'Decline porn': Brussels attracting far-right YouTubers

Far-right YouTubers are becoming increasingly drawn to Brussels to create content portaying the city as dangerous and run down.

The BBC describes the phenomenon as "decline porn". Viewers are lured in with clickbait titles, dramatic music and raw footage of beggars, drugs and street litter.

A common feature of all the videos is that the creators flirt with far-right and racist ideas, sometimes subtly and sometimes very directly, claiming to “want to show the Western world that the media doesn’t show”.

Bruzz reviewed a number of such videos featuring Brussels, emphasising the city’s status as the capital of Europe.

“Zero percent white people - there are no Europeans here, that’s crazy,” is said in a video by Two Mad Explorers, a German-Irish influencer duo, Luke and Naomi, walking through Brussels.

Their video, posted three months ago, has racked up nearly 171,000 views and 3,798 comments.

In a video by Dutch Travel Maniac about Brussels, uploaded six months ago and currently racking up almost three million views, creator Tom van den Heuvel reacts furiously when people say they would rather not be filmed.

“This isn’t Africa,” he snaps back. “This is Europe, where we’re allowed to film.”

The post attracted more than 22,000 reactionary comments online.

Six months ago, a similar video by Kurt Caz, who has more than four million followers, went viral.

"Harassed In Europe’s Worst City! Brussels" has 2.3 million views. In the video, Caz walks through the capital with, among others, former Vlaams Belang member Dries Van Langenhove.

In Anderlecht, they express surprise at the many kebab shops and the lack of “shops where you can still buy proper Belgian waffles”.

Caz shoves his camera in the faces of people on the street and reacts irritably when they refuse to be filmed.

In Belgium, the video was taken down following a legal complaint, but in the Netherlands, the video is still available on social media.

According to Anaëlle Gonzalez, a postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven specialising in mass communication, the popularity of the videos is mainly due to the message they convey.

“The videos are popular because migration remains a popular topic,” Gonzalez told Bruzz.

“In times of political and financial uncertainty, people are looking for a clear narrative. They’re looking for someone to blame, and it appears popular to target migrants for economic problems or the lack of security.”

According to Gonzalez, young influencers are also often trusted by people because they are relatable and “just like everyone else”.

Gonzalez reviewed a video from Youtuber Yung Jamie titled "I got ATTACKED in Brussels' Most Dangerous No-Go Zone", in which he walks through Cureghem in Anderlecht filming people without their consent and antagonising them with comments in heavily-accented English such as “why am I the only white man walking around here?”

He zooms in on litter and homeless people and tells the camera that “within a few years, we’ll be a minority in the capital of Europe. How did we let that happen? It’s so sad to see.”

In the video, a few young men clearly do not want to be filmed and shout after the YouTuber, who walks away to dramatic music, claiming that “in Belgium, we can’t even film in a normal square any more”.

Yung Jamie’s new focus on “dangerous neighbourhoods” has earned him significantly higher viewing figures than his earlier, less popular videos in which he attempted to enter amusement parks, shops and football stadiums illegally at night, which led to complaints from Plopsaland De Panne, Bellewaerde, Ikea in Ghent and Union Saint-Gilloise.

The shift to "decline porn" content is not entirely surprising for internet personalities that chase trends to generate more views, but Gonzalez warns that it’s an alarming one.

“Videos like this are dangerous because they involve framing and often misinformation too,” Gonzalez told Bruzz.

“It’s sometimes unclear what actually did or didn’t happen, and AI is sometimes used in similar videos. The creators aren’t required to adhere to ethical codes of conduct, unlike journalists or researchers.”

Gonzalez also highlights the unequal power dynamics in the videos between those filming and those being filmed: “People are filmed without consent and don’t always have the opportunity to clearly say no or to challenge this legally afterwards. This clearly demonstrates problematic power dynamics.”

According to Daniël Jurg of the SMIT (Studies in Media, Innovation & Technology) research group at VUB, who specialises in the political use of social media, the videos can indeed have political consequences.

“The power of YouTubers in general is that they seem very authentic,” Jurg told Bruzz.

“People can identify with them and are thus drawn into their message. The influencers’ discourse that ‘everything is real’ also works well to win people over.

"Furthermore, the power of the videos lies in the fact that they are never explicitly political.

"Kurt Caz, whose video was taken down in Belgium, is a travel vlogger, for example. But amidst his enjoyable travel footage, he can very easily convey subtle political messages.

"People with similar frustrations may then start to ask themselves: ‘when is this going to change?’ and are thus politically activated."

Jurg warns against paying excessive attention to these phenomena.

“Part of the strategy of the creators of these videos is to stir up controversy that the mainstream media then jumps on,” said Jurg.

“This naturally brings them even more attention, but it’s an interesting phenomenon that we need to investigate.”