coverage, which in turn drove more people to the Facebook page and to the EDL’s website.
While Tommy was charging up and down the country on monthly demonstrations, Paul was drifting: taking drugs and partying, for the most part. One day in the summer of 2010, he received a Facebook update when a friend ‘liked’ the English Defence League’s page. ‘I’d never heard of them until then,’ he tells me. ‘But something about the name piqued my interest.’ He wanted to learn more, so he too clicked ‘like’, and began to receive daily updates about this new movement.
Like Paul, anyone could simply click to join the Facebook group, and click to leave just as easily. But more were joining than were leaving, and many wanted to do more than ‘like’. Soon enthusiastic supporters were setting up their own EDL pages and groups, keen tostart local chapters and arrange their own demonstrations. Although the leadership decided to impose a more formal structure on the rapidly expanding organisation in 2010 – dividing up the management and administration along area-based and thematic divisions – it remained a uniquely loose, decentralised and flexible movement.
But this type of membership model has downsides. By late 2012, initial enthusiasm among the rank and file waned, as members realised long-lasting political change takes more than online chatter and weekend demonstrations. And with such a changeable hierarchy, the group quickly split into several warring subgroups and factions. By early 2013, the EDL was on the verge of implosion. Tommy (who by this point had spent time in jail for breaching bail conditions that forbade him from attending demonstrations) was exhausted, inundated with death threats and ready to quit. Then, on the morning of 22 May 2013, a British soldier called Lee Rigby was murdered by two radical Islamists in broad daylight in the middle of a busy south London street. In the weeks that followed, the group’s online support increased dramatically, and Tommy found himself all over the mainstream media. He couldn’t leave.
Admins and Mods
Soon after Paul joined the EDL’s Facebook page, he began interacting with other members and posting comments. fn2 His frequent, articulate and aggressive contributions were getting him noticed by the senior members who ran the page. A few weeks later he wasinvited to join a secretive Facebook group of hard-core EDL members, operating under a cover name. Shortly after that, he was asked to become a moderator or ‘mod’ of a page dedicated to outing Islamist extremists. It was a big step up for Paul. Before he knew it, he was a part of something.
Whether it’s a closed or open forum, someone needs to control the chaos and regulate the tone of conversations. It’s an important role, because you have power to ban users, and delete or edit other people’s posts. By early 2012, over 1,000 people were part of the group Paul administered. Not only did Paul have a voice and a platform, but also an increasing level of power and responsibility. ‘I loved it,’ he said. ‘I’d be on there for hours – posting, monitoring, editing.’
Running Facebook groups and Twitter accounts is an extremely important position in a nationalist group. When Lee Rigby was murdered, Tommy immediately contacted the members who ran the group’s social media pages. He asked the administrator of the EDL Twitter account to put out a call to arms. At around 6.30 p.m., an announcement was made:
EDL leader Tommy Robinson on way to Woolwich now, Take to the streets peeps ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
Hundreds of people retweeted the message, spreading it to thousands of others. EDL supporters quickly started to gather in south-east London.
The EDL’s Twitter administrator is a polite sixteen-year-old girl named Becky. As of writing, approximately 35,000 people follow her regular updates about important stories, information aboutdemonstrations, propaganda and encouragement she posts on the
While Tommy was charging up and down the country on monthly demonstrations, Paul was drifting: taking drugs and partying, for the most part. One day in the summer of 2010, he received a Facebook update when a friend ‘liked’ the English Defence League’s page. ‘I’d never heard of them until then,’ he tells me. ‘But something about the name piqued my interest.’ He wanted to learn more, so he too clicked ‘like’, and began to receive daily updates about this new movement.
Like Paul, anyone could simply click to join the Facebook group, and click to leave just as easily. But more were joining than were leaving, and many wanted to do more than ‘like’. Soon enthusiastic supporters were setting up their own EDL pages and groups, keen tostart local chapters and arrange their own demonstrations. Although the leadership decided to impose a more formal structure on the rapidly expanding organisation in 2010 – dividing up the management and administration along area-based and thematic divisions – it remained a uniquely loose, decentralised and flexible movement.
But this type of membership model has downsides. By late 2012, initial enthusiasm among the rank and file waned, as members realised long-lasting political change takes more than online chatter and weekend demonstrations. And with such a changeable hierarchy, the group quickly split into several warring subgroups and factions. By early 2013, the EDL was on the verge of implosion. Tommy (who by this point had spent time in jail for breaching bail conditions that forbade him from attending demonstrations) was exhausted, inundated with death threats and ready to quit. Then, on the morning of 22 May 2013, a British soldier called Lee Rigby was murdered by two radical Islamists in broad daylight in the middle of a busy south London street. In the weeks that followed, the group’s online support increased dramatically, and Tommy found himself all over the mainstream media. He couldn’t leave.
Admins and Mods
Soon after Paul joined the EDL’s Facebook page, he began interacting with other members and posting comments. fn2 His frequent, articulate and aggressive contributions were getting him noticed by the senior members who ran the page. A few weeks later he wasinvited to join a secretive Facebook group of hard-core EDL members, operating under a cover name. Shortly after that, he was asked to become a moderator or ‘mod’ of a page dedicated to outing Islamist extremists. It was a big step up for Paul. Before he knew it, he was a part of something.
Whether it’s a closed or open forum, someone needs to control the chaos and regulate the tone of conversations. It’s an important role, because you have power to ban users, and delete or edit other people’s posts. By early 2012, over 1,000 people were part of the group Paul administered. Not only did Paul have a voice and a platform, but also an increasing level of power and responsibility. ‘I loved it,’ he said. ‘I’d be on there for hours – posting, monitoring, editing.’
Running Facebook groups and Twitter accounts is an extremely important position in a nationalist group. When Lee Rigby was murdered, Tommy immediately contacted the members who ran the group’s social media pages. He asked the administrator of the EDL Twitter account to put out a call to arms. At around 6.30 p.m., an announcement was made:
EDL leader Tommy Robinson on way to Woolwich now, Take to the streets peeps ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
Hundreds of people retweeted the message, spreading it to thousands of others. EDL supporters quickly started to gather in south-east London.
The EDL’s Twitter administrator is a polite sixteen-year-old girl named Becky. As of writing, approximately 35,000 people follow her regular updates about important stories, information aboutdemonstrations, propaganda and encouragement she posts on the
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