ExtremismTwitter Suspends Fake Antifa Account Created by White Nationalists to Incite Violence
Twitter suspended a fake account, created by white nationalist group Identity Evropa, which pretended to be affiliated with Black Lives Matter and incited violence. The account called upon African American participants in the protests to use violence against law enforcement and places of business. “Tonight’s the night, Comrades,” one tweet had said, before encouraging users to “take what’s ours.”
Twitter has suspended a fake “antifa” profile on its platform. Twitter said the suspended profile was linked to the white nationalist group Identity Evropa, and that it was suspended for making posts inciting violence during ongoing protests in cities across the United States.
The recently created account, @ANTIFA_US, issued tweets calling for violence and rioting. “Tonight’s the night, Comrades,” the account tweeted. “Tonight we say ‘F—- The City’ and we move into residential areas… the white hoods… and we take what’s ours …”
The post ended with #BlackLivesMatter and #F***America, and the profile’s photo included the antifa logo.
A Twitter spokesperson told NBC News that the fake account was suspended because it violated the company’s platform manipulation and spam policy. Twitter told CNN that the company removed the account after the account “sent a Tweet inciting violence.”
The spokesperson added that Twitter has previously suspended fake accounts linked to the Identity Evropa group.
The antifa movement is an unofficial network of unaffiliated radical left-wing protest groups which promote direct action and confrontation to fight far-right and fascist groups. The group’s name refers to a shortened version of “anti-fascist.”
Antifa has no organization, membership, or leadership, and protesters who call themselves antifa are decentralized, and primarily use social media to organize their actions.
Twitter says that two hashtags, including #DCBlackout, and hundreds of accounts are responsible for spreading misinformation about a “cover-up” and “blackout” of protests in Washington, D.C. The fake accounts had accused internet service providers of censoring news of protests as part of an effort to black out the demonstrators.
“We’re taking action proactively on any coordinated attempts to disrupt the public conversation around this issue,” the spokesperson told NBC.
