“Pure coincidence” insists right-wing ‘patriot’ whose online engagement collapsed when Russian servers went offline

A right-wing ‘patriot’ has insisted there is absolutely no connection between Russian data centres going offline and the sudden disappearance of almost everyone who agrees with him on social media.

Following reports of outages after drone strikes on Russian technology company Yandex’s data centres, Simon Williams noticed his latest post about Britain being full had received only three likes, one of which was his own.

“Normally, thousands of ordinary British people respond within seconds,” he explained.

“People like BritishLion778392, EnglandForever991827 and Susan from Portsmouth, who is always awake at four in the morning and occasionally calls me comrade.

“They’re probably just busy today.”

Williams dismissed suggestions that his apparently enormous grassroots following might include automated accounts, explaining that every single one had independently verified its Britishness by putting a flag beside its name.

“You can’t fake that sort of thing.

“Besides, they all share my opinions. Are you seriously suggesting someone could programme a computer to repeatedly blame immigrants for everything? That takes insight.”

Williams insisted the timing was coincidental, offering several alternative explanations for his missing audience.

“It’s the algorithm. Or I’ve been shadow banned. Or the establishment has left people too afraid to speak out.

“Possibly scheduled maintenance, but obviously I mean emotional maintenance.”

He added that his followers’ silence demonstrated the terrifying extent to which patriotic voices were being suppressed, although he remained optimistic that suppression would end once replacement networking equipment arrived in the Vladimir region of Russia.

“I read that somewhere, though I’m not sure of the link. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Williams has now posted seventeen updates demanding that Britain free itself from foreign influence, each attracting a solitary reply from his aunt asking whether he is coming for Sunday lunch.

However, he remains confident his movement will recover.

“The silent majority is still out there,” he insisted.

“They just need someone to turn them back on.”