A Twitter account with the handle ANTIFA_US has been outed as a white nationalist organization attempting to spread disinformation and chaos.
According to Mic, Twitter has removed the account from its platform, but would not say how many followers the account had. The social media giant did note that a tweet from the profile received a fair amount of engagement and was relatively widespread.
The tweet read, “Tonight’s the night, Comrades. Tonight we say ‘Fuck The City’ and we move into the residential areas… the white hoods…. and we take what’s ours.”
According to a screenshot, the tweet received more than 500 retweets and 200 likes.
“This account violated our platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically the creation of fake accounts,” a spokesperson for Twitter told Mic. “We took action after the account sent a Tweet inciting violence and broke the Twitter Rules.”
The group behind the fake profile, Identity Evropa, is a white nationalist group founded in 2016, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group is known to be quite tech savvy. According to Twitter officials, this is not the first time the group has made a fake account posing as a supporter of other movements and engaged in hateful content on issues of race, religion, and sexual orientation.
Although the account has been deleted, many believe it served its purpose. A host of right-wing politicians and pundits have been targeting Antifa as the driving force behind the violence and destruction that have followed largely peaceful protests over the past week.
President Trump announced on Twitter that he will declare Antifa as a terrorist organization, but political analysts have called the plan unconstitutional.
The funny part of the situation is Antifa isn’t an actual organization, but an amorphous collection of like-minded activists who believe in political ideologies ranging from socialism to anarchism. However, the unifying principle of the ideology is opposing fascism.
People who consider themselves part of the movement are involved in other forms of political activism, campaigning against actions they believe to be authoritarian, homophobic, racist, or xenophobic.
Identity Evropa is not the only group trying to disrupt the protest movements happening today. However, many unions and organizations have showed they’re in solidarity with the protesters.