- Shayan Sardarizadeh
- From BBC Monitoring
May 22, 2022
Credit, Getty Images
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People hug at the scene of the Buffalo murders
The shooting in the city of Buffalo followed a similar script to similar attacks in the United States and other countries — in cities like Pittsburgh, Poway, El Paso, Christchurch, New Zealand, and Halle, Germany — in which white males who are deliberately racist attacked members to a particular community and left many traces of their extremist views on the internet.
Like others before him, 18yearold Payton Gendron, the prime suspect behind the Buffalo attack, published a lengthy “manifesto” explaining his motives and beliefs.
Some text is copied and pasted from racist manifestos by perpetrator of the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand massacre, Brenton Tarrant, and other violent perpetrators. Gendron cites Tarrant as his main inspiration and gateway to the world of online extremism and white supremacy.
Authors of other recent attacks have cited the internet as a starting point for their journey toward radicalization. Their writings show their knowledge of online subcultures, conspiracy theories and memes.
Remarkably, all were committed antiSemites and Holocaust deniers, citing a wide range of conspiracy theories.
Almost all cite the “White Genocide” and “White Substitute” conspiracy theories and their antiimmigrant and antiminority resentment as the basis of their belief system and primary motive for their violence.
“The idea of ’white genocide’ creates a sense of urgency and the need for immediate action,” explains Rajan Basra, a researcher at the International Center for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR) at King’s College London in England.
“For white nationalists, this can be a powerful motivator, and at various times they have acted violently out of it.”
Credit, pool image via Fairfax Media
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The Buffalo attacker often cited Brenton Tarrant (pictured), who killed dozens of people in Christchurch, as inspiration.
The author of the Buffalo murders also released around 700 pages of his personal diary over the past seven months, which the BBC had access to on paper.
The recordings are a window into the mind of a clearly troubled young man who has regularly spoken out about his gambling addiction and navigating extremist circles online.
He conducted extensive research and several reconnaissance trips to the Buffalo supermarket to carefully plan the form and timing of the attack and run simulations.
He briefly mentions that he got into trouble with the authorities a year earlier after writing something that alarmed them. In a school assignment, he cited his willingness to commit murder or suicide.
There are brief moments of doubt, such as when he wonders if he’ll be able to execute the shots without “screwing things up”. There are also details of an act of animal cruelty and suicidal thoughts for not carrying out the attack on the originally scheduled date.
Filled with racist and antiSemitic conspiracy theories, memes, and inside jokes, his manifesto is also clearly influenced by the 4chan message board, one of the largest and most controversial networks associated with internet subcultures.
It is the birthplace of many famous memes, harassment and trolling campaigns, and conspiratorial movements.
Referring to a 4chan forum dedicated to guns, Gendron says he was radicalized by the “politically incorrect” forum. He also mentions other online extremist platforms he has visited, including the neoNazi website The Daily Stormer.
Using a camera mounted on his helmet, he broadcast his murders live on the video streaming platform Twitch. Like Tarrant, he wrote white racist slogans and racial slurs on his firearm.
The broadcast was only viewed by 22 people, and Twitch picked it up within minutes. However, within hours, copies of the video were already circulating around the internet and being viewed millions of times on Facebook and other platforms.
The combination of online manifesto and live video streaming is designed to maximize media impact and disseminate the killer’s views as widely as possible.
Copies of the video and manifesto are likely to be shared online for years to come for propaganda purposes and as a recruitment tool. And while major social networks are removing the copies, there are a number of fringe sites where the video can be easily found.
Deleting content from the Internet is practically impossible. After the acts of violence in the American city of Charlottesville in 2017, the neoNazi website Daily Stormer came under pressure from hosting and web protection companies.
But with a lot of effort, that site can still be found online, and the Buffalo attacker says he’s a frequent visitor.
And as already seen on platforms like 8chan — which saw manifestos from three assassins back to back in 2019 — even if access to one website is disrupted, new platforms will emerge quickly.
“There will always be a home for extremist content online, no matter how obscure or niche,” says ISCR’s Basra.
Credit, EPA
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Honors for the victims of the Buffalo attack
Disjointed writings like Gendron’s aim to inspire the next racist shooter, just as he himself was inspired by Brenton Tarrant and Tarrant in turn by Norwegian neoNazi killer Anders Breivik.
“People who were once marginalized can form entire communities of faith [online] around the world,” says author and journalist David Neiwert, who has been writing about rightwing extremism for decades.
“One of the results of this is that farright domestic terror has taken on a chain or serial aspect: one act of violence inspires the next that inspires the next.”
preventive programs
In response to the increase in internal terrorist attacks, some governments have attempted to develop preventive plans.
One example is the UK government’s Prevent scheme. Despite being criticized for failing to stop some figures known to the authorities, such as Islamic extremist Ali Harbi Ali, who stabbed MP David Amess in 2021, the government claims it has already arrested hundreds of suspected terrorists.
There is no similar program in the US, but in June 2021 the White House released a national plan to counter domestic terrorism. The plan focuses primarily on the work of local police forces, who would receive $77 million in subsidies.
Neiwert says that while US police have the power to intervene when criminal activity is discussed online, little can be done until a suspect actually takes action.
The Buffalo killer hasn’t entirely disappeared from the radar. Last year his contact with authorities when police were called from the school after he wrote about his threatening plans led to a brief hospital stay during which he underwent a psychiatric evaluation.
New York State has a law that allows police to confiscate guns from anyone deemed dangerous. Local police and the (state) FBI will now have to ask themselves questions about whether they could have done more.
But the bigger problem remains: a pervasive, global movement of violent, online radicalized young extremists, some poised to attack and kill innocent people.
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