively and supporters submit for him.)
Sophia Gaston, a British political analyst and visiting fellow at King’s Faculty London, stated Mr Musk’s deal with Britain was in step with the MAGA motion’s wider management of the nation. Mr Musk criticized the British authorities and authorities for efforts to fight hate speech and violent rhetoric, portraying himself as a defender of free speech.
“However there’s a distinction between this amplification of voices exterior the mainstream of political life and drawing consideration to those that have been convicted of crimes,” Ms Gaston stated. “In McIntyre’s case, these are usually not false legal guidelines of political correctness that may be interpreted. These are legal guidelines about public order and violence which can be important to the safety of life and property.”
