“How did you find here?” Yle tracked down a mysterious Telegram account that incited riots in Britain from Finland

7 comments

1. A young Finnish neo-Nazi has acted as a background force in the organization of anti-foreigner riots in Great Britain.

   In Britain , especially last weekend, there were destructive riots. They started when three girls were stabbed to death in Southport. According to the British media, the suspected stabber is a teenager born in Britain from a Christian Rwandan family.

   Riots are planned especially in groups operating in the Telegram application. One of the most famous groups was managed by a Finnish man.

   Yle found out the man’s identity and found him in an apartment building in southern Finland. The administrator is a man in his twenties who runs a pro-Nazi Telegram channel.

   Yle does not publish the man’s name, because he has not been convicted and, according to Yle’s information, is not suspected of any serious crime.

   The Southport Wake Up group had 14,000 members before the group closed. The participants planned attack targets and tactics there.

   The Finnish man gave other members of the group, among other things, instructions for arson. According to the British anti-fascist research group Red Flare, the instructions came from a Russian-Ukrainian neo-Nazi group.

   – Something fun to read, the Finn wrote while sharing the instruction file.

   A screenshot of a message thread where the instructions for the fuel bottle hack are shared.

   In addition, the Finn gave the rioters advice on protecting their identity and participated in a discussion on the selection of targets.

   – I don’t like the fact that there is no clear picture of the situation and management here, he scolds in one of his messages.

   There were other administrators in the group. However, the Finn was quite active and boasted, among other things, that he had “cleaned out the Jews” from the group in his role as administrator.

   Proclaimed the destruction of the Jews in voicemails
   The Finn who managed the riot group has had his own channel spreading Nazi ideology in Telegram for years. He founded it in 2020, when he was still a minor.

   The man says on his channel that he does not encourage people to commit violence or terrorism. At the same time, however, he urges “to destroy the accursed Jews”.

   He presents himself as a National Socialist and publishes idealistic posts about Adolf Hitler . In one video, he moves around the Helsinki synagogue.

   – We are tired of explaining to you why we want national socialism, he says in one of his voice messages.

   A sample of a speech published by a Finnish man on Telegram, where he defends National Socialism.
   The man’s Telegram channel has more than 300 followers from different countries. In addition, he has accounts in services such as Gab and Odysee. He has had at least five accounts on his former Twitter.

   In addition to Nazi material, he has published, among other things, Hamas propaganda videos.

   The riots in Southport seem to have brought influence to the young Finnish neo-Nazi. Through them, he has been able to distribute extremist material to a many times wider audience.

   The police suspected a crime
   According to Yle’s information, he has not been convicted of any serious crime.

   At the turn of 2021, however, he said on Telegram that he was the subject of a police investigation. According to the man, the police suspected him of preparing a serious crime against life or health and confiscated hard drives from his home.

   According to Yle’s information, the investigation has not led to an indictment. The investigation has been recorded in the records of the police and the district court under the milder title of illegal threat.

   “How did you find here?”
   When Yle’s reporter Tuomas Rimpiläinen arrives at the man’s door to ask for an interview, nothing happens at first. After a long wait, a young man opens the door.

   He does not directly acknowledge the connection between himself and the label that ran the Southport Wake Up group. However, he admits that he was an active member of the riot group.

   – Probably, he says.

   – How did you find here?

   A couple of hours earlier, he has urged his followers to make baseless crime reports in order to overwhelm the English police.

   Police and protesters on the street in London.

   The man says he anticipated that the activities in the Telegram groups created around the riots would arouse the interest of the authorities.

   – I thought there would be something to talk to the police about or something like that. I’m ready for it.

   The conversation at the door lasts ten minutes. The man is polite, but peeks around. He wants to know if there are any police officers nearby.

   The man does not want to discuss what he is aiming for with his actions.

   – Doesn’t bring anything to mind.

   Do you feel that because of your writings, you are partially responsible for the damages that the riots lead to?

   – I wouldn’t say yes.

   We ask him once again to come out and justify his actions in an interview. He refuses.

   – Not now. Some bad clothes on, hair like shit.

   The man thanks for the visit, shakes hands and closes the door. Shortly after the meeting, he continues on his Telegram channel. He publishes a “fun test” for his followers: how anti-Semitic are you? He gets a result of 92/100.

   In England, inciting riots is going to court
   After the Southport stabbing, false information about the incident spread to the public, fueling protests. Among other things, the perpetrator was claimed to be an asylum seeker and a Muslim.

   Russia’s involvement in spreading the rumors has also been suspected, but this BBC investigation, for example , found no evidence of that.

   On the other hand, the social media groups inciting riots seem to have had far-right actors from outside Britain as active members. The case of the Finnish man is one proof of this.

   Criminal investigations have also been started in England for inciting riots. For example, the Daily Mail reported on Tuesday that an English man would be charged for his Facebook post, in which he urged rioters to destroy a hotel that housed asylum seekers.

2. It’s amazing how warped teenagers become after spending time on 4chan/8chan/9gag etc because it’s not like they pick up this nazi ideology in the playground.

3. Hi astroturfing far right, apparently you’re not awake yet. I’ll post this again as it’s quite impressive the amount of accounts that get banned and suspended from getting riled up and responding to this – you can’t help yourselves!

   Just a reminder to report hate speech to Reddit and where it falls within guidelines, also report it here:
   https://www.report-it.org.uk/reporting_internet_hate_crime

   Guidance here: https://www.report-it.org.uk/reporting_internet_hate_crime

   When you report hate crime online using report-it, you can upload evidence and links, and elect whether or not you would like to be contacted as part of the report. For far right terrorists, for example organising and encouraging violence, this goes to a counter terrorism unit. They are acting on reports and will contact you if you say you’re happy for them to.

   For anyone who is flooded with Reddit Care messages by people who abuse the feature, you can report the message and Reddit will look up who is abusing it and take appropriate action.

   If you’d like to prevent any further Reddit Cares messages being sent to you, you can reply STOP to the Reddit Cares message and this stops all future messages – however this means you can’t report anyone else abusing the feature, which Reddit takes seriously.

   If you get spammed with chat messages, report these too.

   Reddit is absolutely taking action as multiple people who have targeted me because of these links have since been banned or suspended.

   Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences for what you say.

   Report these things. Keep reporting them. It works. Don’t let insidious, weasel worded hate take root.

4. Raises a lot of questions then about the role foreign influencers played in this.

5. >Yle does not publish the man’s name, because he has not been convicted and, according to Yle’s information, is not suspected of any serious crime.

   Can he not be extradited ? Is incitement to riot not a crime in the UK ?

6. Get him extradited and charged with incitement to murder.

7. “We’re nationalists”

   Spends all their time interfering with another country’s politics