Perspective: Online radicalizationThe DOJ Is Finally Bridging the Gap Between Online Radicalization and Domestic Terrorism

Published 12 August 2019

The El Paso, Texas, mass shooting that left 22 dead may actually spell the end for one of white nationalism’s greatest resources: the online radicalization of potential domestic terrorists. The El Paso massacre may be the end of the free speech defense. On Sunday, federal authorities announced that they are not just charging the El Paso suspect with federal hate crimes as they did with the Poway shooter, but with domestic terrorism as well. The decision doesn’t just suggest the Department of Justice (DOJ) is reconsidering whether online forums for white nationalism are a threat worth pursuing at the federal level; by applying “domestic terrorism” to El Paso, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is also actively pushing boundaries of “association” beyond explicit membership.

The El Paso, Texas, mass shooting that left 22 dead on Saturday may actually spell the end for one of white nationalism’s greatest resources: the online radicalization of potential domestic terrorists.

Almost immediately before he opened fire at a Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall, the 21-year-old shooter posted a crazed, hate-filled manifesto to the online message board 8chan that’s become “a megaphone for mass shooters, and a recruiting platform for violent white nationalists” in recent years, as the New York Times put it. Both the Poway, California, synagogue and Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque shooters announced their respective hate-driven rampages on 8chan as well. In the aftermath of the El Paso shooting, even the site’s founder Fredrick Brennan urged Jim Watkins, an Army veteran and the site’s current proprietor, to shut the entire operation down despite its ostensible commitment to “free speech.”

Jared Keller writes in Pacific Standard that the El Paso massacre may be the end of the free speech defense. On Sunday, federal authorities announced that they are not just charging the El Paso suspect with federal hate crimes as they did with the Poway shooter, but with domestic terrorism as well. The decision doesn’t just suggest the Department of Justice (DOJ) is reconsidering whether online forums for white nationalism are a threat worth pursuing at the federal level; by applying “domestic terrorism” to El Paso, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is also actively pushing boundaries of “association” beyond explicit membership.

As I previously reported, “domestic terrorism” isn’t a criminal act itself, but a categorization that provides the DOJ with broad powers to investigate not only an individual suspect, but also any group they might be affiliated with. Domestic incidents are investigated and prosecuted as arson, murder, and illegal ownership of firearms and explosives, and so forth on the state and local level; the FBI only gets involved when there’s a national terror threat tied to a discrete and distinct organization, and those tend to be internationally based, like al Qaeda and ISIS.

As a result, the FBI has been reluctant to deem racist attacks “domestic terrorism,” especially those where the connections to a formal organization are vaguely defined. Indeed, the FBI didn’t label Dylann Roof—the white supremacist who, radicalized online, killed nine African-American worshippers at a Charleston, South Carolina, church in 2015—a “domestic terrorist,” despite the fact he detailed a desire to spark a “race war” in his own online manifesto in an alarming precursor to the El Paso gunman. The FBI knows the rise of the Internet has fueled a dramatic rise in domestic terrorism threats in recent years, but can’t do a thing about it for a simple reason: Posting vile things on 8chan, or any Internet forum, is technically free expression.