‘We are desperate for new people’: inside a hate group’s leaked online chats

Leaked chats of the US white supremacist group Patriot Front have revealed the day-to-day organizing of a far-right gang desperate for new members as it seeks a higher profile in the US with provocative public marches.

More than 400 gigabytes of private communications from chat logs on RocketChat, an alt-tech platform favored by far-right groups, were obtained and published by Unicorn Riot, a left-wing nonprofit media organization that reports on social movements.

The chat logs reveal a group of men struggling to expand membership and being harangued by their leadership to maintain physical fitness, show up to events and contribute financially to the cause of white supremacy - all with limited success. It also shows how the group uses social media to make itself seem larger than it is.

Chats indicate the white supremacist group has about 200 members. The messages show a coordinated effort to commit vandalism and intimidate people of color nationwide. The group requires members to deface racial justice murals and monuments to Black Lives Matter in their communities, much like a street gang that requires initiates to "tag" buildings as a form of vandalism and intimidation.

Chats show that the group's leaders regularly reprimand members for failing to meet exercise or participation requirements. It also shows a group fixated on getting more members, a task it has found difficult. "We are absolutely desperate for new people. We've been in the 220's to 230's membership rut for nearly a full year," wrote Thomas Rousseau, the founder of Patriot Front.

Patriot Front garnered headlines and trended on social media this month after marching in uniform with shields alongside anti-abortion activists in Chicago and Washington DC. The leaked chats reveal that the demonstrations were part of a strategy to recruit new members to the group.

The chats outlined a plan to create fake social media accounts that would pose as bystanders to their marches. The fake accounts would then post deceptive material on platforms like Twitter, Reddit and 4chan. One pre-written tweet about Patriot Front's 4 December march down the National Mall referred to "about 500 men with riot shields marching in #washingtondc" - but there were far fewer than that counted at the actual event.