Perspective: Online racismHow Does Online Racism Spawn Mass Shooters?
More and more experts classify mass shootings inspired by white nationalist ideology as terrorism — part of a global white nationalist movement that recruits or inspires potential shooters. The mechanisms of recruiting white nationalist terrorists work much as with other terrorist groups such as the Islamic State; they take lonely young men and give them a sense of purpose and identity. But instead of the alternative society offered by Islamic State membership, violent and racist online platforms build toward single murderous events. The language used on the forums to encourage potential shooters combines nihilism and toxic masculinity, goading them with anti-gay slurs and challenging them as “wannabes” if they fail.
Two mass shootings rocked the United States again this weekend, the firstin El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, the secondon Sunday in Dayton, Ohio. Both killers were young white men, and while the ideology behind the Dayton attack is not yet known, the El Paso shooter posted an online manifesto espousing his racist ideology on the far-right website 8chan—as did the attackers in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March and at the Poway synagogue, north of San Diego, in April. Other mass shootings—such as the recent Gilroy Garlic Festivalattack, the Pittsburgh synagogue murdersin 2018, and the church killingsin Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015—have also been inspired by white nationalist ideas.
James Palmer writes in Foreign Policythat experts, joined by some politicians, are increasingly classifying these acts as terrorism, part of a global white nationalist movement that recruits or inspires potential shooters.
One of the vectors pushing impressionable men and women to racist forums is mass media, said Zeynep Tufekci, a techno-sociologist and expert on online radicalization. Shootings such as Christchurch draw attention to the sites and the message, and media coverage ends up amplifying it. The broken recommendationsystem of sites such as YouTube, deliberately gamed by the far-right, ends up pointing young men toward racist ideologies.
The mechanisms of recruitment, meanwhile, work much as with other terrorist groups such as the Islamic State; they take lonely young men and give them a sense of purpose and identity. But instead of the alternative society offered by Islamic State membership, violent and racist online platforms build toward single murderous events: The language used on the forums to encourage potential shooters combines nihilism and toxic masculinity, goading them with anti-gay slurs and challenging them as “wannabes” if they fail. The anonymity of the sites mixes with the desire of mass shootersto be known: Real-world recognition becomes the final reward as they call on their fellow anons to witness them.
