Who are the White Pendragons?
In this blog, Lorand Bodo examines the digital footprint of a new UK far-right group, The White Pendragons, exploring the group’s origins and looking at the ways in which extremist and radical groups blend online and in-real-life activities.
Summary
The White Pendragons are a relatively new movement on the far-right of UK politics. Internet records suggest that their official website was only registered in August 2017. In this relatively short period of time, the group’s social media activities appear to have attracted several thousand followers, many of whom are presumably like-minded (presumably there are also, especially since the weekend, several journalists and researchers too). Their disruption of a 13 January Fabian Society speech by London Mayor Sadiq Khan demonstrates that the Pendragons group is pursuing a hybrid approach to raising awareness and its public profile, blending social media, Internet-radio, and direct action in-real-life. As such, the Pendragons are but the latest example of the evolving practice of online and offline activities by far-right political movements in the UK.
Pendragons and Fabians
On Saturday 13 January 2018, a group of protesters disrupted a speech by the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, at a Fabian Society conference in London. The protesters, who were also reportedly calling for the Mayor to be arrested, belonged to a wider group or movement called ‘The White Pendragons.’ The incident was fairly widely reported in both the UK and foreign press, with descriptions of the group ranging from ‘pro-Brexit and pro-Donald Trump’ (Independent), ‘a group of right-wing protesters’ (Huffington Post), or ‘anti-Islamic nationalists’ (Washington Post — the Post also picked up on the fact that the Pendragons had wheeled a home-made ‘gallows’ to the entrance of the venue where Khan was speaking).
At Ridgeway, we are interested in the impact of digital technologies, including social media platforms, on the activities of extremist and radical political groups. So, we took the incident at the weekend as a point of departure for some preliminary analysis of the digital footprint of the White Pendragons. The following blog post is a summary of our findings.
It is relatively easy to find social media accounts associated with the group and its members, e.g. by using a Google or Bing search with the group’s name as a search term and limiting the results to those of the major social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube). The group’s social media profile links to its official website, which provides information about the group’s objectives and its leadership structure. To illustrate the group’s digital activities (and its senior members’ hinterland on the right- and even-further-right-wing of UK politics), we will focus below on two of its leading members, Graham Moore and David Russell.
Senior members and social media
Based on our investigation, we identified Graham Moore as the leader of the White Pendragons. According to a social media post, Moore appears to have become leader of the group by early December 2017.
Moore appears to be very active and connected on social media. He has over 3,700 followers on Twitter; over 3,000 followers on Facebook; and his YouTube channel has 528 subscribers and 126 videos, which have generated over 45,000 views.
Moore’s Twitter account remains active. In our last blog post “Account Suspended: Twitter and Extreme Right-Wing Groups in the UK”, we highlighted that the enforcement of Twitter’s new rules regarding abusive, hateful and violent content, has led to the suspension of multiple accounts used by extreme right-wing groups, such as Britain First (@BritainFirstHQ). When members of the White Pendragons disrupted the speech by Sadiq Khan and called for his arrest, they reportedly referenced his religion. In light of this reported behaviour, it will be interesting to watch what decisions are made by Twitter concerning accounts associated with the White Pendragons.
Even before the disruption of Sadiq Khan’s speech, Graham Moore enjoyed a wider media profile, courtesy for example of several appearances as a political commentator on RT International. Moore is, in fact, a former member of UKIP, who subsequently left to stand for the English Democrats — Greater London in the 2015 UK General Election.
Moore and the Pendragons also appear to be associated with, or perhaps sometimes go by the name of another group, ‘ThePeople’sBailiffs’. On this group’s website, we found a document referred to as a ‘judicial review,’ issued by Graham Moore, which specifically called for ‘reclassifying Islam’ because ‘Islam is not just political, it’s genocidal’ [02:06].
The other prominent figure we highlight to illustrate the online activities of the White Pendragons is the group’s chairman, Davey Russell. He has previously described his role in the group as being its ‘Sargent at Arms and party whip’. Russell is perhaps better known as a former speaker of the English Defence League (EDL). The EDL is a far-right group which originated in late 2009 in a series of street protests and demonstrations ostensibly aimed at opposing Islamist extremism and terrorism. There is further evidence of wider anti-Islam views amongst EDL members and supporters. Davey Russell has, on several occasions, publicly denounced Islam and Muslims. In one YouTube video, Davey Russell responded to the 2016 Orlando terror attack by arguing that the religion of Islam was a root cause of such terrorism.
Internet radio
In addition to social media activities, the White Pendragons also broadcast an Internet radio station called ‘TakeBackControl Radio.’ The station’s programmes include one hosted by the group’s leader, Graham Moore, under the title ‘The Full English.’
Interestingly, although the radio channel can be accessed via the group’s Facebook page (which has over 2300 followers and over 2400 ‘likes’), Internet users cannot listen to the show without first signing up for a username and password.
To try to overcome this authentication issue without acquiring credentials for the site, we tried to listen to the station directly on its website, motiv8radiofm, where the “Listen&Chat” tab leads to the radio shows. Once again, however, login was required, with either a Facebook or Twitter account. In addition to its digital presence on social media, the group’s website and radio channel, the Pendragons also run an online shop, offering dragon-logo T-shirts and stickers for sale.
International connections
Our preliminary investigation into the group’s digital footprint highlighted some direct and indirect links beyond the UK, to the US and Russia. During the incident at the conference, for example, a member of the White Pendragons identified as ‘Kevin Blackburn,’ was seen holding up the flag of the United States. The group’s pro-America stance also appears to be a pro-Trump stance, with the Pendragons’ leader, Graham Moore, having expressed support for US President Donald Trump in a YouTube video [01:07].
A Facebook video, livestreamed by Moore, suggests links to the US state of Texas, but doesn’t clarify precisely which, if any, extant groups or movements in Texas are connected with the Pendragons. But Moore claims in this video that these alleged Texan people or groups are ‘100% with us.’ These putative connections between the Pendragons and similar groups or individuals based in the US would be a subject that would be worth further study.
Regarding connections to Russia, as mentioned earlier Moore has frequently appeared on RT, a television channel funded by the Russian government. According to the recent book, Russia and the Western Far Right: Tango Noir, there is an established Russian government policy of supporting groups on the far-right of Western states in order to exert an impact on the domestic politics of Western states and undermine liberal democracy. As one proxy for measuring Russian connections with the Pendragons, we examined the followers of Moore’s Twitter account. We did this assuming that, as one of the group’s leading members, Moore might be one of the most likely to have observable international connections. Using the FollowerWonk tool, we mapped the locations of Twitter users who follow Moore and who are followed by Moore. In total, we found only eight users flagged as located in Russia, all in Moscow. (This analysis bears the obvious caveat that users may indeed be located in Russia without being flagged as such by FollowerWonk.)
Upon further checks, we found that seven of these users were employees of the RT television network, and only one of these — a producer at RT — follows Moore back.
Clearly, these preliminary findings do not constitute evidence of any deeper links between the Pendragons and Russia; they are merely consistent with Moore’s known appearances on RT. Another salient gap identified by our online investigation was information about the group’s finances. Based on quick Internet searches, we were unable to illuminate this aspect of the group’s operations. On their website, the Pendragons ask members and supporters to support the group financially, either by setting up a direct debit or by transferring money to Graham Moore’s PayPal account. As far as we could tell from this brief search, the group doesn’t appear to publish online any list of donors.
What do they want?
Finally, what do the White Pendragons actually want? And most importantly, in which ‘category’ on the far-right spectrum do the Pendragons fall into? According to its official “Party Constitution”, the group pursues three main objectives and several sub-goals. Their primary objective is to ‘take back control,’ specifically by ensuring that England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland regain full autonomy, “as per the Magna Carta 1215, the Declaration of Rights and the Bill of Rights 1688/9” — as stated on the group’s website.
The second objective is to protect the English constitution by “outlawing treasonous organisations and affiliated groups”, such as the Fabian Society or the Royal Institute for International Affairs (better known as ‘Chatham House’). The incident at the Fabian Society event indicates that the Pendragons might use similar tactics in future to increase their public profile and amplify their message.
The third and last objective is to “implement what we were sworn by oath and elected to do”, such as a vote for a referendum on the Hong Kong Tax System. In our preliminary efforts, we couldn’t find any further information to clarify precisely what this objective entailed.
In their digital output, the White Pendragons also emphasise a non-violent orientation, underlining this with their website’s slogan logo: “No Loss, No Harm, No Injury.”
So, in which category on the far-right spectrum do the Pendragons fall into? When looking at the current far-right scene, the so-called alt-right has been on the rise in recent years. The alt-right is a movement that has been described as having ‘repackaged white nationalism with a veneer of rebellious cool.’ Others have described the ‘alt-right’ as ‘a new term for an informal and ill-defined collection of internet-based radicals.’ The UK-based organisation HOPE not hate conducted a one year investigation into the alt-right, finding that it was an international movement including numerous groups or individuals, primarily operating online, with a shared set of core beliefs around ‘white identity’ being under attack.
From this preliminary Internet investigation, the White Pendragons would appear to share several features in common with existing alt-right groups, including: their significant online activities; reported anti-Islam sentiments; apparent US-links and US-related comments of some of its senior figures; its ideological framing of the need to ‘take back control’; and the very choice of a group name that combines ‘white’ with ‘Pendragon,’ a name associated with Arthurian legend, which we assume was chosen due to its connotations of a martial, mythological version of Britain’s past.
Conclusion
The emergence of the White Pendragons as a new group, with its leading figures having past associations with older groups, is consistent with a trend in UK far-right politics, in which new groups have sporadically emerged, sometimes through splintering from existing groups, to compete, outflank or otherwise overlap with those pre-existing far-right groups, as they each respectively seek to disseminate their messages, grow their base of supporters, and take public actions like street protests, including the disruption of public events like the Fabians Society’s with Sadiq Khan, or, indeed, by involvement in more violent actions. Whilst this is part of a long-established trend, the use of digital media by these groups is a newer phenomenon, enabling them to amplify their messages and reach new potential supporters. Our preliminary study of the Pendragons’ online activities is a small contribution to on-going research in this emerging field.
This article was written by Lorand Bodo, a researcher at Ridgeway Information focusing on open source intelligence (OSINT) and online extremism. You can find him on Twitter @LorandBodo.
