'An Irish former alt-right YouTuber explains his methods'
In 2018 the far-right British activist Tommy Robinson posted a video on YouTube claiming that he had been attacked by an African migrant in Rome. The thumbnail image and eight-word title promoting the video indicated that Robinson was assaulted by a black man outside a train station. Then, in the video, Robinson punched the man in the jaw, dropping him to the ground. The video was viewed more than 2.8 million times, and it prompted news stories across the right-wing tabloids in Britain, where Robinson was rapidly gaining notoriety for his anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic views.
For Caolan Robertson, an Irish-born film-maker who worked for Robinson and helped create the video, it was an instructional moment. It showed the key ingredients needed to attract attention on YouTube and other social-media services. The video played into anti-immigrant sentiments in Britain and across Europe. It also focused squarely on conflict, cutting rapidly between shouts and shoves before showing Robinson’s punch. It also misrepresented what had actually happened.
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Raw footage of the episode in Rome, provided by Robertson, shows that the YouTube video was edited to give the false impression that Robinson was threatened. The full footage shows he was the aggressor.
When the man noticed he was being filmed from across the street, he approached the camera, and Robinson shoved him into an oncoming car. As the man protested, called Robinson crazy and told him to live his own life, Robinson escalated the argument. “There’s one way this is going to go,” he told the man. “You’re going to end up knocked down unconscious.”