A doctor of philosophy has mapped out social interactions between 58,254 Antifa (anti-fascist) affiliated Twitter accounts and found some interesting links to journalists at prominent news outlets.
The connections were based around an “initial seed” of 16 “self-identifying and verifiable Antifa accounts.”
We mapped the social interactions of 58,254 Antifa affiliated accounts on Twitter based on an initial seed of 16 self-identifying and verifiable Antifa accounts (and Mark Bray who chose not to confirm if he is a member of Antifa but whose book makes a solid case for inclusion). pic.twitter.com/IveYa9hZ1W
— Dr. Eoin Lenihan (@EoinLenihan) May 15, 2019
Dr. Eoin Lenihan found a number of Twitter-verified journalists had connections to other verified accounts that were “openly self-identifying antifascist and an influential member of the Antifa movement on Twitter.”
These included Zach Goldbaum (Viceland), Mary Emily O’Hara (NBC), Kim Kelly (Teen Vogue), Joshua Albert (Medium, The Guardian, The Daily Beast), and Tess Owen (Vice News).
— Dr. Eoin Lenihan (@EoinLenihan) May 15, 2019
The dataset shown doesn’t indicate every connection Lenihan discovered. It only shows 1.65 percent of the 58,254 verified Twitter accounts, giving a total of 962 accounts on display above.
“These were the 1.65% most connected Antifa and Antifa associated accounts on Twitter. Each had a minimum of 8 connections within the initial dataset, most having many more,” according to Lenihan.
Here I just want to focus on those Twitter verified accounts that made it into this dataset of the most connected Antifa and Antifa associated accounts on Twitter. Here you can see them highlighted in green. pic.twitter.com/gqY0Y1kxzg
— Dr. Eoin Lenihan (@EoinLenihan) May 15, 2019
The Guardian
Lenihan said in one of his tweets that Jason Wilson, journalist for The Guardian, wrote a news piece on an intelligence report released by the Regional Organized Crime Information Center (ROCIC). The ROCIC is one of six regional information sharing systems that assist law enforcement in 14 U.S. states with a variety of services.
The ROCIC report was obtained by Property of the People, a non-profit organization that aims to fight “the Trump admin, FBI, & other fascists.”
The report, titled “Antifa/Anti-Antifa: Fighting in the Streets,” described Antifa as an alliance formed between anarchists and communists to fight fascists and white supremacists “by whatever means necessary.”
It also described Antifa’s opposition as “Anti-Antifa,” consisting of “white supremacists, neo-Nazis, white nationalists, Ku Klux Klanners, white identity groups, and a group called the Alt-Right.”
Alt-Right is short for alternative right-wing, which distinguishes itself from “traditional conservatism” or moderate ring-wing ideologies. Instead, they prefer a nation consisting of Europeans or white people that share a hostility for non-whites and Jews, according to the report.
Lenihan accuses Wilson of attacking the ROCIC report in his article using Mark Bray, author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” as one source of criticism. He claims that Wilson uses Bray to “downplay Antifa violence & extremism in The Guardian.”
Mark Bray – also in the top 2% of our dataset – & author of Antifa: The Antifascist Handbook (he donated 50% of profits to the Antifa International Defence Fund) is a recurring Wilson source in his columns. Together they downplay Antifa violence & extremism in The Guardian. pic.twitter.com/nhLLWzIiPW
— Dr. Eoin Lenihan (@EoinLenihan) May 15, 2019
Wilson criticized the ROCIC report for labeling Antifa as “terrorists,” claiming that it was something “many experts disagree with.”
The experts he cited included Bray; Michael German, former FBI agent and fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, a left-leaning law institute; and Shane Burley, author of “Fascism Today: What it is and how to end it.” It also points out that Burley identifies as a writer, filmmaker, and antifascist at the bottom of his book’s description on the Amazon website.
Although the White House officially stated that there is no “mechanism” for designating “domestic terrorist organizations,” Politico reported in 2017 that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) classified Antifa’s activities as “domestic terrorist violence.”
Politico obtained this information from “confidential law enforcement documents” and interviews.
German claimed that framing Antifa as the “antagonists” and Anti-Antifa as a group formed to counter them was “wrong.” Moreover, he explained that it was wrong because far-right groups “incite violence” by putting on “public spectacles” in the first place; implying Anti-Antifa were the provocateurs and the antagonists.
According to the confidential 2016 joint intelligence assessment by the DHS and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a senior law enforcement official that tracks domestic extremists in their state said many street clashes began with Antifa bringing weapons and attacking people, Politico reported.
“These Antifa guys were showing up with weapons, shields, and bike helmets and just beating the [expletive] out of people,” said the official. “They’re using Molotov cocktails, they’re starting fires, they’re throwing bombs and smashing windows.”
Politico reported that the Anti-Antifa members who were targeted by the attacks started responding in kind. They then brought in additional weapons and began committing unprovoked attacks of their own.
The interviews and documents reported by Politico also said that the authorities blamed “anarchist extremists” for instigating attacks on the “police, government and political institutions, along with symbols of ‘the capitalist system,’ racism, social injustice, and fascism.”
“Authorities believed that ‘anarchist extremists’ were the primary instigators of violence at public rallies against a range of targets,” Politico reported.
Huffington Post
Continuing down Lenihan’s long chain of Tweets involving his Antifa-affiliated map, he accuses Christopher Mathias, a senior reporter at Huffington Post, of doxing military personnel under investigation.
Doxing is the practice of researching and publishing an individual’s private information for malicious reasons.
Lenihan said that Christopher Mathias doxed the military personnel currently under investigation due to their alleged ties to a white nationalist group. He did so before he knew whether they were innocent or guilty, according to Lenihan.
At the time of writing he had no idea of their innocence or guilt and as of his pinned tweet, the matter is still only under investigation. How he came to dox these individuals before they were afforded any due process is interesting…
— Dr. Eoin Lenihan (@EoinLenihan) May 15, 2019
Left-leaning news outlet Unicorn Riot obtained messages from a platform called Discord, which has been commonly used by white nationalists to talk to each other, according to Mathias.
Unicorn Riot identified and published those messages as belonging to members of a white nationalist group called Identity Evropa.
Following the publishing, Mathias reported that “anti-fascist” activists scavenged those messages for clues regarding the private information of the members of Identity Evropa.
“It’s a common theme. Mattias [sic] lets Antifa doxers do the heavy work, he does the national level doxing,” Lenihan said.
Doxers Allegedly Paid to Dox
Lenihan claims to have talked to two people who defected from a doxing group that allegedly shared messages with a Huffington Post writer. The identity of the writer was not given.
Here the doxer who claimed he has an @HuffPost journalist on call admits that the individual they are doxing is not a white supremacist or fascist but they’ll give it to the HuffPo writer because it have been incentivised. pic.twitter.com/5dC4Ogmjis
— Dr. Eoin Lenihan (@EoinLenihan) May 15, 2019
Based on the above tweet, whether the individual in question is actually a Nazi or a fascist doesn’t seem to affect the decision to dox.
