MDI Filed Several Complaints Against Far-Right Blog for Inciting Violence and Hate

GTTO partner MDI (Media Diversity Institute) has filed several complaints against a far-right blog for inciting violence and hate. The blog, called Spotting The Serpent’s Tale, published a post on the 13th of October titled: “Diversity: strength or weakness? Brexit as a case-study.” In the piece, she calls for the “cleansing” of those who make Britain multicultural.

In the blog post, the author states that in order to reverse “multiculturalism, multifaithism, multigenderism”, and a ‘post-truth’ society, a “thorough cleansing” needs to take place, and follows this with a biblical story of “rooting out” the supposed problem. The author further states that native Leftists (“who brought this state of diversity upon us”) must “face the justice of those whom they have overlooked and sought to destroy.” The justice the author is talking about is to kill: “As a youngster I was introduced to a Communist cell, in which I was taught that we must be prepared to kill our families in order to bring about the revolution.  They cannot be surprised if we offer them the same ‘justice’ ‘they would visit upon us.”

Using terms like ‘cleansing’ and ‘rooting out’ is extremely troubling, especially when used to refer to specific groups of people. The author, through her terminology and analogies used, is directly inciting violence and hate.

The author of the piece is thought to be Bethany Helmsley. This was deduced through a Politicalite article, authored by Helmsley, and where it is stated that “Bethany Helmsley also writes at Serpent Tail”, linking directly to the blog. That Politicate article was highlighted by GTTO earlier this month, as the piece pushed the violent and dangerous ‘Great Replacement’ theory. Politicalite has been reported on by Get The Trolls Out! project in the past, as they have a strong populist stance. The platform has been quiet recently and seems to have gone through a re-branding. Helmsley is a new writer for the platform, and her piece is in line with more recent Politicalite pieces, which have become more extreme. The news site has been banned from Facebook and demonetised by Google and Paypal.

MDI complained to three separate bodies about Spotting The Serpent’s Tail; specifically, the blog post referring to ‘cleansing’ and ‘rooting out’ Britain’s multicultural ‘problem’. Among others,MDI complained to Politicalite itself and to Wordpress for hosting the blog, but at the time writing, nobody has responded to a complaint, and Spotting The Serpent’s Tail is still accessible online.