A purple-haired ‘goth girl’ has become an unlikely mascot for far-right users on social media, but her origins are not what you would expect.
The AI-generated British schoolgirl, named Amelia, has been turned into a mouthpiece for racism in which she warns of the dangers of ‘migrant third-world layabouts’ and ‘militant Muslims’ while roaming the House of Commons.
And yet, it gets crazier.
Users have used AI to recreate her image in an array of quintessentially British media, from ‘real life’ meets with Harry Potter and Father Ted to a version of her interacting with Peppa Pig and Paddington, accompanied by racist language and far-right messaging.
But who is Amelia, and what are her origins?
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Who is Amelia?
Amelia is depicted as a short-haired college student with purple hair, purple lipstick and purple clothes to match.
She is typically seen wearing a dress, a choker, a cropped jacket and heeled ankle boots.
Viral videos and pictures of Amelia sharing anti-immigration messages, while holding the union jack have made her a far-right mascot.
One common image shows her lighting a cigarette with a burning picture of Sir Keir Starmer – referencing a trend that emerged among women protesting the brutal Iranian regime earlier this year.
How did she become a symbol for the UK far right?
Like many characters embraced by the far right, Amelia was not created with that future in mind.
Her first appearance was in a counter-terrorism video game funded by the UK Home Office and designed to teach 13 to 18-year-olds the dangers of radicalisation.
Players of Pathways: Navigating the Internet and Extremism journey through the game as a college student, where they are invited to make decisions in various scenarios.
For example, the user can choose whether or not to download extremist content by selecting multiple-choice answers.
Those in-game choices may result in being referred to the government’s Prevent counter-terrorism programme.
In one section, the player must decide whether to join character Amelia on a rally that ‘defends English rights’.
In the game, Amelia is portrayed as someone who enjoys partaking in demonstrations organised by ‘a small political group’ protesting against the ‘erosion of British values’.
However, the founder and CEO of Shout Out UK, the company that created the game, said Amelia has been misrepresented.
Matteo Bergamini told the Guardian: ‘There has been a lot of misrepresentation, unfortunately.
‘The game does not state, for example, that questioning mass migration is inherently wrong.’
He added that he felt surprised by the speed in which people have used AI to recreate Amelia.
‘This experience has shown us why this work is so immensely important, but also gives us pause for thought about our safety in conducting this work due to the highly sophisticated coordination of those who profit from hate,’ he said.
How viral is she?
If you have not encountered Amelia online yet, the chances are you will soon, as users turn to bots including X’s Grok AI to recreate her image.
The first Amelia meme posted on X earlier this month was viewed more than 1.4 million times, according to data gathered by Logically, a UK company monitoring disinformation online.
Amelia was first introduced to international audiences on January 15, which saw an average daily post count about the character jump from 500 a day to around 10,000 daily, prompting a new wave of ‘Ameliaposting’.
As with any viral meme on X, you can expect its social media platform owner, Elon Musk, to hop onto the trend.
On Wednesday, he retweeted an account on X prompting an Amelia cryptocurrency token, which Shout Out UK founder, Matteo, described as ‘the monetisation of hate’.
He added that his company has been subject to hate mail, which has been reported to the police.
Matteo also points out that the game’s original initiative was to be used alongside existing classroom resources.
The main aim of the Pathways game was designed to target local radicalisation risks, the Home Office said.
It added that its Prevent programme has diverted nearly 6,000 people away from violent ideologies.
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