Inside rise of far right TikTokers brainwashing kids with anti-semitism and support for HITLER that’s even spooked MI5
AT first glance, she is just like any other teenage TikTok content creator.
But Charlie, who posts as @ducktales2.0, is not sharing fun videos about pop culture, memes or make-up tips with her 17,200 followers.
She promotes shocking far right ideology to a young audience who appear to celebrate holocaust denial and calls to kill immigrants.
MI5 boss Ken McCallum warned “poisonous online extremism” has fuelled a threefold increase in under-18s being probed for terrorism offences in the last three years.
He said 13 per cent of all those investigated by spooks were minors.
And today, a Sun investigation uncovers a wealth of toxic content by teenagers exposing their peers to a cesspit of hate.
Ken said: “Extreme right-wing terrorism, in particular, skews heavily towards young people, driven by propaganda that shows a canny understanding of online culture.
“Anonymous online connections are often inconsequential, but a minority lead to deadly real-world actions.
“We see this in recent convictions of British teenagers. One planned to attack a synagogue. Another posted material that inspired deadly mass shootings in the US.”
UK counter terror policing stats reveal that, in 2022, 20 per cent of all those arrested were under 18. In 2019, that figure was four per cent.
Nigel Bromage, a reformed neo-Nazi who campaigns against hate, reckons it is down to platforms such as TikTok to moderate content.
‘Hatred will fester’
He said: “Instead of taking years to embrace violence, radicalisation can take just months, with people watching and reading lots of pro- violent content online at any time of the day, from anywhere in the world.
“Extremists use lies and misinformation to encourage violence and, unless we act now, that resentment and hatred will only continue to fester and grow.”
Charlie, for example, often used the acronyms “TMD” and “TJD” — far right codes for “Total Muslim Death” and “Total Jew Death”.
We found another user calling themselves “Sir Mosley Oswald” and using fascist Oswald Mosley’s photo as their profile pic.
They claim to be 16 in their online bio.
Posts made by this account include accusations that Muslims cannot be British, and that Christians in Britain are under threat from Jews and Communists.
Experts warn hateful content from teenagers increases the risk other youngsters will be influenced by it.
Psychologist Emma Kenny said: “There’s a marked difference between hearing a radical opinion from someone older, who might be viewed as out of touch, and hearing the same ideas from someone who feels relatable and current.”
Criminologist David Wilson agrees, adding: “They can identify with people who would wear the same clothes, get the same haircuts, listen to the same music.
‘Extremist ideas’
“Young people are just enjoying the joke with other young people — but it’s not just a joke.”
Dr Lewys Brace, an online extremism expert, said: “These users pretend racist, misogynistic, homophobic content is just ‘dark humour’, allowing it to act as a gateway into more extremist ideas.”
And he warned that the way TikTok recommends content, combined with its young audience, is likely to be partly why more kids are being charged with terror offences.
It was recently reported that Nazi speeches were turned into “sounds” on TikTok and used in at least 72,534 posts.
We found one post with over 59,000 likes featuring a Hitler speech set to music.
Elsewhere, we discovered death threats among comments on videos, raking up hundreds of likes.
Footage uploaded by the account @kurdishuk97 showed Asian men on an unknown UK street.
We stand against hate speech and hateful ideologies, including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, and this content was immediately removed for breaching strict guidelines
A TikTok spokesman
One comment said: “Just run them over with a truck”.
Another said: “Nuke this lot.”
After The Sun approached TikTok with these posts and accounts, they were finally taken down.
A spokesman for the platform said: “We stand against hate speech and hateful ideologies, including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, and this content was immediately removed for breaching strict guidelines.
“We regularly train our professionals and update our safeguards to detect hateful behaviour, and remove 91 per cent of this type of content before it is reported to us.”
Over 75 per cent of UK internet users aged 15 to 24 use TikTok, so young people are by far the largest group on the app.
An Opinium poll found it is where one in five kids get their political news.
TikTok’s primary feed consists of videos it recommends, so you do not have to follow anyone to see content.
Dr Brace said the algorithms are designed to drive revenue by maximising time users spend viewing content.
He added: “They’ve found that the best way to make this happen is not just to show the same content, but even more extreme versions.”
Islamic terror threat
MI5 chief Ken McCallum confirmed in a speech on Tuesday that the UK terror threat level remains “substantial”, meaning an attack is likely.
And while extreme right-wing terrorism is heavily skewed towards young people, he warned that the primary threat comes from the resurgence of IS and Al-Qaeda.
He said: “Today’s Islamic State is not the force it was a decade ago. But after a few years of being pinned well back, they’ve resumed efforts to export terrorism.
“Over the last month, more than a third of our top-priority investigations have had some form of connection, of varying strengths, to organised overseas terrorist groups.”
Recent cases of young people involved in Islamic terror offences include 21-year-old Faseh Sajid, who was jailed for three years and nine months after sharing “horrific” beheading videos glorifying IS.
In April, a 16-year-old boy was locked up for seven years after his plot to potentially target the Isle of Wight festival was foiled by cops and the FBI.
Meanwhile, IS convert Matthew King, 19, was caged for life with a minimum of six years in June 2023 for plotting to stab police officers or soldiers.
And drill rapper Al-Arfat Hassan pleaded guilty to possessing chemicals for terrorist purposes after being stopped by police in Heathrow Airport in 2023.
The 20-year-old’s lyrics make references to Islamic State hostages, and he had messaged family: “I just want martyrdom as soon as possible.”