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An investigation by Byline Times can reveal that a growing group of Tommy Robinson supporters have formed a violent anti-Islam network which shares downloadable terrorism manuals and has links to established neo-Nazi organisations and a Russian hacker collective.
Emerging online during last year’s riots, when they offered followers £4,000 for every police car they burned, the group (which we will only be referring to as DA) currently has more than 2,500 followers across multiple platforms.
Well-organised and structured, DA operates on TikTok and Twitter as well as several interconnected Telegram channels.
Their TikTok page contains videos announcing their presence at Tommy Robinson rallies, offering followers money for acts of civil disobedience and promoting their Telegram group.
DA’s Telegram network also includes a music channel, a chat group and an online ‘library’ of PDFs including the Anarchist’s Cookbook, a bomb making manual, and instructions for assembling home-made firearms.
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While their music combines lyrically-challenged sentiment with ‘rousing’ instrumentals, it is in the chat room where their true mission becomes apparent.
Most recently DA have offered followers the chance to win £100 for sharing videos of themselves spray-painting anti-Muslim graffiti on a mosque. Apparently keen to keep their followers out of prison, they recommend wearing face-coverings while doing this. Most of their members appear to be conscious of their own safety and operate anonymously online, however there are a few who use their real names and profile pictures.
Martin Shadbolt is one of these. A 72 year old retiree and former soldier, Shadbolt and another member recently shared tips on how to make Molotov cocktails, with Shadbolt recommending the addition of sugar because it “makes the liquid stick to things, especially clothing and skin”.
Images on Shadbolt’s Telegram profile suggest that he is sympathetic to the ideals of the British Free Corps (a unit of the Waffen-SS during World War II) and is also a member of long-standing Nationalist group the British Movement.
Active since 1968, the British Movement hosts its own network of Telegram channels and has historically been linked to racist violence and paramilitary training activities. A number of DA’s Telegram posts have been shared by the British Movement and a member of both groups has advertised DA in the comment section of pro-Tommy Robinson youth group Students Against Tyranny (SaT).
While SaT publicly shy away from violent rhetoric and Robinson often leaves his own rallies before violence breaks out, his supporters are less cautious. Robinson’s ‘right hand man’ Danny Tommo appeared on YouTube during the riots claiming that “every city has to go up” and it is clear that DA shares this sentiment.
When asked about his involvement with the group and recommendations for lethal weapons, Shadbolt told Byline Times: “Anyone who served in the military will have knowledge about petrol bombs, especially if they served in the Northern Ireland conflict.
“My reasons for my interest in some Telegram Groups are my own business, which brings this communication to an end.”
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As well as challenging members to deface mosques, DA also hosts a private channel dedicated to stirring up hatred for Muslims.
Accessible only by invite link, it shares graphic videos of beheadings, stabbings and rapes attributed to “the enemy”. Referring to the presence of Muslims in Europe as a “black plague”, DA recently joined forces with a far right European Telegram channel which calls for “mass remigration” and shares videos of themselves burning the Quran.
Our investigation revealed an active member of this channel to be a man named Christian Lang.
Associated with Neo Nazi faction Der Dritte Weg (The Third Way), image searches showed Lang attending a protest outside a courthouse where one of their members received a six year prison sentence for ‘terrorist activities’.
According to Endstation Rechts– a German anti-extremist group – these included the accused having the components of a “gas bomb” made “according to instructions in the book The Car Bomb”. This manual is one of many hosted in the DA online library.
Lang did not respond to requests for comment.
Attempting to identify the leaders of DA led us to pro-Russian hacker collective Youth of the Saboteur. Both DA and YoS share a logo, which our image searches have not found anywhere else, a key component of which is a stylised version of the Slavic symbol for the god of the underworld. DA have also liked a number of posts on the YoS Telegram channel recommending psychological warfare (PsyOps) techniques.
Russian interference with European politics has been an issue for several years, as have the Russian Government’s links to the European far right. Whether DA are directly controlled by YoS or simply fans of their rhetoric is not known, but their shared dedication to real-world action is concerning.
Speaking to Byline Times about the role of tech platforms in spreading extremism, Wendy Via of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism said that X owner Elon Musk’s role as a “hero to young men…is a very frightening thing” and that, by calling Robinson a political prisoner, he was “legitimising Robinson’s actions and allowing his extremism to spread”.
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Via added that this type of narrative creates “a sort of growing agreement that ‘Muslims are bad’…which leads to a rise in hate crimes and a general acceptance of bigotry”. Referring to Musk as an influencer, Via noted that he and others like him are now driving political narratives and said that he is a “very smart man…[who is] intentionally using his platform to encourage far right and extremist thinking globally.”
In terms of what can be done to prevent this, Via said that researchers in the US are “relying on the Digital Services Act”, which has been adopted by the EU to regulate the content of large digital platforms, but that she believes Musk and Trump will “bully the EU into not enforcing, or reducing some of the regulations that came with it”.
In the UK this regulation comes as part of the Online Safety Act which will allow police to regulate (among other things) online communications. There are also a number of anti-terror laws which cover the ownership and dissemination of the manuals in the DA library. Whether this will be enough to deter their followers from acting upon them remains to be seen.