According to Slate Discord has become a a hub for 150 million gamers and “you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy”.

It looks like the 500 white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and members of the alt-right who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 organisers used a popular, and rather private, chat platform for gamers called Discord.

Discord purged several accounts associated with the alt-right and the organisers of Unite the Right. “Discord’s mission is to bring people together around gaming,” the company said after the march turned deadly. “We’re about positivity and inclusivity. Not hate. Not violence.”

However, they appear to have had limited success. Discord remains a popular destination for communities of neo-Nazis and white supremacists to socialise, share hateful memes, boost the ideas that undergird their movements, inculcate strangers, and plan activities that take place elsewhere online.

More than 20 communities on the platform that were either directly about Nazism or white supremacy or revelled in sharing anti-Semitic and racist memes and imagery. Joan Donovan, the lead researcher on media manipulation at the Data & Society Research Institute said that Discord is always on and always present among these groups on the far-right.

“It’s the place where they do most of the organizing of doxing and harassment campaigns.”

Other than a venue though it seems that the White Supremacists see gamers as potential recruits. Clearly if their revolution ever takes place they can be guaranteed to find foot soldiers who are used to shooting things. Unfortunately, they are unlikely to be allowed to join any revolution which requires them to go outside, get dirty and not be home in time for dinner.