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lack of women at the event. An exYoung Liberal, Justin Beulah, who was identified as a reprieved neo-Nazi in this year’s major SMH–ABC investigation, was in attendance. He posted pictures of himself at the event on VibrantDiversity. At the time, he was also a student at the University of Canberra. Honi reached out to Beulah for comment, given that his picture and a username confirmed to be connected to him were found as we scrolled these servers. We did not receive comment in time for publication. Through examining the links and usernames disseminated on these threads, Honi can confirm that there were USyd students, then members of the Young Liberals, present at this event, with direct links to the online Nazi network. For us, Beulah (posting as ‘Brad Small’ and ‘Brad’s Mobile’), became a link between the server and USyd. In interrogating the large array of images he shared, we have discovered that members of these threads had in-depth knowledge of University of Sydney student culture, Honi articles and USyd student politics. Beulah has shared a range of phone snapshots taken close to and within the University. Not only this, but screenshots obtained by Honi show attempts by members Beulah and a user named ‘Convo’ to understand student politics abbreviations. “SRC?” Convo
asks, to which Beulah explains “Student rep council.” Beulah’s institutional knowledge of our University may suggest that he had direct network affiliations with a USyd student who, by sending him relevant information, allowed him to be aware of, recruit within, and perhaps attempt to infiltrate USyd student politics. A prominent member of the Young Nationals, who we cannot name for legal reasons, was one possible accomplice to Beulah’s work – he was A USyd undergraduate, frequented the Discord servers, and a manager of one of the University’s USU Board candidate campaigns several years prior. The takeaways from our investigation are quite harrowing. Examples of the ingrained connection between these networks and USyd are especially mindboggling because they require a steadfast knowledge of the workings of student organisations. Things like SRC Council motions, for example, could not possibly have been within the institutional knowledge nor digital reach of anyone without some tangible, continuous link to someone on the inside. We know that Neo-Nazi propaganda and rhetoric spiked on the Camperdown campus in 2017. We also know that the rate at which information was disseminated within VibrantDiversity
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also rose with particular vigour that same year. There is an apparent temporal link to a spike in university-related rhetoric in this chatroom and the rise of neo-Nazi action on campus when this evidence is read concurrently. Our investigation only scratched the surface of all the reprehensible fascist messages sent in the 66 leaked servers. At various points, we regrettably came across messages viscerally describing sexually problematic behaviour, images of African-American people being lynched, and other extremely violent imagery. Naturally, this raised harrowing concerns of what had already transpired on campus and what could be happening as we write this article. Were there campus neo-Nazis lurking in those threads, who had fallen through the cracks? And, now these Discord threads have been exposed, is there a place unknown to us where new conversations are taking place? Fascist networks are quite feasibly expanding. They aren’t just a few rogue individuals on a single website. They are in the business of building a movement. That movement has extended its reach to nonfascist conservative groups on campus, such as the Young Liberals. It’s unclear when this movement will penetrate our institutions of student representation. Maybe it already has.