Andy Ngo

Ngo was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. Raised in a Buddhist family, Ngo converted to Christianity in high school. In 2019, Ngo said that his earlier social media activity "represented my simplistic views at the time" and that his comments no longer represented his beliefs. While attending the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Ngo volunteered with AmeriCorps. He graduated from UCLA in 2009 with a graphic design degree. In the mid-2010s, Ngo came out as gay while visiting relatives in rural Vietnam. He began volunteering as a photographer at the Center for Inquiry in Portland in 2013. In 2015, Ngo enrolled in a master's program at Portland State University for political science, with a focus on international relations and comparative politics. While attending the school, he joined the Freethinkers of Portland State University, a student organization that worked closely with professor Peter Boghossian. == Career ==

PSU Vanguard (2016–2017) While enrolled at Portland State University (PSU), Ngo worked as a multimedia editor at the Portland State Vanguard, a student newspaper. In 2017, Ngo drew national attention after he was fired from the Vanguard and accused the newspaper of firing him over his conservative political beliefs. He also took part in online discussions about the incident on the pro–Donald Trump subreddit r/The Donald, where he called the firing part of a "trend towards self-censorship in the name of political correctness". Leary reported that since the incident did not receive much attention on campus, it left her with questions about the relationship between Breitbart News and Ngo. Ngo and the Freethinkers of PSU hosted several speakers at a campus event on February 17, 2018, that included the headliner James Damore, a former Google engineer and author of "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber", an internal memo on diversity and gender that the company fired him for after they determined it was discriminatory and had elements that constituted sexual harassment. During the event, a portion of the audience walked out in protest, and one protester attempted to vandalize the audio system on her way out. Jason Wilson of The Guardian stated that the Damore event was one of several that appeared to have been "calculated to provoke Portland's progressive activists" and that Ngo's widely circulated videos fit into a pattern of actions where Ngo had "shrewdly inserted" his coverage "into the workings of the rightwing outrage machine" several times within the preceding year. Ngo posted photos and video clips of students gathering on the stage and drowning out Sommers' talk with chanting and music. He mistakenly connected alcohol-free zones in parts of London to the Muslim-majority populations, subsequently issuing a correction acknowledging that alcohol-free zones "appear in many English neighborhoods, irrespective of Muslim population." Ngo's opinion piece was widely said to have been Islamophobic. Steve Hopkins from HuffPost stated that "some of his [Ngo's] assertions have already been disproved". In October 2018, Ngo started a podcast entitled Things You Should Ngo. His interviewees included Jordan Peterson, Dave Rubin and Carl Benjamin (who uses the pseudonym "Sargon of Akkad" online). that have devolved into violence and street fighting. The Patriot Prayer gatherings (whose early rallies were used by white nationalists as recruitment events) were met by Portland's anti-fascists and anarchists known to support direct action, including violence. by antifa protesters. By 2019, Ngo routinely attended and live-streamed events at Portland protests. He reported being punched and blasted with bear spray while filming two separate May Day events, including a brawl between left-wing activists and members of Patriot Prayer, outside the Cider Riot pub. Five members of Patriot Prayer were charged with felony riot incitement for their actions on May Day 2019, including the group's leader Joey Gibson. He walked away and reported what happened in a livestream, during which a medic arrived to check on him. The video of the June 29 incident where Ngo was assaulted by masked demonstrators went viral and led the Proud Boys, a group designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, to organize a follow-up event in Portland known as the End Domestic Terrorism rally for August 17, 2019. As a result of the attack, medical examiners determined that Ngo suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage. Following Ngo's attack, Texas Senator Ted Cruz called on federal authorities to investigate Ted Wheeler, Portland's mayor and police commissioner. 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidate Andrew Yang wished Ngo a speedy recovery. and Commentary. Patriot Prayer video and departure from Quillette (2019) On August 26, 2019, the Portland Mercury reported on a video where Ngo was seen smiling The Portland Mercurys Alex Zilenski stated "there's no way [Ngo] couldn't know the group was planning on instigating violence." Writing in the libertarian magazine Reason, Robby Soave expressed agreement that the video did not show evidence that Ngo knew beforehand about a violent plot. Later work (2019–2023) at a 2019 Turning Point USA event in Washington, D.C. In 2019, Ngo published a series in the New York Post alleging numerous hate crimes reported to police in Portland, Oregon had been faked. By June 2020, Ngo was with The Post Millennial, a conservative Canadian news website, which continued to retain him as an editor-at-large in June 2024. As of 2020, he was a regular guest on Fox News where he had expressed his concerns about the dangers posed by the left on at least two dozen occasions as of February 2021. In July 2020, Ngo's reporting was among the concerns listed in a letter, penned by nearly 300 of ''The Journal's'' newsroom staff members to the paper's publisher, that condemned the opinion desk's "lack of fact-checking and transparency". including The Oregonian have been critical of Ngo and described him as a "right-wing provocateur". BuzzFeed News said that "Ngo's work is probably best described as media activism" and that he engages in "participant reporting". Unmasked During the week of January 10, 2021, the online pre-sale of Ngo's first book, ''Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy'', was met with a small group of protestors who demonstrated outside the flagship Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon. The bookseller, which offered the book for sale online, chose not to promote Unmasked or physically stock it in their stores. The book became "one of the most popular political titles on Amazon before its release." Upon release, Unmasked became an Amazon bestseller. and appeared as number three on The New York Times Best Seller list for nonfiction. According to Nazaryan, Ngo wrote that his parents' immigration from Vietnam led him to describe his book as "a letter of gratitude to the nation" that made them welcome, as against the leftists who, he claims, wish to destroy it. "As an immigrant from a communist country", Nazaryan wrote, "I understand the sentiment. As a journalist, however, I must point out that he is churning out the very kind [of] propaganda that keeps authoritarians in power." Writing for The Oregonian, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh stated that Unmasked contained "serious omissions, errors and false equivalencies that have alarmed an array of academics and intelligence officials who track extremist movements." In May 2021, while Ngo was in Portland to cover the one-year anniversary demonstrations for a follow-up chapter to Unmasked, Ngo said he was recognized in disguise and then chased down by a group of five to ten demonstrators who attempted to unmask him before assaulting him. Ngo said that he was tackled and punched by demonstrators in black bloc before he fled into The Nines hotel. Ngo frequently uploads protesters' personal information, including mugshots, to social media: some protesters have said this results in harassment and death threats, leading them to view Ngo as a threat. == Social media influence ==

Ngo has been variously described as a right-wing activist or influencer, a conservative journalist, writer, and blogger, as well as a far-right content creator, campaigner, His actions and role in covering issues, particularly civil unrest in Portland, Oregon, following the murder of George Floyd, have received media attention. The Intercept described Ngo as a "far-right Twitter star". In December 2019, The Oregonian named Ngo one of 2019's Top 15 Newsmakers citing events that included his attack, his surge in prominence within conservative circles, and his circulation of "heavily edited videos of several altercations to his then-270,000 Twitter followers, racking up millions of views online while spreading inaccurate claims and limited context about what transpired." Stanley contended that Ngo promotes a "false equivalence [between left and right political violence in the U.S.], when there's no such equivalence at all", noting that hundreds of Americans had been killed in far-right violence since 1990 while antifa had not been responsible for any lives lost as of August 27, 2020, the date the interview was published. As of December 2023, Ngo had an X (formerly Twitter) following of over 1.4 million users. Doxxing In 2019, Ngo labelled several journalists, including Shane Burley and Alexander Reid Ross, as "antifa ideologues". Burley and Reid Ross described receiving death threats afterward, Ngo is known for publishing the mugshots of arrestees in Portland to his Twitter account. == Credibility ==

Ngo's credibility and objectivity as a journalist have been extensively criticized by other journalists, Since 2019, he has been accused of using selectively edited videos and sharing misleading and inaccurate information to paint antifa activists as violent, and to underplay the violence of the far right, with Columbia Journalism Review describing Ngo as a "discredited provocateur". While under cross-examination during the 2022 trial of a Portland citizen journalist, Ngo acknowledged that his tweets have resulted in threats and violence against those he targets. Ngo has been accused of having ties to the far-right groups Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer. and accordingly stated "it is increasingly clear [Ngo] is coordinating his movements and his message with right-wing groups". == Legal actions ==

In June 2020, Ngo sued individuals allegedly associated with antifa, seeking $900,000 in damages for assault and emotional distress, and an injunction to prevent further harassment. The lawsuit cited Rose City Antifa, five other named defendants, and additional unknown assailants. The suit stems from multiple alleged attacks on Ngo in Portland during 2019: at a demonstration on May 1, at his local gym on May 7, and during a protest on June 29. In particular, the suit accuses Rose City Antifa of a "pattern of racketeering activities". On December 15, 2020, a Multnomah County judge denied a special motion to strike down the suit. Hacker was subsequently acquitted of the charge in November 2022. After five defendants settled, were removed from the case by a judge, or evaded trial entirely, Ngo modified his 2020 civil suit to include an accusation that Hacker and Elizabeth Richter participated in an assault on him at a 2021 rally on the one year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. Prior to the trial, which took place in early August 2023, attorneys for Hacker and Richter claimed that video evidence would prove that neither touched Ngo that night or participated in beating him. Hacker and Richter were found not liable after their attorney argued they were not among the assailants. In 2025, Ngo sued Guardian News & Media for defamation over a short music review that referred to him as “alt-right.” He largely prevailed in a preliminary decision, although some issues are set to be resolved at a later trial. == Congressional testimony ==

Ngo has been invited by Republican lawmakers to testify before Congress on several occasions. On August 4, 2020, he provided testimony at a United States Senate Judiciary subcommittee titled "The Right of the People Peaceably to Assemble: Protecting Speech by Stopping Anarchist Violence." Fox News reported that Ngo disputed media coverage of protests and criticized Democrats for not condemning antifa for violence in Portland; however, prosecutors focused only on criminal conduct and did not provide evidence that any of the people arrested in Portland were linked to antifa. The Southern Poverty Law Center stated that Ngo has been a vocal proponent of listing antifa as a terrorist organization. On February 24, 2021, Ngo provided testimony at the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security following the U.S. Capitol attack. == Personal life ==

Ngo is gay and considers himself to be politically center-right. In 2021, The Oregonian reported that Ngo had relocated to London, citing concerns for his personal safety. A Portland Police Bureau spokesman confirmed that Ngo had filed at least 10 police reports about threats made to him or his family since June 2020. == Works ==

• Ngo, Andy (2021). ''Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy''. Nashville, Tennessee: Center Street. . ==See also==