Far-right groups are using online fitness groups to recruit and radicalise new members, anti-hate campaigners have warned.
Researchers say they have uncovered a large number of extremist fitness chats on the social media platform Telegram, a significant proportion of which were 'directly linked' to the UK's largest far-right neo-Nazi group, Patriotic Alternative.
One of the groups, called the White Stag Athletic Club (WSAC), has members who regularly post swastika flags, support European and EU far-right extremist movements, and praise figures popular among the far right, including the acquitted Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse.
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Hope Not Hate, an anti-fascist organisation that conducted analysis of the fitness groups as part of its annual assessment of online extremism, said the chats positioned ideas of male fitness and self-improvement as part of the 'wider political struggle,' and that the popularity of the groups soared during the Covid-19 lockdowns, as fitness enthusiasts looked for alternative ways to form communities while gyms and other clubs were closed.
'The danger of these groups lies, firstly, in their emphasis on transforming activists into soldiers that might be motivated to commit acts of violence. And, secondly, in the community they create, where members start to associate sometimes real, positive change in their lives with fascism,' the group said.
The Guardian reports that WSAC, one of the most popular groups with ties to Patriotic Alternative, was launched during the pandemic, and has recently widened recruitment, with members 'eventually expected to take part in fights with one another.'
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Members are initially lured in by sharing fitness content, before being invited into chats that discuss far-right ideology and portray violence as good and necessary.
In some of the chats, members have shared photos of their torsos with their faces obscured by photos of Hitler, with one user sharing a photo of his body captioned: 'Ready to join the SS.'
'Defend your race, defend your land, achieve immortality,' another member wrote.
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'Associating positive change in one’s life with a violent and hateful ideology is obviously dangerous,' said Hope Not Hate senior researcher Patrik Hermansson.
'These fitness groups frame individual self-improvement as a part of a wider political struggle, creating fresh motivation and a sense of purpose for people who believe that physical confrontation and violence are legitimate and necessary. They have become a space for far-right activists to mobilise.'
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Hannah Smith