Inside the everyday social media networks where far-right ideas grow

Far-right ideas are gaining ground, not only through party-political systems across the world, but through online dynamics that can be difficult to track.

- Pamela Duncan, Raphael Hernandes, Elena Morresi, Pablo Gutiérrez and Garry Blight

In the summer of 2024, riots broke out across parts of the UK, fuelled by misinformation that spread on social media.

The violent disorder was primarily aimed at asylum seekers and Muslims - including an incident where rioters set fire to a hotel housing migrants - and was widely understood to be far-right activity.

However, the rioting was mostly carried out by local people who weren't members of formal farright organisations. Some of them rejected the far-right label, carrying banners that read: "We're not farright, we're just right." The non-organisational nature of these riots posed challenges for the police: an official review into their response to the riots found that some forces had struggled to categorise rioters who were "drawn to the violence but without any ideology or any shared grievance" within their existing intelligence classifications and requirements for disorder.

In an attempt to understand how far-right ideas spread in a post-organisational, digital era, the Guardian conducted a monthslong data investigation into an online social network comprising three popular Reform-supporting Facebook groups. The three had a combined membership of 267,000 and included members who were charged with online offences relating to the 2024 riots.

What we found was a community bound together by a deep distrust of government and its institutions, whose members trade in anti-immigrant sentiment, nativism, conspiracy and misinformation. Experts say its posts include content that is far-right and extremist, and that such online spaces can play a role in radicalisation.