A group of young white supremacists helped organize riots in Belfast

Within an hour After a horrific knife attack that occurred in Belfast on Monday evening, British far-right activist Tommy Robinson He shared a video of the incident on X, a post that has received six million views. Within hours Elon MuskThe platform owner indicated her approval of a post calling for “Consequences“For politicians.

By Tuesday morning, with X’s support, the video was everywhere, and Facebook groups were as well Organizing protests across Northern Ireland and the UK. Far-right figures in the US and UK continued to add fuel to the fire online, describing 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 vehicles on fire, kicking in the doors of homes they believed were housing migrants, and… And set fire to those houses.

Politicians were quick to do so Musk and Robinson criticizedwho did not respond to requests for comment, for their role in provoking the violence, but what no one seems to have noticed is the role they played. The white supremacist activist club movement And for her Youth Club Suite Not only in fanning tensions, but in advising and organizing the masked youth who led much of the violence.

A WIRED investigation documented how this global network became active within hours of the incident, showing how groups across the United States helped promote the violence in Belfast. The movement is already analyzing how the protests went and using it as a model for others to follow, highlighting the “organization and professionalism” of the participants.

“Active Clubs, the fastest-growing neo-Nazi movement worldwide, never misses an opportunity to exploit tragedy for their own hateful purposes,” says Wendy Via, co-founder and president of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. “The protests in Belfast had not begun before the voices of senior Active Club members served as a support network for the race riots and encouraged their replication in other countries.”

At approximately 10:30pm local time on Monday evening, emergency services were called to the Kinnaird Street area in north Belfast. Shortly after, an anonymous person shared a video online showing a horrific knife attack on Stephen Ogilvy, who was hospitalized with serious injuries to his face and neck, including the loss of his left eye.

Hadi Al-Did, a 30-year-old Sudanese man, was arrested at the scene and has remained in detention ever since. Charged with attempted murder.

After Robinson posted the footage, it quickly gained traction on major social media platforms. US-based X End Wokeness account, which specializes in sharing culture war and outrage content, Screenshot shared From the video, with the caption: “An African immigrant has just tried to behead a white man in North Belfast, Ireland. The video is too shocking to be published.” The post has been viewed more than 16 million times.

Musk posted dozens of times about the incident in the following days, drawing the ire of UK politicians, but beyond major platforms like X and Facebook, other groups were also mobilizing and were more vocal about why they believed a strong response was necessary.

A few hours after the attack, at 2:19 a.m. on Tuesday, a channel appeared on the Telegram app called “White Youth in Revolution” — named after the attack. A phrase used across Active Club and Youth Club shared a screenshot of the video, writing: “Nigger invader just tried to behead a white man in the UK.”

The account typically shares content from Active Clubs in the United States, but due to… Increasing network footprint Outside of America, she has a lot of followers in Europe.