Case Study 03

Research questions:

1. At what point does violent online chatter translate into tangible violence on the ground?

2. What tech platforms enable groups to mobilize violent actions?

3. How could a governmental response curtail the threat of violence propagated by white ethno-nationalist groups in America?

Research Overview

From February 2020 to May 2020, graduate students at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs conducted a semester-long study into the activities and online presence of violent ethno-nationalist groups with transnational ties.

Our research focused on two organizations with active chapters in America: Blood and Honour and the Atomwaffen Division. Primary research, expert interviews and an extensive literature review helped us map each group’s online presence and point towards the technology platforms that enable and amplify their activity. In addition to group-specific findings, we identified and catalogued common terms, narratives, and conspiracy theories that demonstrated a lexiconic linkage between these individuals and their ideologies. Our report summarizes key findings in order to inform US government stakeholders and support future research in this area.

Phase 1: Mapping online activity

From the beginning of our research, it was clear that violent ethnonationalists were accelerating their membership and activities both online and on the ground.

A scan of Google search results in March 2020 demonstrated a clear upward trend in the number of media mentions that the United States’ most active Neo-Nazi groups have received over the past four years.

We believe that the increased media coverage and online chatter is directly linked to an uptick in right-wing violence in the United States. In 2019, 90% (38/40) of the extremist-related murders in the United States were committed by right-wing extremists. This number builds upon a decade-long trend in which 76% of extremist-related murders in the US were committed by members of the right-wing.

As researchers, we were particularly interested in those groups who displayed transnational ties and had demonstrated the ability to mobilize violent actions on the ground. For one month, we catalogued the online presence of over 18 white nationalists groups, recording their locations of operation; presence on the clear web; keywords, symbols, and values; leadership; group membership size; proclivity to violence; committed acts of violence; overt online presence; and international ties. It became clear that understanding the online ecosystem and internal networks linking any one group would require substantial time and assets. With this in mind, we narrowed our focus to two groups for further analysis: Atomwaffen Division (AWD) and Blood and Honour (B&H).

Phase 2: Group selection and monitoring

Groups like Blood and Honour (B&H) and The Atomwaffen Division (AWD) have adapted to an ecosystem of increased public scrutiny and member surveillance very effectively.

B&H has leveraged to its roots in white power music in order to build membership via concerts and merchandise sales. UK co-founder Ian Stuart Donaldson was the lead singer of the band Skrewdriver and attracted followers of other skinhead music groups, such as No Remorse, Razors Edge, Sudden Impact, and Brutal Attack throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. Through the dissemination of CDs, particularly through the record company ISD Records, and the skinhead music scene, B&H promoted the creation of a Fourth Reich and violent white power supremacy.

B&H’s peer-to-peer communication has largely migrated from mainstream social media to alternative platforms for marketing and communications, including platforms like Telegram, Discord, and Unicorn Riot, as well as the anonymous /pol/ chats like 8chan and 4chan.

Publicly available documentation and a couple of testimonials suggest that AWD follows a similar member communications model, funneling more violent calls to action towards private chat groups.

Phase 3: Conclusions

After three months of desk research, academic interviews and observation, we were able to draw the following conclusions about B&H and AWD’s behavior online:

Blood and Honour

• There are 49 active B&H chapters in 23 countries

• B&H chapters are associated with a total of 41 email addresses

• CloudFlare, GoDaddy and EZkift all host active B&H member sites. Factors such as anonymity/privacy, availability, marketing, and price may all play a role in their selection

• 3 official music enterprises have active websites: ISD Records, 28 Radio, and 9% Productions. All play an active role in propagating white power narratives through music distribution, although the increased restrictions placed on payment processing platforms after the 2017 Unite the Right Rally has likely decreased online merchandise sales.

The Atomwaffen Division

• In the past two years, anti-facist groups and publications like Propublica, PBS and Bellingcat have exposed virtually all of AWD’s clear websites, YouTube channels, Twitter handles, and commonly-used anonymous chat threads.

• Many discussion channels appear to remain active only for a short period of time before transitioning to new threads or darkweb channels. This trend may slow coordinated actions or the promulgation of AWD ideologies, as .onion sites require extra technical steps to gain access

• It is likely that AWD has moved their discussions and recruitment to the darknet as indicated by a January 2020 8kun thread which claimed their new membership page was the onion link: //atomyn**********.onion/**********

• The terms ‘Dark Foreigner’, seige, seivewave, seige shack

Opportunities for Further Research

Due to the limitations imposed by academic research, we were restricted to observing activity on online platforms, and thus we were unable to engage with users directly or gain more tactile insights into their personal motivations or behaviors.

In addition to respecting a strict no-engagement policy, the outcomes of our 2020 research may have been swayed by the flood of COVID-19 related conspiracy theories that skewed narrative analysis.

If we were to continue research on the online activity of violent ethno-nationalist groups, we would recommend:

• Examining the link between group activity online and financial services and fundraising platforms

• Exploring links with the entertainment and gaming industries, and how recreational forums may be coopted by white power narratives

• Looking at the role of gender in recruitment and group mobilization