Midlands neo-Nazi guilty of sharing extreme racist and anti-LGBT hate online

May 12, 2023 Article

Today (April 12), a Midlands-based white supremacist pleaded guilty to stirring up racial and anti-LGBT+ hatred by sharing over 130 extremist images and materials on the Russian social media platform VKontakte (VK).

Richard Osborne, 53, often posted graphic, dehumanising racist materials on his VK profile – ranging from Holocaust denial and trivialisation, anti-Jewish and anti-Black cartoons published on an infamous US-based white supremacist website in the early 200s, to content calling for the violent removal of Muslim, Jewish, and Black communities from the UK and Europe, our investigation unearthed. Other disturbing posts linked Muslims to bestiality.

Osborne, who uploaded photographs of his membership card for the neo-fascist National Front, further shared violent LGBT+ content, calling for their violent removal from Europe.

On September 4, 2021, he shared a video promoting the banned neo-Nazi terror group National Action that propagated the racist myth of a so-called “white genocide”.

Within this violent, racist and anti-LGBT+ echo chamber, our investigation found that throughout 2021 and after that, Osborne interacted with another convicted white supremacist – 63-year-old David Hutchinson, even lamenting his jailing.

His appearance at Birmingham Crown Court, where he will appear again for sentencing next month, revealed that the offences occurred between February 16, 2022, and January 9, 2023.

Other guilty pleas concerned the possession of a shotgun without a licence and an offensive cosh weapon.

The BBC stated that Osborne appeared before the court via a video link from HMP Wandsworth in south London.

Sentencing will occur at Birmingham Crown Court on June 9.

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Categories: anti-LGBT, Antisemitism, Far Right groups, Neo-Nazi, News, VK

Twitter suspends another white supremacist after Tell MAMA investigation

December 8, 2022 Article

Twitter suspended a white supremacist account a week after Tell MAMA flagged several of their racist tweets.

Tell MAMA remains a trusted flagger on the platform, despite raising concerns previously about the potential direction it may take under the ownership of Elon Musk – owing to concerns about increased racism and hate on platform (which Musk denies).

Tell MAMA received an update today (December 8) confirming the account suspension following our initial reporting on December 1, 2022.

A member of the public flagged the @NoballsBobby weeks earlier, concerned about its racist targeting of the UK’s first minority ethnic prime minister Rishi Sunak, its promotion of Enoch Powell and anti-Muslim conspiracies about a so-called “Islamic takeover” of the Home Office.

Other racialised memes and tropes flagged to us had linked Muslims and refugees broadly to criminality, rape, and child sexual exploitation.
Twitter removed the above examples for breaching its policies on hateful conduct, which cumulatively resulted in a permanent account suspension.

Chillingly, the account propagated the racist conspiracy of a so-called “white genocide” – ideas that inspired various acts of white supremacist terror and violence.

Credit: Twitter.com

This is the second example in recent weeks of how we helped remove high-profile white supremacists from the platform – we previously reported on the suspension of an account that praised the Dover terrorist Andrew Leak.

When reporting such harmful and hateful materials, Twitter allows users to add additional context (280 characters) that might help explain why it breaches such policies. Twitter, however, cautions that it will “guarantee that we’ll take action based on the info provided here” – but it is a step we encourage users to consider when reporting. In addition, as a third party, Tell MAMA is happy to take this step if requested.

The option to add additional context appears towards the end of the reporting form when done via Twitter’s API.

Twitter also provides a more detailed reporting form via its website, allowing individuals to add more context than the API platform allows.

Get advice from our confidential and free helpline on 0800 456 1226. Or through our free iOS or Android apps. Report through our online form. Alternatively, please leave us a WhatsApp message at 0734 184 6086.

The post Twitter suspends another white supremacist after Tell MAMA investigation appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Categories: News, White Supremacy

Neo-Nazi jailed for posting extreme racist materials on Russian social media

October 20, 2022 Article

A 61-year-old neo-Nazi has become the second individual jailed for the extreme racist material they posted on the Russian social media platform VK.

David Hutchinson, from Sutton, pleaded guilty to seven offences of publishing racist material, contrary to Section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986, between December 2020 and October 2021, receiving a three-year prison sentence at Kingston Crown Court.

According to the Evening Standard, Hutchinson sought to recruit other white supremacists to enact racist violence on a street level.

Our investigation of Hutchinson’s social media revealed a broad tapestry of highly violent racist imagery and language, including repeated use of the N-word and the K-word, targeting Black and Jewish communities.

In one noteworthy post that matches the timeline of criminal offences committed, we identified a horrific racist cartoon about Jewish communities drawn from the notorious white supremacist hate site White Aryan Resistance. The author of these racist cartoons created them under the moniker “A Wyatt Man” in 2004 – their true identity remains a subject of much curiosity and investigation. The caption Hutchinson added called for direct violence towards the “K****”. Other content called for the murder of Jewish communities.

Other examples of content identified included racialised, harmful memes about Muslims that included “This is England, not Muslim lands” and a cartoon that invoked the Nazi Holocaust with Muslims depicted in gas chambers. Other anti-Muslim memes compared Islamic beliefs to faecal matter and referred to Muslims collectively as paedophiles. In May 2021, they posted a dehumanising comment about how to “handle a Muzzie rat”. Tell MAMA has long documented how anti-Muslim language amongst the far-right will invoke dehumanising language like “musrat” or “mus-slime”.

A dehumanising and racist post linking Black communities to disease also appeared, as did numerous examples of Hutchinson using the N-word and sharing pro-slavery memes.

Repeated homages to Enoch Powell appeared on their VK account, with calls for people to “wake up”.

Other content included a “straight white pride” meme alongside misogynistic materials (pornographic or otherwise) and conspiracies about Covid vaccines and lockdowns.

Nick Price, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Counter Terrorism Division, said in a statement: “Over a 10-month period David Hutchinson persistently posted these derogatory racist memes on a social media site which he believed consisted of like-minded people.

“His comments went beyond free speech and demonstrated hostility to several racial groups. By his pleas he has accepted they were intended to stir up hatred against those groups.

“Hate crimes have a corrosive effect on society and we will always prosecute where there is sufficient evidence to do so.”

Responding to the verdict, our Director Iman Atta said: “We welcome the conviction of 61-year-old neo-Nazi David Hutchinson. They dreamed of turning their vicious, asinine racist views towards Muslim, Jewish, and Black communities online into violence on our streets.

“Our investigation found extreme racism and homophobia on their VK account.

We cannot stress the importance of flagging such harmful materials to ourselves at Tell MAMA and the police.”

The post Neo-Nazi jailed for posting extreme racist materials on Russian social media appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Categories: CPS, Far Right groups, hate crime, London, News, VK