POLITICAL VIOLENCEHow Influencers Indirectly Mobilize Action and Legitimate Violence
Influencers are key mobilisers of collective action, shaping narratives that create urgency, define group norms, and can indirectly legitimate violence without issuing explicit calls to action.
The August 2024 riots across the UK followed a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on 29th July, which killed three young girls and injured several others. Misinformation rapidly spread online falsely claiming the attacker was an asylum seeker or Muslim immigrant. Gatherings, initially framed as vigils, turned violent, with attacks on mosques, immigrants, and police officers.
Social media played a central role in the protests, both through organizational group chats and political influencers shaping narratives around the riots. Influencers are effective mobilisers of (violent) action due to their established follower bases, which readily consume and disseminate content. One-to-many communication forms, such as Telegram channels, enable rapid spread of messages. Beyond direct calls to action, influencers can indirectly mobilize followers by defining group boundaries and norms, influencing who acts in what way while remaining legally protected from incitement charges.
Case Study: Tommy Robinson
Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is a popular far-right influencer and former leader of the English Defense League. Two days before the Southport attack, he was detained under the Terrorism Act at the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally and left the UK upon his release. During the riots, Robinson used his substantial digital presence on X and Telegram to comment on events and criticize government responses.
We explored how Tommy Robinson indirectly mobilized followers to participate in protests and legitimized actions on his Telegram channel, qualitatively analyzing 230 messages and videos from 29th July – 7th August 2024.
Group Identity and Opinion Leadership
Protesters are consistently framed as “the people”, emphasizing the perceived opinion majority status of the ingroup. As protests progress and counter-protesters arrive, ingroup boundaries are narrowed to emphasize existing conflicts: protesters become “the working class” while counter protesters are “communists”, or “Muslim mobs” attack “white people”. This accentuates long-standing group conflicts as well as existential threats to the ingroup.
Child safety and national pride are frequently mentioned values, tying the attack to existing concerns about child safety (a common right-wing dog whistle), as well as existential fears around the survival of the group. Additionally, as riots escalate beyond England, posts celebrate “Catholics and Protestants united in Belfast for the future of their children”, highlighting how traditional divides are transcended to protect children from the ultimate enemy.
