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Warning as British extremists call for US-style assault on Parliament

CST flags posts by far right activists which feature antisemitic abuse and threats to UK politicians

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WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06: A large group of pro-Trump protesters stand on the East steps of the Capitol Building after storming its grounds on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. A pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, breaking windows and clashing with police officers. Trump supporters gathered in the nation's capital today to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

A pro-Trump mob’s assault on the US Capitol on Wednesday has sparked some calls among the British far-right for similar events to take place in the UK, the Community Security Trust has warned. 
 
The charity called for further regulations to counter online extremism in the wake of the violence, which left five dead and President Donald Trump facing growing calls for his removal from office.
 
The CST shared over a dozen examples of posts left on the internet message board 4Chan and a UK group on Gab, a social media site popular with far-right activists.

“One of the prevailing reactions from British far-right extremists to events in Washington DC has been calls for similar events to take place here in the UK, either at Parliament or Downing Street,” the CST said in a blogpost Thursday. 
 
"Usually when looking at their reactions to events, there is a lot of general commentary, and a few threats or inciting posts,” the CST said about Britfam, a Gab group of nearly 5,000 UK members.

But a “significant proportion” of posts responding to the violence were “threats against UK politicians” and calls for similar action in the UK, the charity added.
 
Material discovered by the charity included antisemitic abuse levelled against social media companies, PM Boris Johnson and Mr Trump, and some claims of Israeli involvement.

One post described a Facebook executive as “another Jew silencing us” after the site banned Mr Trump indefinitely in the wake of the violence.
 
Another alluded to the Rothschild family, a focus of many antisemitism canards, as it called on users to “hunt” the “AP”, in an apparent reference to the Associated Press, a US news agency.Patrik Hermansson, a researcher at the counter-extremism charity Hope Not Hate, said many on the far-right continued to express support for Mr Trump and spread false claims to distance themselves from the riot. 
 
Conspiracy theories included suggestions rioters were in fact leftist infiltrators who had posed as members of the far right to stoke violence. 
 
He said calls for violent uprisings remained very “marginal” but stressed the seriousness of the threat posed by online extremism.
 
While it is “too early to tell” whether extremist activity will continue to thrive in a Biden era, he said there was no evidence to suggest it would decrease.
 
“What we have been seeing over the last two years is the feeling that Trump was elected and Brexit happened, things are not happening fast enough and that leads to a feeling that the democratic system isn't working or a disappointment, which legitimises in their eyes, more violent action, and direct action and defeat.”

While the CST did not specify how many posts it found calling for violent insurrection in the UK, it warned that antisemitism and violent rhetoric are fairly common on some platforms.  

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