Michael Colborne
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colborne.bsky.social
Michael Colborne
@colborne.bsky.social
@bellingcat.com journalist etc focused on the transnational far right. i give trainings. i take pictures of stickers. Signal: michaelcolborne.01
Pinned
Pro tip: if you're trying to hide the location of your latest far-right 'fight night' all the blurring and and tight shots won't help you if you host it in a place with bright orange walls (and also lie to the owner about why you're renting the place)

www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/09...
Geolocating an Active Club 'Fight Night' in San Diego
An orange wall helped Bellingcat identify the location of an annual far-right event attended by neo-Nazis and white nationalists.
www.bellingcat.com
Reposted by Michael Colborne
Two panels commemorating the contribution of Black American soldiers towards the liberation of the Netherlands in World War Two have been quietly removed from a cemetery in Limburg. It follows a complaint by right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission.
November 8, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by Michael Colborne
A man has been arrested. Current theory is that he somehow snapped and used his own blood. Has/will be taken to a psychiatric clinic after police processing.
presseportal.de/blaulicht/pm/43561/6153045
November 7, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Reposted by Michael Colborne
“.. in a group Signal chat, .. he wrote in part: ‘I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.’”

@reuters.com #Chicago
www.reuters.com/world/us/bor...
November 6, 2025 at 2:24 PM
“Lonely and homesick for a country suffering through war, Viktoria began sharing her worries with ChatGPT. Six months later and in poor mental health, she began discussing suicide - asking the AI bot about a specific place and method to kill herself”

www.bbc.com/news/article...
I wanted ChatGPT to help me. So why did it advise me how to kill myself?
ChatGPT wrote a woman a suicide note and another AI chatbot role-played sexual acts with children, BBC finds.
www.bbc.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by Michael Colborne
New: The FBI filed a subpoena trying to unmask the person or people behind archive.is / archive.today, which have been running anonymously for 13 yrs. Site was widely used by GamerGate, and then to bypass paywalls but has become kind of core archiving infrastructure

www.404media.co/fbi-tries-to...
FBI Tries to Unmask Owner of Infamous Archive.is Site
The FBI has subpoenaed the domain registrar of archive.today, demanding information about the owner.
www.404media.co
November 6, 2025 at 2:53 PM
~50 vehicles have been smeared with what appears to be human blood in the German city of Hanau near Frankfurt, police say

Bundestag VP Omid Nouripour: "This act strikes at the very heart of Hanau and reopens the wounds of the far-right terrorist attack five years ago"
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Cars in Hanau in Germany found smeared with swastikas in blood, police say
Cars, walls and postboxes have been defaced, in what appears to be human blood.
www.bbc.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:23 AM
A fire at a boarding house for retirees on Tuesday in the northeastern Bosnian town of Tuzla left at least 10 people dead, an official and Bosnian media said

www.euronews.com/2025/11/05/f...
At least 10 people dead in Bosnia retiree nursing home fire
Prime Minister Nermin Nikšić described the fire as "a disaster of enormous proportions."
www.euronews.com
November 5, 2025 at 7:42 AM
THE YAED APPLE
The Post having a normal one
November 5, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Reposted by Michael Colborne
When you stop using X then open it back up after a while, you realize how obviously it’s designed to elevate vicious jerks who share Musk and Trump’s cruelest, dumbest beliefs. Harder to see when you’re addicted to it; blazingly apparent from the outside looking in.

Journalists: It’s bad for you!
November 5, 2025 at 3:46 AM
Reposted by Michael Colborne
Border Patrol agent Lairmore testifies that he was not injured by the sandwich, but he felt the impact through his ballistic vest.

The sandwich came apart and "kind of exploded" on his chest upon impact, he says.

"I could smell the onions and mustard."
November 4, 2025 at 3:33 PM
I wrote about some of the 2025 ‘Day of Honour’ festivities for @bellingcat.com earlier this year, for a taste of what to expect yet again

www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/01...
November 4, 2025 at 8:00 AM
“…the White Power music scene, and the far-right more generally, is parasitical. It feeds upon the resources of larger scenes and subcultures, often harming them in the process”
November 3, 2025 at 7:06 AM
Reposted by Michael Colborne
New article on “The Relational Dynamics of Violence Escalation and Inhibition During Far-Right Protest Waves” by Joel Busher, Julia Ebner, Zsófia Hacsek, Gareth Harris and myself in the latest issue of “American Behavioral Scientist”:
The Relational Dynamics of Violence Escalation and Inhibition During Far-Right Protest Waves - Joel Busher, Julia Ebner, Zsófia Hacsek, Gareth Harris, Graham Macklin, 2025
This article examines how interactions between far-right protestors, counter-protestors and other actors, including the police, lead towards and away from viole...
journals.sagepub.com
November 2, 2025 at 7:17 AM
November 2, 2025 at 4:20 AM
Tens of thousands of people from all over Serbia gathered on Saturday in Novi Sad to commemorate the 16 victims of a railway station disaster a year ago today

apnews.com/article/serb...
Serbia marks anniversary of deadly train station disaster with large rally
Tens of thousands of people have gathered in Novi Sad, Serbia, to commemorate the victims of last year's railway station disaster.
apnews.com
November 1, 2025 at 2:10 PM
A close friend of misogynist influencer Andrew Tate is part of an aggressive recruitment drive to draw rich and isolated teenagers into the ranks of Australia’s neo-Nazis

www.smh.com.au/national/an-...
An Andrew Tate insider is helping Australian Nazis recruit teens
Neo-Nazis are targeting the rich and the young to fill their ranks – and coffers. And one of Andrew Tate’s right-hand men is helping them draw boys in.
www.smh.com.au
November 1, 2025 at 12:03 AM
wasn’t expecting to read tonight about a Catholic priest going by the name "skinheadlad1488" in a chatroom called Aryan Reich Killers but here we are

www.bbc.com/news/article...
Cardiff Catholic priest Mark Rowles sentenced for sending racist neo-Nazi messages
Father Mark Rowles was arrested by counter terror police for extreme right wing activity on social media.
www.bbc.com
October 31, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Michael Colborne
If you aren't paying attention to what is happening in Illinois/Chicago, you're missing out on Bovino and federal agents using tear gas, pepper balls, and force against the people.

Check out our investigation alongside @evidentmedia.org
October 31, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Michael Colborne
Children tear-gassed. Teenagers tackled to the ground. Bellingcat analysed footage of clashes between federal officers and civilians after a judge issued a restraining order on crowd-control tactics in Illinois: www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/10...
Tear Gas, Pepper Balls Among Weapons Deployed Against Illinois Protesters
A judge issued a restraining order on crowd-control tactics by federal agents, including those involved in Operation Midway Blitz in the Chicago region.
www.bellingcat.com
October 31, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Michael Colborne
Bellingcat has geolocated footage of a mass killing outside the recently captured Sudanese city of El Fasher. In the video, which has circulated widely online, RSF commander Abu Lulu can be seen firing his weapon at what appears to be ten unarmed men sitting on the ground. Image: @vantortech
October 31, 2025 at 3:44 PM
“Prosecutors say they first hit a black man in the face with an umbrella while shouting racial slurs, then attacked a man of Syrian origin, knocking him to the ground and kicking him in the head until he lost consciousness”

www.france24.com/en/live-news...
Swedish hate-crime trial shines light on far-right 'fitness clubs'
Four men went on trial on Thursday in Sweden accused of hate crimes and attacking immigrants in a case that has revealed the growing trend of white supremacists banding together in fitness clubs.
www.france24.com
October 31, 2025 at 10:11 AM
“But this means that influential players in and commentators….are being exposed to extreme content [on X] that historically one would have had to search out in the darkest corners of the internet. In particular, things that were previously considered unacceptable on race have become open for debate”
I've written a couple of things over the last days about how the government and much of Westminster remaining on X as the platform becomes increasingly toxic is having consequences for our politics...
Our politics is increasingly normalised to racism – because politicians are addicted to X
The platform has quietly dragged British politics into a dark place
inews.co.uk
October 31, 2025 at 8:29 AM
🧵👇
In short, the ANES data shows:
📉 Social media use is shrinking
💥 Twitter/X posting has moved ~50 points to the right
🧩 Platforms are splintering
🔊 Fewer people are talking — but those still talking are more politically extreme
October 31, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Reposted by Michael Colborne
New Fighting Matters! FASHION, FITNESS, FIGHTING: HOW HATE GROUPS ATTRACT YOUNG MEN

In this episode, Steve Kwan sits down with journalist @colborne.bsky.social of @bellingcat.com to expose how far-right movements use aesthetics and martial arts culture to recruit young men.

youtu.be/lpSN4lNn_IM
Fashion, Fitness, Fighting: How Hate Groups Attract Young Men
YouTube video by Fighting Matters
youtu.be
October 31, 2025 at 1:15 AM
can we not, faleminderit shumë
October 30, 2025 at 2:10 PM