So what’s his kill count?: Inside the toxic online world where mass shooters thrive

Inside the dark corner of the internet where mass shooters thrive on hate-filled forums.

Notorious website 8chan, left, and accused Christchurch terrorist Brenton Tarrant, top, with alleged El Paso shooter Patrick Crusius, bottom.

Less than two weeks after a gunman killed more than 50 people at two mosques in New Zealand, law-enforcement officials found a disturbing piece of graffiti outside a San Diego County mosque that had been set on fire. “For Brenton Tarrant -t./pol/,” it read.

The cryptic message, which paid homage to the alleged New Zealand shooter and a dark corner of the internet where such shootings are celebrated, foreshadowed a string of violence.

In April, one month after the graffiti appeared, John Earnest, the man who police say vandalised the mosque, allegedly attacked a nearby synagogue, leaving one person dead.

Then, in August, a shooting in an El Paso Walmart killed 22. One week later, a Norwegian man allegedly opened fire at an Oslo mosque.

The trio of suspects don’t appear ever to have met, but they all idolised Mr. Tarrant and were part of a hate-filled online community that is emerging as an important front in law-enforcement efforts to ward off future attacks.

Mourners place a sign at a makeshift memorial across the street from the Chabad of Poway Synagogue on Sunday, April 28, 2019 in Poway, California, a day after teenage gunman John Earnest allegedly opened fire, killing one person and injuring three others including the rabbi. Picture: Sandy Huffaker/AFP

The online forums, known as /pol/ for “politically incorrect,” offer a platform for hate speech where posts are almost always anonymous, making it difficult for law enforcement to identify who is using the sites. Hateful ideologies, including white supremacy, are promoted across the sites and used to incite violence, forming a chain of influence that appears to have led from one mass shooting to the next. When one site is shut down, users swiftly migrate to another.

Mass shooters are revered on the forums, which brim with racist and antigay content. Posts encourage attacks against mosques, synagogues and immigrants. Large numbers of fatalities are celebrated as “high scores.”

When a gunman in West Texas opened fire on Saturday, the forums lit up, with users demanding to know his “kill count” and saying they hoped he was white and his victims Hispanic. The alleged shooter doesn’t appear to have ties to the forums.

The most popular site among extremists, 8chan, has been largely knocked offline in recent weeks after tech-support providers cut off service. But extremists and violent rhetoric are popping up elsewhere. The alleged attacker at the Oslo mosque posted on another site, Endchan. A letter New Zealand authorities said Mr. Tarrant sent from jail, which warns of bloodshed soon to come, was posted on another site, 4chan.

The sites are unconnected.

 

Politicians and law-enforcement officials are trying to better understand how the sites function and what can be done to combat their calls to violence. Democratic and Republican leaders of the House Homeland Security Committee subpoenaed Jim Watkins, 8chan’s owner, to testify Thursday about extremist content. The committee is weighing whether the government should take a more active role in trying to prevent the spread of such content, and how the sites can flag potential violence to law enforcement, according to a person familiar with the committee’s plans. Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D., Miss.) has vowed to hold hearings to discuss how to better fight what he calls domestic terrorism.

Counter-terrorism experts and others who study the forums say they provide inspiration for some participants to act, catalysing a succession of lone-wolf shooters who try to one-up one another. Shutting them down entirely will be all but impossible, said Robert Evans, who has investigated internet extremism for years with research collective Bellingcat. “I expect we will see shootings that are inspired by these manifestos but posted on places other than 8chan because the site is down,” he said.

Law-enforcement officials say Mr Earnest, the 20-year-old accused in the San Diego attack, Patrick Crusius, the alleged shooter in El Paso, and Mr Tarrant all posted racist manifestos to 8chan’s /pol/ forum ahead of their attacks. In each case, other users responded while the shootings were going on.

“He at least did something, that's respectable,” one 8chan user posted about Mr Earnest’s alleged synagogue shooting.

“So what’s his kill count?” said another.

Tore Bjørgo, director of the Center for Research on Extremism in Oslo, said: “You have this idea that they should outdo each other.” Sites such as 8chan, he said, are “where they find their inspiration … That’s where they expect to get fame and recognition.” Messrs. Tarrant and Earnest have pleaded not guilty. Mr Crusius hasn’t yet been arraigned. Mr Earnest’s lawyer declined to comment. Lawyers for the other two suspects didn’t respond to requests for comment.

8chan didn’t respond to requests for comment. In postings on Twitter and YouTube after the subpoena, Mr Watkins, who resides in the Philippines, said he isn’t an extremist, and he defended 8chan as a bastion of free speech.

A screenshot of part of the 8chan website. Picture: Supplied

Mr Watkins said the site had a million users, and 4chan has said its site has more than 20 million. SimiliarWeb, an internet traffic research firm, estimates 8chan has 10 million to 20 million visits a month.

Founded in 2013, 8chan gained popularity the following year when 4chan, a similar site with less hate speech and more moderation, cracked down on users who were harassing women who developed and reviewed video games. 8chan embraced those users.

The site calls itself “the darkest reaches of the internet.” Its home page carries a disclaimer saying that some topic sections, or “boards,” might “have content of an adult or offensive nature,” and only content violating U.S. laws is deleted.

Anonymity is protected. Users are given a random ID number for each discussion, and frequently use jargon alien to outsiders — derisively referred to as “normies.” The stripped-down user interface seems straight out of the 1990s. It contains lists of links to discussion boards on such topics as anime, pornography and video games.

Unpaid moderators on 8chan’s /pol/ forum promote certain ideologies, according to one researcher of radical online communities who has studied the site for years. One moderator deleted anti-Trump statements, the researcher said, while others argue about whether to support patriotism or white nationalism. Recruiters for the Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi terrorist group, lurk on the site, he said.

Often users show up on 8chan airing vague frustrations. The tone often starts as mocking and sarcastic. Then other users encourage them to express anger at groups they identify as the enemy — often Jews, feminists, black people and other minorities — giving the newcomers a sense of purpose, according to the researcher.

Anti-Semitic cartoons, diatribes against race mixing and proclamations of a coming “race war” dominate 8chan’s /pol/ board. A popular meme depicts images of murdered white women, a message intended to persuade white women not to associate with non-white men and justify promoting race-based violence. Another popular meme asks users: “What have you done today for the white race?” Anders Breivik, the Norwegian neo-Nazi who killed 77 people in 2011, is lionised, and his 1,500-page manifesto, which was frequently shared on 8chan, is a touchstone. Mr Tarrant cited Mr Breivik as his guiding light.

Mr Evans, of Bellingcat, analysed how 75 extremists on the internet said they had become radicalised. In about half of the cases, their paths started with a radical YouTube video, typically anti-Semitic or Holocaust-denying, which pushes conspiracy theories. YouTube has said it has taken steps to reduce extremist content.

Brenton Tarrant described mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, pictured, as his guiding light. Picture: Frank Augstein/AP

“8chan’s /pol/ board is the end of a journey of radicalisation,” he said. “It’s to radicalise you into taking the next step.” 8chan played a major role in Mr Earnest’s transformation, according to his manifesto and people close to him. He wrote that he had a lot going for him — a loving family, great friends, a church — and that he was doing well in nursing school. He said his family never taught him the ideology behind his attack.

The people close to Mr Earnest said he began diverging politically from his family 2016, when he began supporting then-candidate Donald Trump for president. He then started watching YouTube videos from right-wing commentators.

By late 2017, Mr Earnest wrote, he had found his way to 8chan. People close to him said he began talking about Pepe the Frog, a cartoon character appropriated by white supremacists as a sort of mascot, and started tossing around cliches of anti-Semitism: Holocaust denial and the supposed existence of a Jewish conspiracy controlling government, Hollywood, major organisations and trade unions.

“He made it clear that 4chan was like amateur league, and he had risen to 8chan,” one of the people close to him said.

He also started using the N-word, prompting objections from family members, who noted that the pastor’s wife at their Orthodox Presbyterian Church is black. Mr Earnest would respond that it wasn’t a big deal.

His family grew concerned and warned him that he could be manipulated by the anonymous people he was talking to online, said the person close to him. “That was not enough to overcome the grab that these ideas had on him that he gained from these anonymous sources,” this person said. Mr Earnest always had a “canned” response defending his ideology.

In the months before the attack, he seemed more sullen and slower to laugh, the people close to him said. Still, those around him didn’t think he was dangerous. They hadn’t visited the site themselves or seen what he may have been posting there.

“I believed this was going to resolve,” one of them said. “We obviously did not understand the trajectory of where this would land.” In the manifesto Mr Earnest allegedly posted to 8chan shortly before the shooting began, he offered gratitude to 8chan and said Mr Tarrant had inspired him.

“I’ve only been lurking for a year and a half, yet, what I’ve learned here is priceless,” the manifesto said about 8chan. “Tarrant was a catalyst for me personally … I only wish to inspire others.”

Wall Street Journal