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Draft:Ian Miles Cheong

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Ian Miles Cheong
CitizenshipMalaysia
Occupations
  • Political commentator
  • Journalist
X information
Handle
Years active2008–present
TopicPolitical commentary
Followers1.2 million

Ian Miles Cheong is a Malaysian right-wing commentator and journalist covering United States politics and formerly video games. He is known for his large presence on Twitter, with which he frequently shares misinformation. He has contributed to The Daily Caller, Rebel News, Gameranx, and RT. Cheong does not live in or hold citizenship in the United States despite his large amount of commentary on the country's politics, attracting significant criticism and accusations of grifting.

Journalism

[edit]

While working for Gameranx in 2013, Cheong broke the story that hackers had managed to download Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon ahead of its scheduled release while evading digital-rights management protection measures and subsequently shared it on the internet.[1][2] On January 14, 2017, Cheong announced through Gameranx that he was leaving the organization to spend more time working for Heat Street.[‡ 1]

In 2018, Cheong wrote a positive review of Black Panther for Dangerous, a website owned by Milo Yiannopoulos. This praise was unusual and significant as Cheong and his audience expected the film to push identity politics, popular among their political opposition. Cheong further commented on Twitter to describe the villain Erik Killmonger as "an SJW black supremacist" and the hero T'Challa as both "an isolationist-nationalist who adopts a neo-liberal stance. He doesn't believe in race." and "basically black [Donald] Trump".[3]

In February 2024, Cheong was an active contributor to Rebel News and had made prior contributions to The Daily Caller and RT.[4]

Social media

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The New York Times has described Cheong as having garnered a large following on Twitter by "playing a right-wing American raconteur".[5] He is known to make a significant income from his social media posts, having posted earnings of $16,259 dollars as part of a set of a $5 million total payout to creators on Twitter.[4][‡ 2][6][7] Cheong's posts on Twitter are also known to be frequently viewed by Elon Musk.[8][9]

Cheong's social media history dates as far back as 2012, where his Reddit account SolInvictus was banned from after having served as a volunteer moderator for several of the platform's most prominent subreddits, including r/politics and r/AskReddit. Cheong had been using Reddit to post promotional spam and had been hired by the marketing agency of GlobalPost as a "social media consultant".[10][11]

In 2018, Cheong and other right-wing outlets misidentified the perpetrator of the 2018 Jacksonville Landing shooting as a 23-year old Reddit user from Minnesota, highlighting the accounts frequently anti-Trump comments.[12]

In August 2020, Cheong shared a video on Twitter which had been deceptively edited by Ruptly, a video news agency owned by the Russian state media company RT, as part of a disinformation campaign during the 2020 United States presidential election. The video depicted protesters in Portland, Oregon burning a stack of bibles and American flags as part of a Black Lives Matter protest. In the unedited video, protesters had burned only one or two Bibles as kindling with little reaction, through there was cheering for the burning of an American flag, and the fire had attempted to be put out by a protester group called Moms United for Black Lives Matter. The video was originally posted by an account with low followers listing Oklahoma City and Ahu Dhabi as its location before being reposted by Cheong, which he told the New York Times he found by searching Twitter for Portland "as [he] normally [does]". He further told the times that he did not see any stack of Bibles being burned in the clip, despite having stated so in his retweet, and that it was not his intention to solely promote the Bible burning story instead of the protests as a whole. Cheong's retweet attracted the attention of several high-profile American right-wing figures, including Senator Ted Cruz, Donald Trump Jr., and Jack Posobiec. The New York Times and The Independent wrote that they did not believe Cheong was complicit in intentionally spreading Russian propaganda due to his regular sharing of content from the protest.[5][13][14]

In 2021, Cheong amplified content related to the Wi Spa controversy in which a set of videos went viral of a woman confronting the staff of a Koran spa about an individual with a penis believed to be a trans woman changing in the women's area of the spa. Cheong tweeted 2 videos about the incident, which obtained hundreds of thousands of views.[15][16]

Researchers for the Network Contagion Research Institute found that Cheong had amplified a fight video in Belgrave, Leicester between Indians and Pakistanis following an India-Pakistan cricket game as a part of the build-up to the 2022 Leicester unrest.[17]

In mid-2023, Cheong was among a group of commentators who chastised and called for the boycotting of Chick-fil-A following the discovery of an executive whose purpose was to manage diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.[‡ 3][18]

On February 9, 2024, a Twitter thread went viral claiming that Cheong was a grifter who intentionally posted divisive content solely for financial gain, particularly in relation to the Gaza war. Cheong disputed these claims the next day in an interview with the New Straits Times, stating he supported peace between Israel and Palestine. Shortly afterwards, Cheong was subject to a post by activist Drew Pavlou which suggested that Cheong was going to face punishment from the Malaysian government for his social media activity. Just afterwards, he was subject to a hoax claiming he had been executed by the Malaysian government for pro-Israel posts regarding Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip under orders of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, despite a moratorium on capital punishment in the country since 2018. The hoax was met with celebration among critics of Cheong. At that point, Cheong had amassed over 900,000 followers on Twitter.[4]

In March 2025, Cheong made a post claiming that the TV series Adolescence was based on the 2024 Southport stabbings and the murderer, a Black British male, had been race-swapped and rewritten to be radicalized by "the red pill movement". He further described the series as "anti-white propaganda". This post gained further traction when it was shared by Elon Musk. In reality, the TV series had been in production before the Southport stabbings occurred. Show creator Jack Thorne stated that while the show had been inspired by real-life events, the written story was not based on a true one.[19][20][21]

On October 1, 2025, Elon Musk reposted a response to a post Cheong made as part of a series of tweets where he called for the cancellation of Netflix where Cheong had written "A Netflix show, CoComelon, features interracial gay dads attempting to raise a baby as transgender who make the toddler dance for them in drag. This is the woke version of Bacha Bazi."[22]

Views

[edit]

Cheong's views has been described as right-wing[4] and far-right[8][9], though The New York Times has described Cheong as "playing a right-wing American raconteur"[5] and one viral Twitter thread highlighted by Time Magazine has accused him of being a grifter who generates controversy for profit[4]. He has received criticism for views characterized as racist or anti-LGBT. Cheong has made posts in favor of Israel and the Gaza War, but has stated that he advocates for peace on both sides of the war. Cheong has stated that he likes his home country of Malaysia because "the food is great, it's peaceful, and it's a strong conservative nation."[4]

Personal life

[edit]

According to the New Straits Times, Cheong resides in Ipoh.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Cheong, Ian Miles (April 9, 2013). "Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon Leaked by uPlay Exploit (written by Ian Miles Cheong)".
  2. ^ "Hackers steal Ubisoft's unreleased Far Cry video game". BBC News. 10 April 2013. Retrieved 18 March 2026.
  3. ^ Levine, Jon (16 February 2018). "Black Panther Is So Good Even Milo Yiannopoulos' Website Loves It". TheWrap. Retrieved 9 May 2026.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g de Guzman, Chad. "People Online Are Fantasizing About Malaysia Cracking Down on Right-Wing Commentator Ian Miles Cheong". Time Magazine. Retrieved 18 March 2026.
  5. ^ a b c Rosenberg, Matthew; Barnes, Julian E. (11 August 2020). "A Bible Burning, a Russian News Agency and a Story Too Good to Check Out". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 March 2026.
  6. ^ Hale, James (14 July 2023). "Twitter says its first creator payouts total $5 million". Tubefilter. Retrieved 9 May 2026.
  7. ^ Thakker, Prem. "Twitter's New Promise to Pay Content Creators Has One Big Catch". The New Republic. Retrieved 15 June 2026.
  8. ^ a b "'Stamp of approval': Twitter's Musk amplifies misinformation". France 24. Agence France-Presse. 19 April 2023. Retrieved 15 June 2026.
  9. ^ a b Ecarma, Caleb (22 November 2022). "If Elon Musk Really Doesn't Want Twitter to Look "Right-Wing," He's Doing a Terrible Job". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 15 June 2026.
  10. ^ Auerbach, David (9 October 2014). "Does Reddit Have a Transparency Problem?". Slate. Retrieved 9 June 2026.
  11. ^ Morris, Kevin. "Reddit moderator banned for selling his influence". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on 24 March 2025. Retrieved 9 June 2026.
  12. ^ Collins, Ben (28 August 2018). "Far-right media misidentifies Jacksonville shooter as Trump-bashing Reddit user". NBC News. Retrieved 10 May 2026.
  13. ^ Graziosi, Graig (11 August 2020). "Video of Portland 'Bible burning' may have been Russian disinformation scam". The Independent. Retrieved 18 March 2026.
  14. ^ Perry Douglas (11 August 2020). "How a Bible burning in Portland reveals Russia's efforts to upend the 2020 U.S. election". Oregon Live. The Oregonian. Retrieved 18 March 2026.
  15. ^ Anders, Caroline (July 8, 2021). "A trans woman reportedly undressed in a spa. Customers said they were 'traumatized,' and a protest ensued". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 8, 2021. Retrieved July 18, 2021.
  16. ^ Spiegelman, Ian; Brandes, Rebekah (June 29, 2021). "Exclusive: A Saturday Showdown Is in the Works Over Trans Blowup at Wi Spa". Los Angeles Magazine. Archived from the original on July 19, 2021. Retrieved July 18, 2021.
  17. ^ "Cyber Social Swarming Precedes Real World Riots in Leicester: How Social Media Became a Weapon for Violence" (PDF). NCRI: Network Contagion Research Institute, Rutgers University. October 2022: 21. Retrieved 10 May 2026. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  18. ^ Valinsky, Jordan (2 June 2023). "How Chick-fil-A became a target for going 'woke'". CNN. Retrieved 9 June 2026.
  19. ^ Nordyke, Kimberly (31 March 2025). "'Adolescence' Co-Creator Responds to Theory About Show Being "Anti-White Propaganda"". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 9 May 2026.
  20. ^ Perry, Kevin E.G. (31 March 2025). "Adolescence writer reacts to 'absurd' race-swapping theory spread by Elon Musk". The Independent. Retrieved 9 May 2026.
  21. ^ Cercone, Jeff. "Netflix's 'Adolescence' not based on Southport murders". Politifact. Retrieved 9 May 2026.
  22. ^ Spangler, Todd (2 October 2025). "Elon Musk Wages All-Out Netflix Cancellation War Over Streamer's Alleged Woke Bias and Kids Shows With LGBTQ+ Characters". Variety. Retrieved 9 May 2026.

Primary sources

In the text, these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

  1. ^ Cheong, Ian Miles (14 January 2017). "Moving On". Gameranx. Retrieved 18 March 2026.
  2. ^ Cheong, Ian Miles [@ianmiles] (2023-07-13). "Incredible" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  3. ^ Cheong, Ian Miles [@@ianmiles] (2023-05-30). "Chick-fil-A has gone woke. https://x.com/huff4congress//huff4congress/status/1663513851780902912" (Tweet). Retrieved 2026-06-09 – via Twitter.
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