Violent protesters identifying as anti-fascist or “Antifa” have harassed various people across the country, demonizing conservatives and particularly those who support President Donald Trump. Activists have bashed people in the head with bike locks, hit their own political allies in the back of the head during protests, and even launched a plot to buy guns from a Mexican cartel to “stage an armed rebellion” at the border, according to an FBI investigation. Despite these attacks and more, journalists with HuffPost, The Guardian, and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) have maintained connections with Antifa activists, a new report revealed.
The SPLC, which makes its mark by following organizations it accuses of being “hate groups,” has taken some flak for refusing to brand Antifa a “hate group.” Perhaps this report explains why.
Eoin Lenihan, a former teacher and current analyst focused on online extremism, announced that his team had “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).”
In a long Twitter thread, Lenihan revealed the results of his study, zeroing in on the 1.65 percent of Twitter accounts most closely connected with Antifa, a total of 962 accounts. Each had a minimum of eight connections with known activists.
After mentioning a few journalists with close Antifa connections and Twitter bios mentioning their anti-fascist affiliation, Lenihan turned to Emily Gorcenski, who “uses Twitter to dox those she deems fascist. Further she created the ‘First Vigil’ website that processes court documents to share the personal information of suspected members of the far right. In cases where people are found innocent (50%), info is still shared.”