In a series of posts on X, a British YouTuber joked about launching nuclear bombs to "atomise" nations including India over the "smallest infraction", sparking widespread outrage online.
"When I become prime minister of England, I'll open the nuclear silos as an explicit warning to any foreign power that interferes with British interests and affairs. I'm not talking huge incidents, I'm itching to launch and atomize entire nations over the smallest infraction," said YouTuber Miles Routledge wrote on X.
In a now-deleted post, he singled out India as one of those nations saying if he was prime minister of the UK, he would attack India "just for the sake of it. "Hell, I might just launch at India just for the sake of it!" he wrote.
Accused of rage-baiting, Mr Routledge said he did not like India and provided a deeply racist explanation for it. "Believe it or not, I just don't like India. Also I can sense an Indian, he is indian," he claimed after one anonymous X user allegedly threatened him over his remarks.
“Indian threatens to find me, it backfires lmao,” he wrote while sharing a screenshot of the chat.
The image showed a message from a user which read: “I will find you I promise, your apology video will be sweet.”
Since posting the original threat, Mr Routledge shared a flurry of disturbing racist memes and AI-generated images to double down on his remarks.
Who is Miles Routledge?
In 2021, the 25-year-old British student was stranded in Afghanistan during the Taliban takeover and had to be evacuated from the war-torn country. He gained notoriety as a “dangerous tourist” who planned a trip to Afghanistan to witness life under the Taliban's offensive, arriving in Kabul on August 13, just days before the city fell on August 15. Despite warnings from the British government, he travelled to the country, documenting his experience on platforms like 4chan, Facebook and Twitch.
When the Taliban took over, he found himself stranded, seeking refuge in a safe house and eventually being evacuated by the British Army on August 17 in the guise of a woman in a burka.
He also signed a book deal with Antelope Hill, publishing his account of the Fall of Afghanistan in December 2022. Routledge continued to travel to dangerous locations, including Kazakhstan, Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan, Ukraine and Brazil, facing various challenges, such as false imprisonment and illegal border crossings.