N the 73-page Manifesto Reportedly Uploaded by One of the Gunmen
The social media strategies used past the defendant Christchurch mosque shooter and Islamic State (IS) media are overlapping, says a Harvard researcher investigating online radicalisation.
Primal points:
- Brenton Tarrant used the same anonymous file sharing services equally terror organisations
- A one-time NSW Police deputy commissioner said the livestream video could exist used as recruitment material
- A researcher said the shooter's manifesto resembled propaganda methods used by Islamic Country
New Zealanders went into mourning after a gunman attacked worshippers in 2 Christchurch mosques, killing fifty and injuring dozens more.
Grafton man Brenton Tarrant, 28, who is accused of livestreaming the attack, had in the days preceding it allegedly uploaded a 73-page manifesto through the aforementioned anonymous file sharing services used by IS to disseminate their propaganda.
Norwegian extremist Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 69 people on the island of Utoya in 2011, took a like arroyo to justifying his acts.
An assay of the digital footprint of Tarrant'due south documents revealed recruitment techniques observed in far-right movements and terrorist organisations.
Benjamin Decker is a research fellow at the Shorenstein Heart at Harvard Kennedy School in Boston, investigating online radicalisation of mass shooters and jihadists.
He said both the accused shooter and recruiters in Syria employed social media to inspire solitary-wolf attacks using a "media manipulation functioning to allurement journalists into amplifying hateful propaganda".
"While [he] frequented fringe social media platforms, his strategy more closely resembles tactics used by the Islamic State during its peak propaganda output in 2014 and 2015," Mr Decker said.
Twitter posts purporting to exist Tarrant's contained several download links to his manifesto, which was after shared on messaging boards less than xxx minutes before the assault at a Christchurch mosque.
Photos were likewise posted of weapons and ammunition cartridges scrawled with Nazi and far-correct references, and were seen being used in the video.
Mr Decker said, similar IS, Tarrant's manifesto used symbolism and coded language to paint a historical narrative about the victimisation of a specific people attempting to reclaim a lost glory.
"My kickoff idea was that this is the white nationalist response to ISIS — he specifically creates a number of search areas for readers of his content to wait further," he said.
Space to play or pause, Grand to mute, left and correct arrows to seek, upward and down arrows for volume.
The Harvard fellow noted the manifesto of Charleston Church shooter Dylann Roof, who killed nine black parishioners after opening fire in a church in South Carolina, sparked an increase in web searches for black-on-white crime.
The alleged Christchurch shooter's manifesto also contained questions and answers the author conducted with himself and were reminiscent of the IS glossy English language-language magazine Dabiq, who profiled 1 of the Brussels bombers in 2016.
The meme culture of mass shooters
In his manifesto, the accused shooter referenced a number of popular video games. During the livestream of the set on, a reference to a pop gaming personality predominantly watched past young children and teenagers could be heard.
While all-encompassing bookish research does non suggest a link between violence in video games and real-globe violence, it is central to the culture existing on online forums and social media pages mass shooters inhabit.
Mr Decker said the first-person shooter angle, mutual in video games, used in livestream of the attack was commonly used in IS recruitment videos and said there was an "intersection of extremist violence and online gaming culture".
"It'due south a commonplace lens through which to witness violence and was a central component of IS recruitment, particularly of westerners," he said.
IS fighters had used headcam footage while they battled Iraqi forces for control of Fallujah in 2016. Similarly shot videos were besides used by IS supporters in gainsay scenarios in the Philippines.
Nick Kaldas, the former Deputy Commissioner of NSW Police and now senior beau at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), was concerned the accused shooter's livestream could be used as recruitment material by white supremacists and jihadists alike.
"This is the dilemma with such intensive media coverage, it does sometimes inspire copycats," he said.
A 'growing threat' in Commonwealth of australia
The supposed white supremacist views of the manifesto's writer did not germinate in a vacuum, according to Victoria University'southward Debra Smith, who has spent eighteen months working on a report on the subject area from Melbourne.
Dr Smith said far-correct extremism was a "growing threat" in Commonwealth of australia and leaders in those communities were leveraging racial hatred and bigotry to grow their numbers.
She said hateful speech communication allowed people to feel like they were the "vanguards of a social motility".
"What research [shows is] that anti-Islamic rhetoric is being used every bit a strategic tool by the far-correct to recruit people into the movement," Dr Smith said.
"It'southward very clear the far-right respond to public debates effectually the role of Islam in lodge, around things similar spousal relationship equality and and then-called African gangs, to sow fear and division to recruit people to their crusade."
She said while social media created "echo chambers", research has shown almost 85 per cent of people with those views had a real-world contact with someone already involved.
Mr Decker said the media should limit exposure time for the far-right in the same way they did for jihadists and warned the accused might apply his trial to farther disseminate a white supremacy calendar.
"We should stop sharing screenshots or links to shooter's own brand of recruitment propaganda," he said.
"It further propagates his beliefs in the promise that he might inspire others — we, the media, cannot let him to bask in that glory and fulfil his ambitions."
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, upward and downward arrows for book.
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Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-17/christchurch-shootings-brenton-tarrant-social-media-strategies/10908692
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