In December, a teenage shooter killed two people and herself inside her school in Madison, Wisconsin. In January, a teenage shooter killed one student and himself inside his school in Nashville, Tennessee. Now, a story in ProPublica investigates a troubling link between the shootings—the two teens never met in person, but they appeared to intersect online in a number of online networks that celebrate and even encourage such attacks. "Across various social media platforms, the networks trade hateful memes alongside terrorist literature, exchange tips on how to effectively commit attacks and encourage one another to carry out their own," writes Phoebe Petrovic.
After the Madison shooting by Samantha Rupnow, the future Nashville shooter, Solomon Henderson, boasted online that "i used to be mutuals with someone who is now a real school shooter," meaning they followed each other online. He also called her a "Saintress"—a common term in the networks—and a "hero." Investigators don't think the two planned their attacks together, but their online connection illustrates how such forums might make copycat killings more likely. The forums vary, but they often traffic in white supremacist or neo-Nazi beliefs, antisemitism, racism, satanism, or the occult.
"This network is best described as an online subculture that celebrates violent attacks and radicalizes young people into committing violence," says one violence-prevention researcher. "Many of the individuals involved in this network are minors, and we'd like to see intervention to give them the help and support they need, for their own safety as well as those around them." (Read the full story, done in conjunction with Wisconsin Watch.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
