AIBU to be disgusted that over 1.5 million "like" Britain First on FB?

[TinfoilHattie]

Have had to unfriend a young relative on FB as she kept liking and sharing the most awful racist, islamophobic and plain nasty stuff from a group called Britain First. Please don't google them and give them more publicity - but if you thought the BNP were bad, Britain First is worse.

AIBU to think it's depressing that they have 1.6 million likes, most of whom I'm assuming are here in the UK? What is WRONG with people? I'd like to think all of those likers are very young teens who haven't come to their senses yet but I don't think that's the case.

They have click bait pictures.
Like "like this picture if you want to save puppies".
That's how they get most of their likes.

I'm sure some people get sucked in by cute pictures of kittens etc. But sadly, I think there are an awful lot of people who think like this. And sadly, the referendum has made it seem more socially acceptable to behave in this way.

They are scum - follow and like 'exposing British first' as they shine a light on all the nonsense and lies that BF post.

Also a lot of the followers are America based so it's not all UK followers.

If I have read correctly, those numbers are somehow 'fudged'. It is blatantly obvious they don't have that many fans/supporters - every gathering they've had in recent months show a pitiful amount of people turning up. Plus for a group with 'so many supporters', they are constantly begging for money.

They're awful. I blocked anything shown by their page on Facebook and deleted a few people that shared their pics. Don't see anything by them now, it's great.

The crap they make up is so bad it's funny

'Supermarket didn't allow veteran to sell poppies as Muslim shopper was offended'

Bullshit that didn't happen!! People are thick.

It's disgusting. I'm not surprised they have support though. I've noticed since the Brexit vote more people think it's socially acceptable to have racist views.

They have protests and whatnot close to where I live and my hometown, both of those towns have a massive problem with people trying to illegally enter the UK. Some of the Britain First members are honestly just thugs looking for a fight (and regularly getting arrested), others as pps say are drawn in by cute pictures of unrelated stuff, and others believe in some (heavily stress 'some') of what Britain First say - like their views on illegal immigration.
Just want to make the point that I absolutely do not agree with what they stand for. I watched a fascinating documentary about them and honestly Paul Golding and Jayda are very extreme in their views. I think they should be regarded as extremists as much as any other extremist group.

They share phtoshopped pictures that are lies, they share lies, they are disgusting.

Also pages can buy 'likes' you pay and magically you get thousands ofnew likes, I suspect this is what's happening her!!

They are abhorrent.

It is utterly depressing how they have so many likes however, it is Facebook

Britain Furst was excellent, only problem is people might actually think you like Britain First. Shame they stopped posting.

YANBU, people do get drawn in by this rubbish. I had to let a mate know what they were like as he shared a picture with me, as we are both interested in WW1, and he had like one of their pictures. He had no idea

25 and broken you're so right. People think Britain First are a patriotic group- very big on stories about war heroes- but they're really just like the National Front. Sadly people don't look behind the scenes and see these people for what they really are. I hide their posts and try to highlight their real nature to people. Sadly Brexit does seem to have made these people crawl out of the woodwork.

It literally scares me that people believe their posts without checking for authenticity

I think a lot of it is misdirection. I had to point out to MIL a couple of years ago that the 'support our brace soldiers' picture she'd shared came from their page. She was horrified when I told her what their aims are.

Also aren't they better known now due to Jo Cox's attacker shouting 'Britain First!' before he stabbed her?

Scribblegirl is right i think. My mum shared a post along the lines of remembering fallen soldiers, of course you're going to support that, it was only afterwards she realised it was actually a British first post.

YaNbU. Sadly a lot of people do seem to be stupid. I keep seeing memes about Muslims not allowing english people to celebrate St Georges day. There is no basis at all for these yet people are furious.

I have a knuckle dragger on my Facebook who posts this shite, I thought about deleting, but actually it's far more satisfying posting links under every single false story or photoshopped picture he posts showing them up as the bullshit lies they invariable are. He's too thick to work out how to block me, or delete my comments, and it drives him mad that his shit doesn't get the response he wants from his other "friends" as I've got in first and debunked it.

I went on and replied to a load of stupid comments on their post about the London attack yesterday.

Not in an inflammatory way just to point out actual facts where there were comments that were completely racist and bonkers.

I was shocked though to see that one of my FB friends follows them (not someone I would imagine either). I think a lot of people are suckered in by seemingly okay posts especially around Remembrance Day and don't realise what a vile organisation they are.

A lot of the people commenting on the London attack BF post yesterday were not even British (so I asked them to keep their hate speech for their own country in a polite British kind of way).

These people are causing harm to us by playing into extremists hands.

Katie hopkins, britain first and the mail and the express are partly to blame for acts of terror in this country, i truly believe this.

I totally and utterly agree it's vile crap.

However dismissing them as stupid is dangerous as not all are.

These things flourish and get out of hand when government and opposition belittle and dismiss people's genuine concerns regarding uncontrolled immigration.

The dismissal of them as stupid and knuckle staggers has led us to the utter mess of Brexit.

I haven't an answer to this but it's clear that it's not enough to dismiss these people lightly.

And again can I reiterate they are vile.

I was blocked by the BF FB page for disagreeing (relatively politely) with a particularly abhorrent post about refugees. I'm probably more proud of that than I should be.

They're a despicable organisation, including in the way they repeatedly use Lee Rigby's image to drum up support for their Islamophobia despite his mother publicly asking them to desist. Before I was blocked I reported them to FB more than once for inciting hate speech with certain specific posts but they were never found to have breached its standards.

Much as I hate them though, I do think it's better to know that such bile is being spewed so we can guard against its effects, rather than being in blissful ignorance.