KDKA Investigates: Are Dark Web Forums Breeding Grounds For The Next Racist Mass Murders?
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Robert Bowers is accused of killing 11 people and wounding six others at the Tree of Life Synagogue last October, but his carnage did not end here.
In March, a gunman quoted Bowers in his manifesto before murdering 51 people at a mosque in New Zealand, and just last month in his own manifesto, a 19-year-old man made 10 references to Bowers before attacking a synagogue in San Diego, killing one worshipper and wounding others.
"We're ground zero for antisemitism now in the country. We had the worst attack on the Jewish population in our nation's history and like-minded people like Bowers and others are referencing what happened in Tree of Life," said Brad Orsini, the former FBI agent who heads security for the United Jewish Federation.
While these gunmen can be described as lone wolves living in diverse locations, each found a connection with the others, and each found a home on the internet within online anonymous communities that espouse racist hate.
Bowers posted antisemitic rants on a confidential social network site called "Gab.com," and the two others posted their hate-filled manifestos on a message board site called 8chan.
The sites ensure absolute anonymity for white nationalists and Neo-Nazis, and Orsini says they spur their online comrades to commit hate crimes.
"It gives folks that might be disenfranchised, that are looking for a home, like-minded people that, they get on the internet, whether they're self-radicalizing, find somebody that has thoughts like them and then they become angry, agitated," he said.
Within these online communities, these gunmen all expressed the idea that Jews and other minorities are "invaders," attempting to replace the white race through the inter-mixing of ethnic groups.
They're calling for a worldwide race war.
"The internet is borderless and people don't even know each other and they're finding these allegiances based upon this terrible stream of hate," said David Hickton, the former U.S. Attorney and founder of Pitt's Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security.
He says as crazed and hateful as the ideas are, they become legitimized in these forums and the more imbalanced members may take them as a call to violence.
"We can clearly see that this thought which is amplified becomes a path to action," he said.
But should these sites be shut down?
New Zealand and Australia have now blocked 8chan but first amendment and free speech concerns here in the U.S. have prevented such action.
Hate speech in and of itself is not a crime; it's only when the speaker shows an intent to commit a specific act of violence can law enforcement take action.
"And that's really the $10,000 question for us. How [do] we identify a perpetrator who is ready to attack?" Orsini said.
It's a delicate balance between free speech and the intent to commit a crime, and across the country, law enforcement is grappling with it.
In San Diego, the gunman stated his intent to attack a synagogue in a post on 8chan and another user reported it to the FBI. But the post did not specify a location and came too late. The attack occurred less than 15 minutes later. Bowers posted on Gab that he was "going in" minutes before the Tree of Life attack.
Orsini says that's why it's important that the public immediately reports suspicious posts on the internet to authorities.
For his part, Hickton believes we need tougher laws on domestic terrorism and requiring web companies to police their own sites.
"They have the ability, and they've not been very good at it so far, at regulating the participation on their sites. They can establish rules on their site and they can take people off," Hickton said.
There is an advantage for law enforcement to keep track of these potential assailants on these sites. Hickton declined to comment on the methods cyber investigators use, but he says law enforcement has stepped in and stopped some of these attacks.
