Tom Watson, of Worcester, alleged to be behind Big Time Charlie X account that created so-called Traitorbase

The owner of a recruitment firm has been accused of being at the centre of a so-called “doxxing” campaign against the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), anti-racism activists and business executives who recruit black, Asian and minority ethnic workers.

Tom Watson, from Worcester, is alleged to be behind an X account calling itself “Big Time Charlie”, which was deactivated shortly after he was named by the campaign group Hope Not Hate.

The account had almost 50,000 followers and had become increasingly prominent in recent weeks as RNLI staff found themselves being harassed and attacked online as far-right activists targeted them over their involvement in rescuing people trying to cross the Channel in small boats.

The account, which has a history of racist comments, appears to have been using AI to scrape data from LinkedIn and other sites to build a so-called Traitorbase. The Big Time Charlie account was removed almost immediately after Hope Not Hate alleged that Watson was behind it, and after the Guardian approached him for comment.

Like the posts on Watson’s LinkedIn account, the X account has frequently praised the hard-right MP Rupert Lowe. It also claimed to have donated £2,500 to Lowe’s Restore Britain party and joined its “Cromwell Club” for those activists who pay a certain level of donation.

Targets of doxxing by the Big Time Charlie account told the Guardian of the impact.

They included Chantelle Lunt, a Green party councillor in Merseyside who has already been targeted by the far right, and who made a report to the police after details about her were published online by the account.

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