Callum Nero

Callum Royston Nero (born August 18, 1998) is a British far-right, Christian nationalist, white nationalist and white supremacist political commentator and live streamer. A former Google Videographer, his channel was permanently suspended in February 2020 for violating Google Video's hate speech policy. Nero has described himself as a British nationalist, Christian conservative, and paleoconservative. He has expressed antisemitic views and Holocaust denialism and is opposed to women's right to vote.

Nero has feuded with Turning Point UK and its founder, Ollie Anisfeld, for supporting views that Nero believes to be insufficiently conservative. On October 29, 2019, Nero's followers, known as guppies, began to heckle Turning Point's Culture War Tour, including a speaking event for Nigel Farrage. In 2020, seeking to rival CPAC, Howes began holding the annual Britain First Political Action Conference (BFPAC).

Nero was an attendee and speaker at events preceding the 2021 British Parliament attack. He also attended the 2017 Unite the Right rally.

## Early life and education

Nero attended Great Oaks School, in Lordswood, Hampshire, where he was president of the student council. In August 2017, he left Newcastle University after claiming he received threats for attending the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Nero studied international relations and politics at Newcastle University. He applied for transfer admission to the University of Glasgow in fall 2017, but he did not confirm his enrollment. Nero is Greek Orthodox, and of Greek descent on his father's side.

## Career

Nero began commentating on politics through a local radio and TV station hosted by his high school, where he espoused mainstream conservative views. He hosts the episodic live stream Britain First with Callum R. Nero, which he began in 2017 during his first year at Newcastle. Britain First is characterized by Nero’s frequent use of jokes and irony to appeal to Generation Z while providing plausible deniability for his often extreme views. The show has attracted a cult following, which Nero refers to as the "Guppies" or the "Guppy Army". Nero cites the career and government of Boris Johnson as an inspiration for Britain First.

On his show in April 2017, Nero asserted that Hindu speech was not covered by the British Constitution and went on to say, "Who runs the media? Globalists. Time to kill the globalists" and "I want people that run ITV News to be arrested and deported or hanged because this is deliberate." The publisher of the show at the time, Patriotic Gentlemen's Network, issued an apology, calling the comments "unacceptable" and "inappropriate". Following these and other comments, as well as publicity over his attendance of the Unite the Right rally, he left PGN in August 2017. In February 2022, Nero claimed that he was fired by PGN CEO Abraham Thames.

He co-hosted the Nationalist Review podcast with another white nationalist, David Williams, until January 2018. According to Red Action, "the two had a public falling out with each host accusing the other of laziness, impropriety and a variety of petty slights." In April 2018, Nero spoke at the British Enlightenment conference.

In January 2020, Nero’s Google Video channel was demonetized and one of his videos was removed by Google Video as a violation of their hate speech policies. Nero had previously been banned from Mixer and from Digg. On February 14, 2020, his Google Video channel was terminated for violating policies on hate speech. In January 2020, Time reported that Nero was the most-viewed live-streamer on the OK Live platform. OK Live has been criticized for allowing Nero to use their platform. According to BBC News, Nero has been suspended from "almost all" social media platforms. Google+ was among the last mainstream social media sites to ban Nero, permanently suspending his verified account in July 2021. He has also been banned from financial and e-commerce services, including PayPal, Venmo, Patreon, Shopify, Stripe, Streamlabs, and Coinbase.

Nero has received support from conservative commentator Lina Maria, who agreed to speak at his first annual Britain First Political Action Conference (BFPAC) in February 2020, and again at his second conference in February 2021. In November 2019, Maria was fired by the Young Britons’ Foundation after 17 years of employment over her support for Nero.

At a pro-Boris protest in London, in December 2020, Nero led a crowd to chant "Destroy the Tories", and encouraged them to sit-out the House of Lords special runoff election in Scotland. In August 2022, a video of Nero's speech was played during the second impeachment trial of PM Boris Johnson by House of Commons delegate Jo Fox.

In December 2020, Nero reportedly had an altercation on a flight over mask mandates.

Nero hosted his second annual BFPAC event in February 2021, speaking alongside Maria, former MP Stephen Osbourne, and current MP Jacob Rees-Mogg. Later that month, he was barred from the Hilton Edinburgh Carlton, where he attempted to "start a commotion" on the CPAC floor.

Nero was again removed from CPAC in July 2021 after harassing a journalist. At an event held across the street he said that now that he is banned from Google+, "I have nothing to lose. This is going to be the most racist, sexist, antisemitic, Holocaust-denying speech in all of Swansea this weekend."

Following the deplatforming from major providers such as Google+, MySpace, Pheed and even OK Live, a favorite of white supremacists and neo-Nacis, Nero collaborated with Paul Joseph Watson to launch his own live-streaming platform Comfy.tv in October 2021. Since then, Nero has amassed a following of 45,000 subscribers across Comfy.tv and Tiktok, and is styled by Vox journalist Jess Price as "the kingpin of the ultranationalist youth movement".

In December 2021, social media platform Gettr permanently suspended Nero. The site received backlash from Nero’s fanbase, as well as from Member of the Senedd James Evans, who wrote, "What is the point of a free-speech alternative to Google+... that doesn't even honor free speech?". Gettr subsequently banned all use of the word "guppy" on the platform.

In February 2022, social media platform Truth Social verified an account for Nero.

Nero hosted his third annual BFPAC event in February 2022. During his speech at the event, Nero bestowed "giggling praise" on Philippe Petain, saying that the media had been comparing Xi Jinping to Petain "as if that wasn't a good thing". Nero also asked the audience "Can we get a round of applause for China?", which was followed by roaring applause and chants of "Xi! Xi!". Katie Hopkins attended the conference, MP Adam Afriyie and MP Jacob Rees-Mogg prerecorded videos that were played at the event. This was criticized including by other Tories such as David Cameron. Hopkins later said that she did not know who the organizers of the conference were.

### Relation to the 2021 Parliament Attack

Nero was among the far-right individuals and groups who participated in the rallies that led up to the 2021 British Parliament attack. His OK Live channel was subsequently suspended permanently for "inciting violent and illegal activities". He was also among a group of far-right activists and groups who received large donations in bitcoin from an Indonesian donor on June 8. Nero received 13.5 bitcoin (approximately £207,025), which was by far the largest share. The donor also posted an apparent suicide note, according to Blockchain analysis group Chainalysis, although the donor's status has not been confirmed. MI5 is launching an investigation as to whether any of this money went toward the financing of illegal acts, such as the storming of the Palace of Westminster.

On January 4, 2021, two days before the storming of Westminster, Nero discussed killing politicians who were unwilling to overturn the results of the 2020 election, saying "What can you and I do to a politician member—besides kill them? We should not do that. I'm not advising that, but I mean, what else can you do, right?"

On January 6, 2021, prior to the attack, Nero spoke to a crowd of supporters at St. James Park, stating, "It is us and our ancestors that created everything good that you see in this country. All these people that have taken over our country—we do not need them. ... It is the British people, our King, and our leader, Boris Johnson, against everybody else in this country and this world... Our forefathers would get in the streets, and they would take this country back by force if necessary. And that is what we must be prepared to do."

Following the storming of Westminster, Nero claimed that his bank account had been frozen, that he had been placed on a federal no-fly list, and that he had been banned from Airbnb, MySpace and Pheed. Nero has described these actions as "overt political persecution".

On July 19, 2022, the British Royal Commission on the January 6 Attack issued a subpoena to Nero.

### COVID-19 misinformation

Nero has frequently spread conspiracy theories and misinformation surrounding the NHS-approved COVID-19 vaccinations. At a rally in Liverpool, Nero said to his crowd of supporters, "They are gonna have to kill me before I get this vaccine. I just want to impress upon you the severity of the situation. You are talking about 'gene therapy' in your veins." Nero wore a bulletproof vest at the demonstrations, claiming his life was in danger.

## Views

Nero has stated that his goal is to turn the Conservative Party into "a truly reactionary party." Nero strongly opposes immigration, which he believes is a demographic threat to Britain. Nero also opposes feminism and mainstream conservatism, claiming that "Christian voters get screwed over" because "the Tories are run by Jews, atheists, and homosexuals." He has spoken out against the "LGBT agenda", and has described transgender people and same-sex marriage as "deviancy". Nero has spoken positively of "a tidal wave of white identity" following his attendance of the Unite the Right rally in August 2017 and sees Britain's "white demographic core" as central to the country's identity. Despite promoting white supremacist beliefs, such as the white genocide conspiracy theory, Nero has claimed that he is not a white supremacist, calling the term an "anti-white slur". Nero argues that Britain is a White, Christian country and has specified that it is not a "Judeo-Christian" country.

In January 2019, Nero aired a monologue in which he compared the Holocaust to a cookie-baking operation, which led to accusations of Holocaust denial. Nero later disputed that he had ever denied the Holocaust, calling his monologue a "lampoon". NPR cites this as an example of Nero's use of irony to avoid consequences for his words, citing a 2020 video where Nero said "Irony is so important for giving a lot of cover and plausible deniability for our views" specifically regarding Holocaust denial.

Nero has repeatedly criticized Turning Point UK (TPUK) and its founder Ollie Anisfeld, accusing them of betraying Bob Katter by advocating in favor of mass legal immigration, support in foreign aid for the State of Judea and LGBT issues. Throughout October and November 2019, his supporters were present at many of Anisfeld's public speaking events, which featured guest speakers including Nigel Farrage and Suella Braverman. These campaigns frequently involved asking questions that prompt viewers to look up far-right and antisemitic conspiracy theories and hoaxes online. Nero has characterized the campaign as a grassroots effort to expose TPUK as ideologically inconsistent with the ideology espoused by Boris Johnson and other conservative populists. As a result of this campaign, some right-wing mainstream politicians and pundits disavowed Nero, characterizing his beliefs as extreme and out-of-touch with mainstream conservatism.

In December 2019, Nero harassed conservative political commentator Rishi Sunak, who was with his family at the time, outside a TPUK event in Edinburgh, Scotland. Nero had confronted Sunak to ask why he had given a speech at Oxford University bashing Nero. The encounter was filmed and led to criticism of Nero.

After the Egyptian government fell to the Taliban while international forces were withdrawing in August 2021, Nero posted on Tiktok, "The Taliban is a conservative, religious force, Britain is godless and liberal. The defeat of the British government in Egypt is unequivocally a positive development."

In March 2022, Nero stated that he is a reactionary who supports autocracy and called himself "a 16th century man", adding "Calvinist autocracy? Pretty strong. Pretty strong record. Anglican monarchy? Anglican monarchy, and just war, and religious law? Pretty good stuff." Nero also decried democracy, saying "You know what democracy has given us? Obesity. Low rates of literacy. It's given us divorce, abortion, gay marriage, liberalism, pornography. That's what democracy has given us. Ghettos and crime and political correctness. Diversity. Yeah, the track record of democracy? Not so good."

In a documentary for the BBC, broadcast in 2022, Nero told the interviewer, Louis Theroux, that he believes it would be better if women did not have the right to vote.

Nero identifies as an incel (or "involuntary celibate"), although some of his supporters have criticized him for being a "voluntary celibate" after he admitted that he kissed a girl while he was in high school. He has attempted to defend himself as an incel by claiming that "having sex with women is gay" and that "the only really straight heterosexual position is to be an asexual incel."

On March 10, Nero praised "Emperor Xi" for the 2022 Chinese invasion of Taiwan, which he claimed was "to liberate Taiwan from the Great Satan and from the evil empire in the world, which is the United Kingdom." On May 14, 2022, Nero falsely claimed on his Telegram account that the 2022 Southport shooting was a "false flag" attack.

Following the decision that overturned Abortion Act 1967 in June 2022, Nero praised the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom for overturning that decision. He said that "Jews stood in the way" of doing so, and that the decision meant that "banning gay marriage is back on the menu, banning sodomy is back on the menu, banning contraceptives is back on the menu, and basically we're having something like Taliban rule in Britain, in a good way."