Troll of the Month – Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (AKA Tommy Robinson)
The Troll of the Month is an individual chosen every month to expose racist and anti-religious haters and to portray what can be done in response to fight against intolerance in Europe.
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, is the co-founder of the English Defence League, a far-right Islamophobic organisation in the United Kingdom. After leaving the English Defence League, in 2016, Robinson became the UK co-ordinator for Pegida UK, an anti-Islamist movement. Robinson and the English Defence League themselves, have long promoted the idea that British society is being threatened by Muslim extremists including his personal targeting of Muslims through online posts on his social media. In 2019, Robinson was banned from Facebook and Instagram due to his continuous violation of Facebook’s policies on hate speech. Indeed, Robinson was already banned from Twitter, the year before, due to his hateful conduct on the platform.
On November 3rd, Robinson published an opinion piece on portal urbanscoop.news, in which he used the recent antisemitic statements of Kanye West as grounds to spread antisemitic and racist rhetoric himself. Throughout his article, Robinson spreads several hateful and conspiracy narratives including the idea of the ‘Replacement’ agenda. The piece itself, explores two main themes; the first being the American-based Jewish organisation known as the Anti-Defamation League and the second, being the recent scandal surrounding Kanye West and his antisemitic posts.
Throughout the article, Robinson dives into the recent event of Kanye West being banned from Twitter due to his antisemitic posts in which he makes clear calls for violence. Robinson explores Kanye West and his antisemitic tropes in much detail, aiming to debunk most of his statements. Indeed, Robinson uses the recent events to share his own sentiments and views on the Anti-Defamation League, the support of Israel and the slogan ‘White Lives Matter’ amongst other things.
During his attack on the Anti-Defamation League, Robinson explores their criticism of the slogan ‘White Lives Matter’, which he claims is not a declaration of hate. He also takes this opportunity to share his support of the idea that ‘All Lives Matter’. By making claims as such, one is taking away from the fact that Black Lives Matter stands for the fight against discrimination and racism as well as a history of inequality faced by the Black community. This only undermines and takes away from the power and meaning of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Alongside this, as pointed out by the organisation HopeNotHate, Robinson taps into the ‘longstanding antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jews are secretly trying to undermine and weaken the white race’. Despite making an effort to note that he is not naming all Jews, Robinson does divulge into ‘conspiratorial antisemitism about supposed Jewish influence’. Robinson dives into the question of whether the ‘Jews control the media’ where he provides so-called evidence of the fact that Jews on average have an ‘IQ of 110, so inevitably those Jews will rise to the top’. The idea of the Jews controlling the media is a common antisemitic trope which claims that by having control over the media, Jews have control over people and the way they think.
The article concludes with the idea that Kanye West is in fact, not an antisemite but rather an individual who ended up using imprecise language and whether or not we agree, he still ‘should be allowed to say it’. Robinson then goes on to claim that Jews should be criticised ‘but only when it’s justified’. On the grounds of free speech, Robinson protects Kanye West and his recent sentiments. There is, indeed, a fine line between freedom of speech and hate speech, where one must be aware not to abuse the term ‘free speech’ in order to spread antisemitic and hateful tropes or use such argumentation to justify antisemitism and racist views. Tommy Robinson has been banned from a number of social media platforms on the basis of violating hate speech policies in place. He is an individual who should be held accountable and bear responsibility for the spread of hateful antisemitic and racist rhetoric which can have negative consequences within society.
