(New York, N.Y.) — The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) reports weekly on the methods used by extremists to exploit the Internet and social media platforms to recruit followers and incite violence. CEP researchers located the October 12 Bratislava shooter’s manifesto on the Internet Archive. The attacker claimed ideological inspiration for his fatal attack on patrons of an LGBTQ bar from the prior attacks and manifestos of the Christchurch and Buffalo gunman. The manifesto was removed from the website after CEP reported it.
Also last week, 10 pro-ISIS accounts as well as a neo-Nazi community page were found on Facebook, and despite CEP’s reporting, some of the pages remain active. Accounts sharing pro-ISIS propaganda were also found on Instagram. On YouTube, a white supremacist podcast was located that was live-streamed earlier in October and praised active clubs, Patriot Front, and urged the arming of its audience. Additionally, a web store belonging to a neo-Nazi podcaster was reported to GearBubble by CEP for selling merchandise containing swastikas and other neo-Nazi fascist symbols and slogans. Finally, a white supremacist accelerationist video that promoted acts of terrorism was discovered on three different sites.
Bratislava Shooter’s Manifesto Removed From the Internet Archive
CEP researchers located the Bratislava shooter’s manifesto on the Internet Archive which removed it after CEP reported it. The perpetrator of the October 12 attack on a Bratislava LGBTQ bar, which the Slovakian government has classified as an act of terrorism, killed two people and injured one individual before committing suicide. According to his manifesto, the gunman was heavily inspired by the May 2022 Buffalo attack, as well as the Christchurch terrorist attack and neo-Nazi accelerationist Telegram channels. He urged acts of violence against Jews, LGBTQ people, people of color, government employees and their families, and many other groups.
Pro-ISIS and Neo-Nazi Content Located on Facebook
CEP researchers located 10 pro-ISIS accounts on Facebook in a sample of content found on October 26. The profiles posted various pro-ISIS material, including full-length ISIS videos modified to evade content detection, clips from propaganda videos, pages taken from ISIS’s al-Naba newsletter, and Amaq news photos and news posts.
Seven profiles had between 30 and 4,729 friends or followers, with an average of 886 and a median of 140. Three accounts did not have their number of friends or followers listed.
One account, with 603 friends, posted a full-length ISIS video, “Jihad of the Believers Continues #7,” on August 28, 2022. The video was originally released on March 24, 2022. The video had 900 views 59 days after it was uploaded. The video located on Facebook covered ISIS logos on the top right of the screen with an emoji. It is not clear why Facebook did not detect the video upload. The video was removed after CEP reported it.
The ISIS video “Jihad of the Believers Continues #7,” on Facebook, 59 days after it was uploaded. ISIS logos on the top right of the screen were hidden by an emoji. Facebook removed the video after CEP reported it.
CEP researchers also located an upload of the full-length ISIS video “The Malicious Seeds in the Imprisoned Bilad al-Haramayn.” The video was originally released on December 19, 2015, but the uploader was able to post the approximately 34-minute video on Facebook on May 31, 2022. One hundred forty-eight days later, the video had over 1,500 views. Like the other full-length ISIS video that CEP located, the account owner obstructed logos on the top right of the screen with an emoji. Facebook removed the video within 36 hours after CEP reported it.
CEP reported the 10 accounts to Facebook on October 26. Approximately 24 hours later, Facebook had removed three accounts, and seven remained online.
CEP also located a Facebook group dedicated to posting updates and raising money for a neo-Nazi rapper, Philip Hassler, known as “Mr. Bond.” Hassler is serving a 10-year prison sentence in Austria for inciting violence and promoting neo-Nazism. The Facebook group contains extensive links to the musician’s content, which encourages violence, and links to websites where supporters can make donations to Hasler’s commissary account and purchase t-shirts and other merchandise. The Facebook group also contained neo-Nazi symbols, antisemitic images, and album covers glorifying white supremacist mass shooters such as Dylann Roof and Robert Bowers.
CEP reported the page to Facebook for violating their Community Standards on hate speech, however, it was still accessible approximately 48 hours later. The album covers were removed from the site, either by Facebook or the group administrator after CEP reported the page.
Pro-ISIS Content Located on Instagram
CEP researchers also located five accounts that posted various items of pro-ISIS propaganda on Instagram. Content included pro-ISIS photos, pro-ISIS nasheeds, and text-based propaganda. One of the accounts, with 14 followers, posted pro-ISIS-K content in Tajik. Other accounts posted propaganda encouraging violence and celebrated the ISIS-claimed attack on Shah Cheragh Shrine in Shiraz, Iran. The five accounts had between 14 and 395 followers, with an average of 187. CEP reported the accounts to Instagram on October 28 but they were still online three days later.
White Supremacist Podcast Located on YouTube
CEP researchers located a white supremacist podcast on YouTube that was originally live-streamed on October 20. The podcast host praised Patriot Front and encouraged his audience to join a regional active club. Aware of the limits of YouTube’s Community Guidelines, the podcaster stated that he could not directly endorse violence on his show but said that “any Aryan should be armed to the f****** teeth. It’s really just quite that simple.” The host referred to Eric Rudolph, who detonated a bomb at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and attacked two abortion clinics and an LGBTQ bar, as a “saint” and encouraged his audience to read a positive biography of the white supremacist William Luther Pierce.
The podcast had approximately 550 views eight days after the live-stream. The podcaster’s YouTube account has over 2,000 subscribers. CEP reported the video to YouTube for violating the site’s Community Guidelines on October 28, but it was not removed.
Podcaster Sells Neo-Nazi Merchandise on GearBubble
On October 24, CEP reported a web store on the GearBubble print-on-demand site that sold t-shirts, sweatshirts, and other merchandise containing swastikas and other neo-Nazi and fascist symbols and slogans. The web store belongs to a neo-Nazi podcaster who has celebrated antisemitic hate crimes. CEP reported the web store to GearBubble, but the website was still accessible on October 31. The podcaster has over 1,200 followers on Telegram.
White Supremacist Propaganda Video Promoting Terrorism Located on Several Websites
CEP researchers located a recently released white supremacist accelerationist video that promoted acts of terrorism on three websites. The approximately 24-minute video, made by the individuals behind a series of Telegram channels collectively known as “Terrorgram,” was originally released on October 14, 2022. The video celebrates dozens of individuals who have committed acts of violence and terrorism from 1968 to the present against the government, police officers, women, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ people, leftists, journalists, and medical professionals. In addition to praising perpetrators of violence and referring to them as “saints,” the video encourages further acts of terrorism, stating that future attacks will be recognized and honored. In addition to news clips, the video contains violent footage taken from the Christchurch and Buffalo attack videos.
The video was located on the Internet Archive, BitChute, and an additional video streaming site. CEP referred the video to relevant national-level authorities. The video was removed from the Internet Archive and BitChute.