protest GARYROBERTS/WORLDWIDEFEATURES.COM


Right-wing streamers are stirring up trouble at protests. Kath Grant reports


t Peter’s Square in Manchester has been a site of political protest since the 1819 Peterloo massacre. Nowadays, it’s


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also a rendezvous for far-right ‘auditors’ seeking content for You Tube channels. They can be heard urging subscribers


to ‘buy me a coffee’ online or donate as they film Palestine support rallies and other demonstrations – while screaming abuse at protesters to provoke retaliation and create dramatic content. The streamers’ targets in Greater Manchester – as with many other areas – have been hotels housing asylum- seekers. Far-right protests have forced refugees to stay trapped in their rooms and often placed them in danger. Outside the hotels, it is difficult to distinguish between the auditors, far-right agitators and ‘concerned locals’ who organise the protests. They are equally vocal. NUJ freelance photographer Gary Roberts has covered demonstrations in the UK and abroad for over 30 years. He says streamers can be the only


other ‘media’ he sees at protests in Manchester. For a time, police officers were failing to distinguish between freelance journalists and far-right vloggers. Last summer, officers refused to recognise press cards and threatened to arrest Roberts and another NUJ freelance photographer. Matters have improved, he says, “but they still seem pretty powerless to stop the provocation”. The number of streamers first grew around lockdown, he adds: “The anti-vax movement gained traction and gave them a large audience.


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“They now attend every demonstration in central Manchester in numbers varying between five and 50, regardless of the cause. “But they are more prevalent when there are counter demonstrations as they need conflict to drive engagement with their viewers. I have seen them at marches relating to Palestine and Ukraine, and at protests about women’s rights, Pride, trans rights and climate change.” Roberts says they turn up at political party conferences, trade union marches and picket lines. “I haven’t attended a demo since 2020 where no streamers have been present.” They have always been deliberately


provocative, creating misleading and controversial content rather than just filming or taking photographs, he says. “They team up and the presence of other streamers seems to embolden their interactions with demonstrators. I have seen them regularly hurl abuse to gain a reaction, which they then film. “They often claim they are


journalists if they are asked to move by the police and complain if the legitimate journalists with press cards are not moved with them.” Roberts has been told the most successful streamers are earning large sums of money. Some have over 100,000 followers on one platform and may stream across others. “Auditors in London have brackets holding three phones so they can


stream to different platforms simultaneously. “I have seen their work with


bylines in the local and national press so that’s additional income along with buy me a


Top: Stand Up to Racism protests in Altrincham, Greater Manchester. Bottom: filming at an anti- Trump protest in Manchester: Photographer Gary Roberts says “I haven’t attended a demo since 2020 where no streamers have been present.”


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coffee, donations and advertising linked to streams. There is no doubt it is having a negative impact on the earnings of many freelance photographers. “I have had a lot of people contacting me to say they have seen me on TikTok or YouTube, which shows how many people are viewing this stuff.” Arguably, mainstream coverage of the hotel protests has raised awareness of the streamers’ methods. Last autumn, Channel 4 News ran a piece about the money that streamers were making from their exploitation of refugees. Similar stories have been run in


They often claim to be journalists if asked to move by the police and complain if journalists with press cards are not moved with them


regional and independent news outlets, including in a Blackpool news Facebook page, which is urging people to boycott the streamers’ channels. The auditors’ connections with far-right agitators have been exposed in many articles and social media posts. Roberts describes meeting three


younger auditors he had seen at hotel protests. “One told me he hadn’t been to recent protests and was fed up of covering them because he didn’t want to be labelled as far right any more. I think it shows that, for some of the streamers, it’s all about the numbers rather than the content.”


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