Free The Dark Net by Jamie Bartlett

I’ve made to mock the right with.’ Their diverse methods can be quite effective. When it was alleged that the glamour model Katie Price was a supporter of the EDL, Alex managed to get in touch with her and persuade her to publicly deny it.
    If you’re antifa, infiltrating the ‘closed’ groups – those that require permission or passwords to join – is the real prize. To do this, antifas often create fake accounts (or ‘sock puppets’) and pretend to be sympathetic to the EDL cause. Sometimes one person controls dozens of different sock puppets, each with their own personality and affiliations. I spoke to one activist who has spent two yearsworking up his – carefully liking certain pages, posting appropriate comments, building up a friendship network. Most forums and pages – whether EDL or antifa – are drowning in fake accounts. Tommy Robinson told me that almost every EDL group has been infiltrated, ‘by both far-right splinters and left-wing activists’. ‘Do your people infiltrate as well?’ I ask. He looks slightly coy. ‘Well, there might be some people that do that sort of thing, find out what they are saying about us, but I don’t ask them to do it,’ he says.
    In truth, both sides are at it. One Expose group recently outed a far-right sympathiser who had joined over 650 Facebook groups, including hundreds of left-wing and anti-fascist groups. She started by posting messages of support to gain trust among the antifa groups, and then kept a low profile and silently watched, in order to capture information about their tactics and targets. On the other side, infiltration has been an endless problem for the Casuals, a far-right organisation with roots in football hooligan culture. Last year, a ‘Free the Brierfield 5’ (jailed EDL supporters) group was set up by antifa as a trap, and a few enthusiastic Casuals joined it, sharing valuable information. ‘Some of us have learned nothing in three years of being stalked by these online weirdos,’ fumed Joe ‘Stabby’ Marsh at other members on the Casuals’ blog.
    Every time something happens that they know patriots will be angry about, they set up groups to trap people into saying things in anger that they hope they can get you nicked for. If you list where you work, or mention it in convos, they will screenshot you and they WILL ring and email your employer to try and cause you shit.
    The sophistication of some of these groups is remarkable. The Cheerleaders are an unusual mix of Muslims, atheists, fashion models and former soldiers: mostly female, and mostly highly skilled programmers. The closest thing to a leader in this leaderless collective is probably Charlie Flowers, a former punk-rock musician in his early forties who had some sympathy with the EDL at the beginning, but left as the group drifted in a more extreme direction. The Cheerleaders are committed to tackling any type of extremism online. A few dozen of them from all over the world frequently meet in a secret Facebook group to plan their actions. They have also been called ‘cyber-thugs’ by enemies. It’s an unfair claim: although they occasionally act as hired help for causes they agree with, their methods are legal, if a little devious. Charlie has managed to get a few websites shut down by placing a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice on his own webpage, and then waiting for his adversaries to screenshot and use his material without permission – which he instantly reports. They can appeal, of course, but only if they sign a public affidavit with their real names and addresses, which lots of bloggers would rather not do. ‘A potent weapon, if used correctly,’ Charlie told me, chuckling. The strangest of all the ruses I witnessed was a Facebook page set up soon after the murder of Lee Rigby, by someone claiming to be part of antifa. It was called ‘Lee Rigby deserved it’. The admin, who posted a picture of himself, declared: ‘I work for Hope not Hate [an antifa