How social media is helping the far right spread its hate

Holly Evans and Harriette Boucher report on the protests by locals that have turned Epping into a ‘powder keg’ of unrest

- By Holly Evans and Harriette Boucher

At around 5.30pm on 7 July, Essex Police officers were called to Epping’s High Street following reports that a man was behaving inappropriately towards a teenage girl. Hadush Kebatu, 38, an asylum seeker from Ethiopia, allegedly tried to kiss a schoolgirl as she ate pizza. He has since been charged with three counts of sexual assault.

But the news that he had only arrived in the UK eight days earlier via a small boat quickly took hold on social media, sparking a series of protests that then turned violent, and thrusting the historic Essex town into the heart of an anti-immigration row.

What started as a group of locals voicing their grievances outside the Bell Hotel, which is believed to house asylum seekers, has now escalated into what has been described as a “powder-keg situation”, with fears that it could prompt a wave of riots across the country, similar to those seen last summer.

In the past two weeks, prominent leaders of neo-Nazi groups and far-right organisations have been accused of exploiting the situation by pivoting demonstrations towards violence, with some demanding a “national call for action”. Their weapon of choice? Social media, which the far right have long been known to harness as a tool to spread fear and hate.

Several right-wing activists have rebranded themselves as citizen journalists or political commentators, which has helped them to accrue millions of followers in the UK and across the globe. Joe Mulhall, of the charity Hope Not Hate, says this is dangerous at a time when misinformation online spreads fast and can whip up tensions.