(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. Last week on the directory website Carrd, CEP researchers located a neo-Nazi digital artist whose page was being used to link to fundraising and propaganda efforts. On Facebook, numerous accounts that posted ISIS and pro-ISIS propaganda were discovered. Following the killing of ISIS leader Maher al-Agal in Syria by a U.S. drone strike, the terrorist group’s supporters on Telegram urged perseverance. Also, on Telegram, a neo-Nazi collective released a book advocating for acts of accelerationist terrorism, including mass shootings and attacks on infrastructure. Finally, a neo-Nazi website called on readers to create firearms using 3D printers.
CEP Reports Neo-Nazi Propagandist Using Carrd
On July 12, CEP researchers located a neo-Nazi propagandist using the directory website Carrd. The individual is a neo-Nazi digital artist who has made work promoting white supremacist groups such as NSC-131, Patriot Front, and the active club movement, as well as various other white supremacist causes. The individual’s Carrd page was being used as a directory containing links to social media, fundraising efforts, and the sale of clothing and artwork. Carrd removed the site after CEP reported it for violating the site’s policies against “threatening or abusive content.”
ISIS Content Located on Facebook
During the week of July 10 to July 16, CEP researchers found ten accounts on Facebook that posted a variety of ISIS and pro-ISIS propaganda. Content included a full-length official ISIS video uploaded on June 23, the same day it was released, videos containing Amaq news statements, links to ISIS content on other websites, ISIS audio clips, pro-ISIS propaganda photos, and unofficial pro-ISIS videos using footage taken from official propaganda. One account, with over 1,200 friends, used a photo of the November 2, 2020, Vienna attacker, Kujtim Fejzulai, as a profile photo. Another account, with over 850 followers, posted a photo on April 30, originally released in 2015, that showed ISIS fighters executing an alleged gay man in Kirkuk, Iraq, as well as multiple other propaganda photos. Numerous pieces of propaganda located by CEP had over 100 interactions. CEP reported the accounts to Facebook, who had only removed one account within three days.
ISIS propaganda video on Facebook, July 14, 2022.
Online ISIS Supporters Pledge to Persevere After Killing of Group’s Leader in Syria
Following a U.S. drone strike on July 12 that killed ISIS’s leader in Syria, Maher al-Agal, ISIS online supporters stated that they would persevere. Pro-ISIS Telegram users claimed that the group was an enduring idea that cannot be defeated through strikes on its leadership or by losing territory. Another post urged ISIS supporters only to accept official news from the group’s propaganda outlets, stating that Turkey had claimed to have captured ISIS’s leader on May 26 without providing proof.
Neo-Nazi Accelerationist Book Released on Telegram
On July 14, a neo-Nazi collective released an approximately 260-page book on Telegram advocating for acts of terrorism and spreading accelerationist concepts and tactics as part of a series from the “Terrogram” set of channels. The book included eye catching graphics, essays, infographics, and short works of fiction. The guide encourages acts of terrorism, actions that spread chaos, and further divisions in society. The guide claimed to have approximately 25 different authors.
The text encouraged lone actor violence, workplace violence, attacks on infrastructure, law enforcement, politicians, people of color, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Latinos, and LGBT people. The guide included information useful for committing lone actor attacks on soft targets, such as operations security, how to conduct surveillance, target selection, equipment suggestions, and directions on making homemade explosives. The guide additionally offered advice to individuals committing live-streamed attacks as copycats of the Christchurch terrorist.
The guide also advocated for everyday acts of sabotage and larger acts of sabotage targeting infrastructure such as railway lines, cellphone towers, trucks and truck depots, roads, bridges, highways, water treatment facilities, communications facilities, electrical infrastructure, and HVAC units.
The book included quotes from James Mason’s book Siege and provided a reading guide for the book The Turner Diaries regarding what lessons readers should apply to their own violent efforts. The guide also included images taken from propaganda released from the Atomwaffen Division’s “Fission” breakaway group. However, the guide recommended that individuals commit individual acts of violence or work in small, vetted cells, but not to join groups that organize using names or logos.
The book promised three additional publications in the future, including a kill list based on a Telegram channel that has repeatedly been deleted and returned. The same collective released two previous books in June and December 2021.
Within four hours, the book was released on at least 13 different Telegram channels. Approximately two hours before the guide was officially released, a prominent neo-Nazi Telegram channel with over 10,000 subscribers dedicated to information and operations security posted a meme featured in the book, likely as an inside joke to signify involvement. The book was also located on the Internet Archive who removed it after CEP reported it.
Neo-Nazi Website Promotes Creation of 3D Printed Firearms
On July 11, a neo-Nazi website linked to James Mason and the National Socialist Order (NSO) posted a blog advising their readers to learn to create firearms using 3D printers. The post warned that on August 24, federal laws limiting “ghost guns” would come into effect, and that parts kits for the homemade production of firearms would be subject to the same regulations as pre-made firearms, including background checks, and that frames and receivers would require serial numbers. The neo-Nazi website stated that their movement needed to have the ability to build weapons secretly without alerting the authorities.
The post included links to plans for building several 3D printed firearms and warned that the federal government would eventually ban 3D printers capable of producing firearms components. The blog post also stated that it was necessary to build guns even if it violates the law.
On June 30, an NSO member in Mississippi, Aubrey Sakai Suzuki, pleaded guilty to making threats online in late 2020. The FBI arrested Suzuki on July 19, 2021, while he was picking up a firearm that he had purchased.
In addition to content from Mason, the website contains writing from former members of the Atomwaffen Division and current members of the NSO and lists members from the former as “prisoners of war.” On March 2, the site claimed that the bulk of its readership was between the ages of 16 and 18. The website uses Cloudflare as its name server and registrar.