What we know about how Northern Ireland's riots were organised

There has been three nights of violence on the streets of Northern Ireland.

Homes and vehicles set on fire; water cannon deployed; more than a dozen police officers injured; and an atmosphere of fear has descended with reports of people being threatened for having a "different skin colour" and families being put out of their homes "because they're black".

It all came after a knife attack in Belfast on Monday night, for which a Sudanese man has been charged with attempted murder.

Within hours, social media was ablaze with footage of the attack quickly followed by calls for protest.

Many of those protests passed peacefully but, elsewhere, hundreds of masked people took to the streets and violence followed.

But how did so many people mobilise so quickly and what role did social media play in the organisation? BBC News NI takes a look at how a violent attack led to days of disorder.

The scenes on the streets of Northern Ireland this week are not new - in 2025, protests in Ballymena and other towns descended into violence the police branded as "racist thuggery" after an alleged sexual assault.

On this occasion, social media played a central role from the very beginning.

The first time many people heard about the initial attack was from a video filmed by a woman on her way home from work.

Social media posts, many of which focused on the alleged attacker's ethnicity, soon took on a life of their own, with the graphic scenes being shared widely across Facebook, X and TikTok.

On Tuesday, police confirmed the man they had arrested was a 30-year-old originally from Sudan - from there, speculation moved to how he came to be living in Belfast.

Less than 24 hours after the initial incident, hundreds of people came out for protests across Northern Ireland calling for a strict clampdown on immigration.

And there were also others, many masked, who took to the streets and caused serious violence.

Some of the posts circulating on social media gave times and places for protests and carried anti-immigration messaging.

Others included a list of roads which were due to be blocked or a direction for businesses to close at a certain time.

One of the more sinister posts was a long list of home addresses that had been collated and shared on social media.

Police said people who live in the named properties had been left "extremely distressed" by the posts, adding that it was "putting lives at risk and has to stop".

But who is behind the organisation of these incidents?

It's a difficult question to answer. Many of those involved in the protests were masked and social media accounts are largely anonymous.

Although the knife attack happened in a predominantly nationalist area in north Belfast, most of the violent scenes have taken place in mainly unionist areas.

When violence breaks out, paramilitaries are often involved, but the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said this time there was "no evidence" the disorder was coordinated by loyalist paramilitaries.

They have found evidence of social media coordination - both from inside and outside Northern Ireland.

"That momentum, that drive, that toxicity is what's bringing people out onto the streets. It needs to stop," said PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson.

Communications regulator Ofcom said some of Tuesday's disorder "appears to have been incited online", including "racially motivated incidents of violence, arson attacks on homes and vehicles, and attacks against police".

The watchdog added it was monitoring the situation closely and would be contacting specific providers, but has not confirmed which ones.

Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson also said "it's not loyalist paramilitary organisations" behind this week's disorder.

"The leaderships of the organisations have been clear, they're not taking any part in this, they're not encouraging anybody to take any part in this," he said.

One protester in east Belfast, John Keenan, condemned the violence but defended the right to protest peacefully.

"I think it's just spontaneous. I don't think it's organised at all, apart from what you read on Facebook and in the media."

He was one of the few protesters who did speak to journalists about what brought people onto the streets, with most choosing not to.

However scenes like those in Coleraine, County Londonderry, on Wednesday night perhaps summed up the mood among those who came onto the streets.

At that event, about 100 people gathered outside houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) near the town's university, some remonstrating with police.

As officers appealed for calm, several people shouted things like "get them out" and "they are a risk to our community".

Meanwhile, at another peaceful protest on Wednesday night at Stormont - the site of Northern Ireland's devolved parliament - one protester claimed online misinformation was being used to defuse protests.

He believed Wednesday's protest was "a scam", intended to pull protesters away from other sites.

"The post (for the Stormont protest) was shared all over Facebook by many people, but look at the turnout - there's nobody here.

"There's no speakers, there's no PA system, there's nothing.

"I think somebody just made a poster up, and these are the consequences of it, people are turning up and it's a total waste of time."

Dessie Donnelly, from the Belfast-based technology group the Rabble Cooperative, said social media played a role in "amplifying disinformation, assisting, and organising" this week.

He said it was being used to "organise and publicise attacks on homes and families of immigrants" as well as to set up "vigilante groups patrolling openly".

Perhaps the most notable intervention came on Wednesday, after the worst night of rioting.

That was when the family of Stephen Ogilvie, the victim of Monday's attack, appealed for calm, saying they wanted to "make it absolutely clear that overnight unrest is not welcome, and peaceful protest is the only way forward".

"We have many migrants who make a deeply valuable contribution to our country, including in our healthcare system and hospitality sector and we depend on them to make our country work."

They say they do not want this "terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility".

As with any violent disorder, it's regular people who are often left to pick up the pieces when public transport shuts down, businesses and schools close, and events like graduations and plays are cancelled.

For people living in the areas where the disorder happened, the effects will last for much longer.