Islamic extremists and white supremacists are using race-hate massacres around the world for recruitment and propaganda according to terrorism analysts, adding to fears that violence by radicals in both groups is becoming mutually reinforcing.
Rita Katz, the director of the Washington DC-based online security firm SITE Intelligence said that after far-right terrorist attacks like the one in Texas this week, supporters flood websites like 8chan and Gab with celebratory content, including posters of the attacker, quotes from their manifestos and calls for more violence.
She said following the El Paso shooting, the far-right have called the alleged terrorist, Patrick Crusius, a "saint," disseminating posters of him and calling for "white jihad".
"Others have even used Crusius’ attack as an opportunity to advise on other types of attack methods," Ms Katz said.
"It’s the same type of hype-generating celebration you see by ISIS supporters after an attack like [mass shootings in] San Bernardino or Orlando.
"Jihadists always keep up with any bit of world news they can capitalise on, and have shared news of the El Paso attack on their different channels. However, jihadists' response to Crusius' attack on Latinos comes nowhere near the enormity of their response to Christchurch, which targeted Muslims.
"Though both attacks came from the same movement, opportunistic groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda saw way more recruitment potential in the latter."
Ms Katz said the Christchurch attack was the "September 11" of white supremacist attacks in terms of the attention it attracted by extremists online.
"A month after ... those in the far-right still talk online about their desire to ‘make Brenton proud’ by committing acts of violence and share endearing artwork of him. Many of these posts and images likewise incite for violence against Muslims," Ms Katz said.
Ms Katz said white supremacists have discussed the "lesson of Christchurch" as how "accelerationism works". Accelerationism in this context meaning violent, retaliation-sparking events like Tarrant’s alleged attacks, she said.
Brenton Tarrant, the man charged in the Christchurch mosque shootings.Credit: AP
A story profiling the alleged Christchurch killer, Brenton Tarrant, in Saturday's Good Weekend magazine written before the El Paso massacre of 20 people details how he used 8chan to disseminate propaganda associated with his attack and how 8chan users cheered him on as he conducted his shootings.
Like Tarrant, Crusius posted a "manifesto" to 8chan before beginning his alleged massacre, though in his he singled out Tarrant as an inspiration, saying he agreed with the same far-right conspiracy that the Australian adheres to, holding that Muslims are deliberately taking over "Western homelands" by demographic replacement.
The UK-based German terrorism researcher Julia Ebner, detailed to Good Weekend how white supremacists and jihadis were becoming symbiotic, using similar online propaganda techniques and leveraging each other's attacks to secure more support from sympathisers.
In her book The Rage, the Vicious Circle of Islamist and Far Right Extremism, Ebner, details how similar the world views, strategies and tactics of the two groups have become, to the point where they are almost working hand in hand.
On Thursday The Wall Street Journal reported that 8chan’s owner, Jim Watkins, was under investigation by police in the Philippines, where he lives, who are seeking to establish whether he has been negligent in moderating the site.
On Monday the cyber-security company Cloudflare withdrew its protection services from 8chan, with the company’s chief executive CEO Matthew Prince saying in a blog post it had "repeatedly proven itself to be a cesspool of hate". Since then the site has been subjected to hacking attacks.
Mr Watkins said in a YouTube video that he worked with law enforcement and complied with the law, describing the site as a "blank page" where people could write their thoughts, even if they may be offensive.
Its former owner, Frederick Brennan, better known by the nickname Hot Wheels, told The Washington Post earlier this week, "Do the world a favour and shut it off."