Will Potter was included on a list of of academics with Twitter accounts linked to Antifa messaging.
The list was based a data analysis by Dr. Eoin Lenihan.
Potter is a Senior Academic Innovation Fellow and Professor in the Department of English at the University of Michigan.
Will Potter
“Potter uses the #Antifa hashtag to help mobilise Antifa groups to confront alleged far-extremists and he routinely uses alarmist terms such as ‘this is not a drill’ to inflame tensions and encourage civil disobedience,” Lenihan said.
Lenihan said Potter uses the platform to promote Antifa.
“Will Potter’s research focuses on how environmental and animal rights movements have been labelled as terrorist in post-9/11 USA,” Lenihan said. “His book ‘Green is the New Red’ is an account of his experience as an environmental extremist.”
Included in tweets from Potter’s account were are those supporting Antifa movements.
The technique used by Lenihan to determine who to place on the list was a search of all Twitter bios including the word “professor” and cross-searching their Tweet’s for Antifa content.
“In recent years there have been several high-profile cases of university staff with direct links to Antifa who have not only brought their extremist views into the classroom but who have been defended by their institutions for doing so,” Lenihan said in the Medium article outing the lecturers.
Notable examples of academics with links to Antifa include include Mark Bray, the author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook”, who has advocated for violent protest.
Bray was disavowed by the Dartmouth’s president in 2017.
Lenihan said the analysis does not mean any of those identified are affiliated with violent rioting and looting throughout the nation.
“(T)here are several reasons that an academic may have close social-media ties with an extremist group and close ties does not, immediately, indicate any wrongdoing,” Lenihan said.
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