PERSPECTIVE: Toxic mediaMichigan Kidnapping Plot, Like So Many Other Extremist Crimes, Foreshadowed on Social Media

Published 9 October 2020

More and more, far-right extremist violence is preceded by online declarations on social media. Craig Timberg and Isaac Stanley-Becker write that “such online declarations, brimming with anger and potentially violent intent, have become staples of extremism-fueled crime news in recent years,” and that “Before [such crimes] become real, [discussions of them] percolate online, courtesy of a social media ecosystem that is ubiquitous, barely moderated and well suited to helping aggrieved people find each other.” The plot by extremist Michigan militias to abduct Governor Gretchen Whitmer was no exception.

In June, one of the suspects in the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, believing that a Facebook group was relatively private, made clear his brewing hatred. Adam Fox called Whitmer a “tyrant bitch,” according to an FBI affidavit, and declared, “I don’t know boys, we gotta do something… give me some ideas of what we can do.” Craig Timberg and Isaac Stanley-Becker write in the Washington Post that “such online declarations, brimming with anger and potentially violent intent, have become staples of extremism-fueled crime news in recent years,” from police killings to synagogue massacres to bombing plots. “Before they become real, they percolate online, courtesy of a social media ecosystem that is ubiquitous, barely moderated and well suited to helping aggrieved people find each other.”

Fox and other suspects in the plot to kidnap Whitmer (D) left a trail on social media which, viewed with the hindsight of Thursday’s announcement of their arrests, “looks both troubling and troublingly familiar — a line of rage that flows from online memes to real-world violence that at times has become deadly.”

“Social media companies have been allowing these communities to build and grow, ignoring the mounting evidence that memes, posts and images encouraging violence can and do translate into actual violence,” said Cindy Otis, a former CIA analyst and vice president of analysis for the Alethea Group, which tracks online threats and discovered the Wolverines page. “Not only have many of these Michigan pages and groups been on Facebook for years, the Facebook algorithm actively recommended other militia-related groups and pages to join, allowing each page and group to expand their reach.”

Facebook in June removed hundreds of Boogaloo accounts and groups, including one for the Wolverine Watchmen, after growing signs that their violent online rhetoric was spilling into the real world.

Though it’s impossible to know exactly what role social media plays in developing criminal intent, Timberg and Stanley-Becker write, “incidents of violent extremism increasingly are accompanied by substantial evidence of online activity that, after arrests, is laid out in court documents and cobbled together by independent researchers.”

They aAlthough much online extremism comes with at least a dash of irony or humor, sometimes delivered in visual memes, it can have the effect of gradually introducing radical ideas to people newly encountering them online.

“After you’re exposed to ironic violence for an extended period of time, the irony fades away. Then it’s just violence,” said Alex Goldenberg, lead intelligence analyst for the Network Contagion Research Institute, which studies online extremism and has warned about the dangers posed by the Boogaloo.

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An examination by Alethea Group and the Global Disinformation Index, which also tracks online threats, suggests social media has been instrumental in the escalating actions by Michigan militias, first over pandemic-related restrictions imposed by Whitmer and now in the run-up to the November election, despite recent efforts by Facebook and other platforms to curtail violent activity.