Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Prime Minister of Yemen’s Houthi Government Killed in Israeli Strike

1 day ago

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Signs Law Redrawing Congressional Maps

2 days ago

US Air Force will Offer Military Funeral Honors to Slain Capitol Rioter

2 days ago

US Republican Senator Joni Ernst Will Not Run for Re-Election, CBS News Reports

2 days ago

Wall Street Falls as Dell, Nvidia Drive Tech Losses

2 days ago

US Denies Visas to Palestinian Officials Ahead of UN General Assembly

2 days ago

Minneapolis Children Revealed Courage, Absorbed Fear During Church Shooting

3 days ago

Ford Recalls Nearly 500,000 Vehicles Over Brake Fluid Leak

3 days ago

Fresno-Bound Passenger Says Delta Attendant Slapped Him, Seeks $20M

3 days ago
Online Bans Fail To Silence US Extremists Drawn To Protests
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
September 4, 2020

Share

SILVER SPRING, Md. — After Wisconsin protests over Jacob Blake’s shooting by police turned deadly last week, a member of an anti-government extremist group started posting updates from the scene for comrades in an encrypted chat room.

Facebook, Discord and other mainstream internet services have banned accounts linked to anti-government extremists, but the recent protests in Kenosha and elsewhere illustrate how easy it can be for them to work around these digital roadblocks.

The group member named “Jake” said “two of my guys” rushed in to help after a gunman later identified as 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two people Aug. 25 on a street in Kenosha.

“Jake” was posting on the Keybase messaging platform, where the group migrated after Discord banned it from its instant messaging service in early July.

For months, the nationwide protests against racial injustice and COVID-19 lockdown orders have attracted all manner of extremists using online platforms to plan, coordinate and drum up support for their activities.

Facebook, Discord and other mainstream internet services have banned accounts linked to anti-government extremists, but the recent protests in Kenosha and elsewhere illustrate how easy it can be for them to work around these digital roadblocks.

“The whole landscape is too big and each individual player is very big,” said Elon University Professor Megan Squire, a computer scientist who studies online extremism. “The number of people you would need to truly police this on the platforms is inadequate right now. The resources just aren’t there.”

Squire has been monitoring the messaging site to which “Jake” and hundreds of other users belong, collecting and reviewing their messages.

One of the posts about the Kenosha shooting said one of Jake’s “guys” provided unspecified medical care while the other was “escorting the kid to safety,” presumably referring to Rittenhouse.

To Avoid the Ban, Some Boogaloo Groups Relaunched Pages Under Innocuous Sounding Names

Later, other members of the self-described “private intelligence agency” discussed whether the violence in Kenosha would be the catalyst for a civil war, according to a screenshot taken by Squire.

“Doubt it,” the group’s anonymous founder wrote. “Things like that take time, which is what is happening now.”

“Ah. Gotcha,” a user named “warhammer_actual” replied. “This is just one part of that escalation. Makes sense.”

On June 30, Facebook announced that it had removed hundreds of Facebook and Instagram accounts, pages and groups linked to the anti-government “boogaloo” movement.

Boogaloo supporters, who use the loose movement’s name as a slang term for a second civil war or collapse of civilization, frequently show up at protests armed with rifles and wearing Hawaiian shirts under body armor.

To avoid the ban, some boogaloo groups relaunched pages under innocuous sounding names. A day before the Kenosha protest shooting, a post on a private Facebook group with more than 2,000 members called “CNN Journalist Support Group” said “bois of the movement” would be “making their presence felt” in the city, wearing “regular clothes” or combat apparel instead of “luau” shirts.

“These are well known bois who no longer can post to social media due to the purge,” said the post, according to a screenshot collected by the Tech Transparency Project, a research initiative of the nonprofit Campaign for Accountability.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company made a mistake in not removing the page of a militia group that called for armed civilians to enter Kenosha amid the violent protests that erupted after police shot Blake, a Black man, in the back seven times, leaving him paralyzed.

The page for the “Kenosha Guard” violated Facebook’s policies and had been flagged by “a bunch of people,” Zuckerberg said in a video posted last Friday on Facebook.

FILE – In this Aug. 25, 2020, file photo, protesters take cover behind a dumpster during clashes with police outside the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis. After the Wisconsin protest over Jacob Blake’s shooting by police turned deadly, a member of an anti-government extremist group started posting updates from the scene for comrades in an encrypted chat room. For months, the nationwide protests against racial injustice and COVID-19 lockdown orders have attracted all kinds of extremists using online platforms to plan, coordinate and drum up support for their activities. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

The Boogaloo Has Been Linked To a Recent String of Domestic Terrorism Plots

An Aug. 12 report by the Tech Transparency Project found that Facebook’s “slow and ineffective response” has allowed many boogaloo groups to avoid detection using simple re-branding techniques.

The boogaloo has been linked to a recent string of domestic terrorism plots, including the arrests of three Nevada men accused of conspiring to incite violence during protests in Las Vegas.

Project director Katie Paul said at least four private Facebook groups for “boogaloo” supporters used their accounts to promote plans to attend the protests in Kenosha before the shooting.

“This is systematic failure. It’s not a one-off incident,” Paul said. “Whatever Facebook’s measures are, they are not effective and they are not being properly applied.”

The boogaloo has been linked to a recent string of domestic terrorism plots, including the arrests of three Nevada men accused of conspiring to incite violence during protests in Las Vegas.

Authorities also found a boogaloo connection in the fatal shooting of a federal security officer outside an Oakland courthouse and the ambush killing of a California sheriff’s deputy. Steven Carrillo, an Air Force sergeant charged with the killings, was tied to the boogaloo movement from social media posts and phrases he wrote in his own blood.

Ryan Balch, an Army veteran who spent time with Rittenhouse on the night of the shooting, said as many as 32 boogaloo adherents were in Kenosha that day. Balch described himself as a “Boog Boi” in a series of Facebook messages to the Chicago Sun-Times, but he said Rittenhouse had no connection to the boogaloo movement.

“Agitators did seem to focus on him because he seemed like an easier target than the rest of us,” Balch said, according to the newspaper.

The Bans Like the Ones Imposed by Facebook and Discord Typically Shrink the Groups’ Membership

The group that Squire has been tracking on Keybase says it doesn’t promote the boogaloo or any other movement, but she said that denial rings hollow based on her review of their communications on the messaging platform.

“It’s pretty obvious that they’re just saying that because they’re worried they’re going to be removed from the service,” she said. “In their minds, they’re planning for this war.”

The user named “Jake” said he didn’t see anybody in Kenosha “repping the redacted,” an apparent reference to the boogaloo. “Most people had all their patches removed,” he wrote.

“Stay frosty bois,” wrote another user, named “vbboisrep.”

Squire said the group had as many as 1,500 members on Discord before its ban. It has roughly 500 members on Keybase, where it has separate channels for discussing recent “riots” in Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta and other cities.

Stamping out the online footprints of extremist groups is ”basically impossible unless the companies get together, unless there is a clear mandate to remove this stuff en masse,” Squire said.

But the bans like the ones imposed by Facebook and Discord typically shrink the groups’ membership and audience when they move to a new platform, she added.

“So it’s still worth doing,” Squire said.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Garnet Fire Grows to 18,748 Acres in Sierra National Forest

DON'T MISS

US Judge Blocks Deportations of Unaccompanied Migrant Children to Guatemala

DON'T MISS

Israel Pounds Gaza City Suburbs, Netanyahu to Convene Security Cabinet

DON'T MISS

Thousands in Australia March Against Immigration, Government Condemns Rally

DON'T MISS

Trump Says He Will Order Voter ID Requirement for Every Vote

DON'T MISS

Greta Thunberg Joins Flotilla Heading for Gaza With Aid

DON'T MISS

Chicago Mayor Says Police Will Not Aid Federal Troops or Agents

DON'T MISS

Post-War Gaza Plan Sees Relocation of Population, ‘Digital Token’ for Palestinian Land: Washington Post

DON'T MISS

Labor Day Quiz: Do You Know What a Knocker-Upper Is?

DON'T MISS

Bulldogs Check All the Boxes in Runaway Win Over Georgia Southern

UP NEXT

Trump Says He Will Order Voter ID Requirement for Every Vote

UP NEXT

Chicago Mayor Says Police Will Not Aid Federal Troops or Agents

UP NEXT

Judge Blocks Pillar of Trump’s Mass Deportation Campaign

UP NEXT

Dollar Trades Lower With Fed Cut In View, On Course For Monthly Drop

UP NEXT

New $250 Visa Fee Risks Deepening US Travel Slump

UP NEXT

Lawsuit Links CA Teen’s Suicide To Artificial Intelligence

UP NEXT

Hearing Ends Without Ruling On Trump’s Firing Of Fed Governor Cook

UP NEXT

Gov. Newsom Launches New Task Force To Clear CA Homeless Encampments

UP NEXT

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Signs Law Redrawing Congressional Maps

UP NEXT

US Republican Senator Joni Ernst Will Not Run for Re-Election, CBS News Reports

Thousands in Australia March Against Immigration, Government Condemns Rally

40 minutes ago

Trump Says He Will Order Voter ID Requirement for Every Vote

46 minutes ago

Greta Thunberg Joins Flotilla Heading for Gaza With Aid

48 minutes ago

Chicago Mayor Says Police Will Not Aid Federal Troops or Agents

51 minutes ago

Post-War Gaza Plan Sees Relocation of Population, ‘Digital Token’ for Palestinian Land: Washington Post

55 minutes ago

Labor Day Quiz: Do You Know What a Knocker-Upper Is?

1 hour ago

Bulldogs Check All the Boxes in Runaway Win Over Georgia Southern

11 hours ago

Judge Blocks Pillar of Trump’s Mass Deportation Campaign

21 hours ago

Classic Cars Will Still Need a Smog Test in California After Lawmakers Reject Jay Leno Bill

23 hours ago

Visalia Driver Arrested for DUI After Multiple Crashes and Pedestrian Injured

24 hours ago

Fresno County Garnet Fire Grows to 18,748 Acres in Sierra National Forest

A lightning-sparked wildfire, the Garnet Fire, in the Sierra National Forest has burned 18,748 acres in Fresno County and remains at 8% cont...

19 minutes ago

Photo: USDA - Forest Service Tanker 40 at Fresno Air Attack Base. The Fresno County Garnet Fire in the Sierra National Forest has burned 18,748 acres and is 8% contained as crews make progress on containment lines while bracing for possible thunderstorms early this week. (Sam Wu/USFS)
19 minutes ago

Fresno County Garnet Fire Grows to 18,748 Acres in Sierra National Forest

U.S. flag and Judge gavel are seen in this illustration taken, August 6, 2024. (Reuters File)
33 minutes ago

US Judge Blocks Deportations of Unaccompanied Migrant Children to Guatemala

Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, August 31, 2025. (Reuters/Amir Cohen)
37 minutes ago

Israel Pounds Gaza City Suburbs, Netanyahu to Convene Security Cabinet

Demonstrators hold a banner during the 'March for Australia' anti-immigration rally, in Sydney, Australia, August 31, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
40 minutes ago

Thousands in Australia March Against Immigration, Government Condemns Rally

President Donald Trump walks on the grounds of the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, U.S., August 30, 2025. (Reuters/Nathan Howard)
46 minutes ago

Trump Says He Will Order Voter ID Requirement for Every Vote

Activists Yasemin Acar, Greta Thunberg and Thiago Avila attend a press conference before the departure of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a humanitarian expedition to Gaza, at the port of Barcelona, Spain August 31, 2025. (Reuters/Eva Manez)
48 minutes ago

Greta Thunberg Joins Flotilla Heading for Gaza With Aid

National Guard troops wear gas masks during protests against federal immigration sweeps, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 12, 2025. (Reuters File)
51 minutes ago

Chicago Mayor Says Police Will Not Aid Federal Troops or Agents

A view of tents sheltering Palestinians displaced by the Israeli military offensive, in Gaza City, August 23, 2025. (Reuters File)
55 minutes ago

Post-War Gaza Plan Sees Relocation of Population, ‘Digital Token’ for Palestinian Land: Washington Post

Search

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Send this to a friend