Tommy Robinson shared this image of men clad in black marching in Belfast (Picture: X/Tommy Robinson)
Cars were set on fire, houses went up in flames and people were forced to flee as riots broke out in Belfast on Tuesday evening.
Scenes of the destruction were broadcast after Stephen Ogilvie was attacked with a knife in the city the day before, allegedly by a 30-year-old Sudanese national.
But after the seeds of discontent were sown on social media, the story reached audiences far beyond Northern Ireland. Even the world’s richest man stirred up anger by resharing multiple politically-charged posts.
The use of social media in planning violent protests over the Belfast knife attack has drawn condemnation, with Labour accusing Elon Musk of stoking divisions.
The tech billionaire continued overnight to promote calls for people to take to the streets in response to the assault, which left a man in a serious condition in the hospital.
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Musk took to X to post: ‘Only by protesting repeatedly and loudly will there be any change!’
He also previously reposted a video of him saying, ‘You either fight back or you die’, with the words: ‘That’s what it comes down to.’
Musk reposted statements from Restore UK politicians (Picture: X)
Tommy Robinson reshared posts urging people not to film any rioting (Picture: X)
Even as political leaders called for calm while homes and vehicles burned across Belfast, Musk replied to Reform UK’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, and used the opportunity to endorse a rival right-wing party.
‘Only Restore Britain can save Britain. It is the only way,’ he wrote.
Closer to home, Tommy Robinson – who organised dozens of protests around the UK in the wake of the attack – shared grim updates from Belfast.
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At one point, he shared a clip of a local store on fire, claiming: ‘Foreign businesses are being destroyed in Belfast.’
In previous posts promoting the demonstrations, Robinson – real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – shared graphics that included the instruction: ‘All businesses to close at 5.30pm tonight. No exceptions.’
Robinson encouraged ‘the whole of the United Kingdom’ to demonstrate on Tuesday (Picture: Lab Mo/SOPA Images/Shutterstock)
‘The whole of the United Kingdom is hitting the streets tonight at 7pm following yet another invader attack on our people,’ he captioned the images.
Robinson also reshared one X post, which urged protesters to leave phones at home.
‘Technology and recording devices… don’t help anyone, this is saving our country, not for the powers to use it against patriots and shaft us,’ the account claimed.
The far-right figurehead also claimed the homes burned in Belfast were all HMOs (Houses in Multiple Occupation), meaning multiple people not from the same household – for example, not a couple or one family – live in the property.
Robinson has previously said HMOs are partially to blame for allowing asylum seekers access to housing.
Families were forced to flee their homes as they were set alight (Picture: PA)
Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley said online platforms were ‘playing a role in driving’ the unrest and suggested X owner Musk was one of the ‘bad faith actors’ inflaming tensions.
Musk shared lists on X of locations where protests could take place – also posted by activist Tommy Robinson – and retweeted Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe’s post saying ‘Millions must go’.
Turley told Times Radio: ‘We have to acknowledge and see that social media is playing a role in driving this. And I think there are bad-faith actors who are often sitting many, many miles away. It is easy for them to stoke these things up.’
The anti-immigration protests were not contained to Belfast, with similar demonstrations taking place across Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
In London, supporters of Robinson gathered in Parliament Square to protest the killing of Henry Novak as well as the attack in Belfast.
Metro reporter Brooke Davies was on the scene and saw what began as 50 people flimsily waving the Union Flag suddenly turn into a much more aggressive scene as far-right protesters charged into the road, setting off red smoke flares.
Zahra Ali and Monday Rosenfeld, two girls who had just attended a pro-Palestine march, were swarmed.
Monday, 23, told Metro: ‘I have genuinely never seen anything like this before. That was some of the worst abuse I have ever heard.’
Men, claiming they were there to ‘protect our women and girls’, told her they were going to take her away, drown her and behead her.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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