A group of young white supremacists helped organize riots in Belfast

Within an hour Following a horrific knife attack in Belfast on Monday evening, UK far-right activist Tommy Robinson shared a video of the incident on X, a post that has received 6 million views. Within hours, Elon Musk, the platform’s owner, commented on a post calling for “consequences” for politicians.

By Tuesday morning, with X’s support, the video was everywhere, and Facebook groups were 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 setting them on fire.

Politicians were quick to criticize Musk and Robinson, who did not respond to requests for comment, for their role in fomenting the violence, but what no one seemed to notice was the role played by the white supremacist movement Active Club and its youth club wing, not only in fomenting tensions, but also 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 since been charged with attempted murder.

After Robinson posted the footage, it quickly gained traction on major social media platforms. US-based End Wokeness account, which specializes in sharing culture war content and a taste for outrage, shared a screenshot of the video, with the caption: “An African immigrant has just tried to behead a white man in North Belfast, Ireland. The video is too graphic 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.

Just hours after the attack, at 2:19 a.m. on Tuesday, a Telegram channel called “White Youth In Revolt” — named after a phrase used across the Active Club and Youth Club movements — shared a screenshot of the video, writing: “Nigger invaders have just tried to behead a white man in the UK.”

The account typically shares content from Active Clubs in the US, but due to the network’s growing footprint outside America, it has a lot of followers in Europe.