A former financial backer of the British National Party (BNP) and former member of the anti-Muslim movement Britain First, Dowson confirmed he will be deploying his “Patriotic News Agency” and “other networks with their bases in Hungary and Serbia” to support Scottish independence and promote Scottish separatism, which is becoming a hot topic after the Brexit vote last year.

The vow represents a U-turn for Dowson, previously a "fanatical defender of the union," in his own words.

Dowson reportedly said he would be directing the pro-independence online media campaign from his bases in Hungary and Serbia as well as in Britain, including from an office in Stirling, The Guardian said.

The newspaper confirmed that Dowson’s social media group had promoted pro-Trump fake “news” during the latter stages of last year’s U.S. presidential campaign, including several conspiracy theories about Trumpʼs Democrat rival Hillary Clinton.

Dowson described his strategy as spreading "devastating anti-Clinton, pro-Trump memes and sound bites into sections of the population too disillusioned with politics to have taken any notice of conventional campaigning." The site pumped out pro-Trump hoaxes tying Clinton to Satanism, pedophilia and other conspiracies, according to a report in The New York Times.

The Guardian report describes Dowson as "an unapologetic advocate of Christian nationalist anti-immigrant groups across Europe, and a strong proponent of Vladimir Putin."

Dowson has spoken at a conference of far-right leaders in Russia, and is reported to be closely linked to Russian fascist Aleksandr Dugin, according to Hope not Hate, the U.K.’s largest anti-racism and anti-extremism movement.

The latest report comes hot on the heels of news yesterday that another British far-right extremist, former BNP leader Nick Griffin, has said he would be moving to Hungary.

By Christian Keszthelyi

Source: BBJ

Republished with permission