The racist attack that killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York on May 14 is the latest example of violence fueled by online extremism.
The shooting in the city of Buffalo followed a scenario very similar to similar attacks in the US and other countries, such as Pittsburgh, Poway, El Paso, Christchurch (New Zealand) and Halle (Germany), where white men were deliberately racist. attacked members of a particular community and left many traces of his extremist views on the internet.
Like his predecessors, Payton Gendron, 18, the prime suspect in the Buffalo attack, published a lengthy “manifesto” outlining his motives and beliefs.
Part of the text was copied and pasted from racist manifestos by the perpetrators of the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand massacre, Brenton Tarrant and other violent criminals. Gendron cites Tarrant as his main inspiration and gateway to the world of online extremism and white supremacy.
The authors of other recent attacks cited the internet as the starting point for their journey towards radicalization. Their posts show that they are very knowledgeable about online subcultures, conspiracy theories, and memes.
Specifically, they were all anti-Semitic and Holocaust deniers, all citing a wide variety of conspiracy theories.
Almost all of them refer to their resentment against immigrants and minority groups, as well as conspiracy theories of “white genocide” and “white replacement” as the basis of their belief systems and the main motivation for their violence.
“The idea of white genocide creates a sense of urgency and the need for urgent action,” explains Rajan Basra, a researcher at the International Center for Radicalization Studies (ICSR) at King’s College London, UK.
“For white nationalists, this can be a powerful motivator, and they have been vehemently moved from it at various times.”
The author of the Buffalo murders has also published nearly 700 pages of his personal diary in the past seven months, of which the BBC has access to hard copy.
The recordings are a window into the mind of an openly troubled young man who regularly talks about gaming addiction and surfing online in extremist circles.
He conducted extensive research and several expeditions to the Buffalo supermarket to carefully plan and simulate the form and timing of the attack.
He briefly mentions that a year ago, he got into trouble with the authorities after he wrote something that worried them. He mentioned in a school assignment that he was willing to commit murder or commit suicide.
There are brief moments of doubt, such as wondering if he can shoot without “mixing up” things. There are also details about an act of animal cruelty and suicidal thoughts as he did not carry out the attack on the date he had originally planned.
Filled with racist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, memes, and inside jokes, his manifesto is also clearly influenced by the 4chan message board, one of the largest and most controversial networks associated with internet subcultures.
Many famous memes, harassment campaigns and trollingas well as conspiratorial movements.
Gendron cites a 4-channel forum dedicated to weapons and says he was radicalized by the “politically incorrect” forum. He also mentions other extremist online spaces he has visited, including the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer.
He broadcast his murders live on Twitch, the video streaming platform, via a helmet-mounted camera. Like Tarrant, he wrote white supremacist slogans and racial slurs on his firearm.
The broadcast was watched by only 22 people, and Twitch took it down within minutes. But within hours, copies of the video began to circulate widely on the Internet, garnering millions of views on Facebook and other platforms.
maximum effect
The combination of an online manifesto and live video stream is designed to create maximum media impact and disseminate the killer’s views as much as possible.
Copies of the video and manifesto will likely be shared online for propaganda purposes and as a recruiting tool for years to come. And while major social networks remove duplicates, there are a few extreme sites where the video can be found easily.
Deleting content from the Internet is almost impossible. For example, neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer came under pressure from hosting and web protection companies after the 2017 violence in Charlottesville, USA.
But with a lot of effort, this site can still be found online, and Buffalo says the attacker frequently visits it.
And even if access to a website is interrupted, new platforms will emerge quickly, as seen on platforms like 8chan, where three assassins’ manifestos popped up one after another in 2019.
“There will always be a hotbed for extremist content on the Internet, no matter how obscure or niche,” says ISCR’s Basra.
Image: EPA
Broken writings like Gendron aim to inspire the next racist gunman, just as he was inspired by Brenton Tarrant and Tarrant by Norwegian neo-Nazi murderer Anders Breivik.
“People who were once marginalized can form entire communities of worship. [online] “Around the world,” says author and journalist David Neiwert, who has written about far-right extremism for decades.
“One consequence of this is that far-right domestic terrorism takes on a chain or serial dimension: One act of violence inspires another, which in turn inspires another.”
preventive programs
In response to the increase in domestic terrorist attacks, some governments have tried to devise preventive plans.
The UK government’s Prevention program is an example. The government claims it has already detained hundreds of suspected terrorists, although it has been criticized by officials for not stopping some known to the public, such as the Islamic extremist Ali Harbi Ali, who stabbed to death MP David Amess in 2021.
There is no similar program in the US, but in June 2021 the White House published a national plan to combat domestic terrorism. The plan mainly focuses on the work of local police forces, which will receive subsidies of US$77 million (approximately R$382 million).
Neiwert says that although US police have the power to intervene when online criminal activity is discussed, there is little that can be done until a suspect actually takes action.
The Buffalo killer hasn’t completely gone off the radar. Last year, her contact with the authorities – when the police were called by the school after she wrote down her threatening plans – resulted in a brief hospitalization during which she underwent a mental health assessment.
New York State has a law that allows police to confiscate weapons from people deemed dangerous. Local police and the (federal) FBI will now face questions as to whether they can do more.
But the bigger problem remains: a widespread, global movement of violent, internet-radicalized young extremists, some of whom are ready to attack and kill innocent people.
source: Noticias
