‘The Potential for Manipulation is Huge’

Jeffrey Epstein and the 4chan Plan

Matt Gallagher reveals the sex offender’s links to the early rise of the online alt-right and the far-right conspiracy movements that would follow

Te three million Epstein Files recently released by the US Department of Justice recast Jeffrey Epstein as more than a sex trafficker, an intelligence asset, and a professional blackmailer. They also suggest that he had a role to play in the creation of today’s online far-right politics.

“Brexit, just the beginning,” he wrote to tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel in 2016, celebrating the onset of “tribalism” and the unravelling of globalisation.

Epstein appeared to view right-wing populism as an opportunity – and to understand very early how the internet could be used to accelerate it. And rather than simply watching this new ecosystem emerge, he appears to have had a role during its formation.