Reading the post-riot posts: how we traced far-right radicalisation across 51,000 Facebook messages

The article examines the online radicalization of far-right individuals in the UK, as evidenced by the analysis of over 51,000 Facebook messages. It focuses on the profiles of those charged with online offenses during the summer 2024 riots, tracing their involvement in thriving social media ecosystems that trade in far-right sentiment and political disillusionment. The article highlights that more than 1,100 people were charged in connection to the riots, with a small number facing charges related to their online activity. These individuals' jail sentences, ranging from 12 weeks to seven years, became a point of contention, with their posts being defended, repeated, and their prosecution misrepresented as an attack on free speech. However, the majority of those prosecuted for online offenses faced charges of stirring up racial hatred. The article concludes by providing accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 scores for the analysis, indicating a high level of reliability in the findings.