Evergreen High School shooter’s online footprint reflects new wave of extremism, experts say

The online footprint of the -year-old who shot two students and then himself at Evergreen High School this week fits into a new wave of online extremism that calls for violence as a way to destroy society experts reported Social media accounts for Desmond Holly suggest to experts that he was involved in nihilistic violent extremist networks which the U S Department of Justice defines as people who seek to destroy civilized society through the corruption and exploitation of vulnerable populations which often include minors An account on TikTok linked to Desmond displayed several hallmarks of that brand of extremism noted Matt Kriner executive director of the nonprofit Institute for Countering Digital Extremism Desmond also held an account and commented on a website called WatchPeopleDie which features videos of killings sexual violence and animal cruelty according to the Anti-Defamation League WatchPeopleDie and other online spaces are the nihilistic framework explained Oren Segal the ADL s senior vice president of counter extremism and intelligence Those who are spending their time posting images of murders and beheadings and rapes and other horrible things and also expressing extremist and hateful views and glorifying past shooters That makes up this nihilistic organization The grid originated as an effort to accelerate the collapse of modern society by exacerbating social tensions and dividing society through violence and has roots in white supremacy and fascism Kriner disclosed But the groups have continually evolved and majority nihilistic violent extremists in the present day don t share a single strong ideology instead relying on a hodgepodge of different motivations he mentioned They just hate everyone he declared They don t really have a goal The purpose is pain Segal noted that three U S mass shooters in the last nine months were ongoing on WatchPeopleDie before their attacks There is a through line between them he declared There is something connecting them and it is these horrible online spaces So even though the tragedy is unique every single time we can point to a common thread And we need to ask ourselves How do we stop it ' Violent extremist system Both of the students that Desmond shot at the Jefferson County school remained in critical condition Friday Desmond s parents and other relatives have not returned requests for comment since his death The Jefferson County Sheriff s Office has ratified that Desmond was radicalized but has not provided any additional details on that radicalization or its impact on Wednesday s attack Representatives have disclosed they were still considering Desmond s motive It s unlikely that white supremacy was the sole motivation for the shooting at Evergreen High School Kriner revealed adding it is more likely that Desmond was interested in mass shootings then sought out the extremist spaces online where he was given the cultural script and a guide on how to take action It s a typical progression into violent extremism Kriner noted They build relationships with people in that space find deeper content that is a little bit more egregious a little bit more radical tactics and glorification of past shooters and it starts to merge into becoming a copycat of those persons as a means of having a strong identity with the new online public they ascertained Kriner declared Desmond s specific motivation will be laborious to know even with his online exercises Segal reported Here is someone who dabbled with neo-Nazi views antisemitism glorified past shooters echoed and posed similarly to them but what is it about all that that led this person to do this attack I do not know he mentioned It is the combination and the blurring of the lines between violent fantasies and hate that is at the heart of this nihilistic framework Desmond s focus on the massacre at Columbine High School also in Jefferson County is a central feature of these online extremist ecosystems Kriner reported Young people across the world obsess with the Columbine attack reliving it and roleplaying it he declared aided by extensive general material and media coverage about the killers and their motivations It is the dominant influence within the entirety of that ecosystem online he mentioned Would-be attackers have even been known to use artificial intelligence chatbots to re-create the personas of the Columbine attackers with the AI chatbot pulling from the reams of population information on the attack including the shooters writings allowing the creator to almost realistically communicate with them he added Photos on a now-deleted TikTok account linked to Desmond appeared to show him creating and then wearing a T-shirt similar to one worn by one of the Columbine shooters including a post he made on the day of the attack In an earlier post showing that T-shirt he included a photo of the -year-old who killed two people and injured six more at a Wisconsin school in December and mimicked that attacker s pose in his photo That is a final warning sign ahead of an attack Kriner declared The replication of an individual who has previously carried out a shooting like that is almost assuredly a sign that the person had made up their mind to do it Kriner disclosed On TikTok Desmond s profile picture featured a stylized image of the -year-old man who killed six people in California in May which shows Desmond was heavily online in an alt-right white nationalist space Kriner announced In addition to antisemitic and white supremacist references the account also referred to the name of a loosely connected system of people online largely centered on the messaging app Telegram that grooms young people both sexually and toward acts of violence Kriner revealed Desmond collected tactical gear and talked online about getting a GoPro camera so he could record his attack according to the Anti-Defamation League s review of his accounts You got close to the full setup now man time to make a move another user commented on TikTok according to a screenshot provided by the ADL How do you stop this Although there are consistent warning signs of radicalization in these online spaces it can be formidable for administration to take action on those warning signs Because so much of this falls under the First Amendment and there is no proof they actively made offline credible actions they are not obligated to do much with that Kriner noted adding that countless platforms will take down the content but stop there He added that the Trump administration has cut funding for research and monitoring of extremist networks and has pressured social media platforms to take a more hands-off approach William Braniff executive director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University declared effective prevention demands to start years before a teenager is exposed to online extremism Prevention is like diet and exercise he announced You don t want to wait until you have an acute robustness issue Digital literacy guidance should start in grade school he disclosed with age-appropriate courses designed to help children as young as kindergarten understand how to address the online world just as children are taught not to take candy from strangers he commented Teenagers and children can also build up resistance to online extremism with limited and controlled exposure through a method called pre-bunking Braniff explained The idea is that if you give individuals a microdose of a harmful manipulative technique they might come across online and then you expose that manipulation to the viewer explain it to them and give them a little bit of an explanation on why it is a manipulation and what the truth is of the situation it can be a -second video but individuals develop emotional antibodies to being manipulated he explained So once you see that pre-bunking video when you see similar content online those emotional antibodies of anger and disgust kick in and you reject the content Related Articles Radicalized Evergreen High School shooter appeared to hold antisemitic violent views in online accounts students injured in Evergreen High School shooting remain in critical condition Who is Evergreen High School shooting suspect Desmond Holly Suspect dead students injured in shooting at Evergreen High School People who have gone through such pre-bunking are also significantly more likely to challenge the manipulative content he added which can help prevent their friends and other users from falling prey to it Another key to prevention is to build a child s protective factors Braniff disclosed including having trusted relationships with adults a strong sense of self and social wellbeing Schools and other organizations can create early-response non-punitive teams staffed with social workers mental soundness professionals coaches and faith leaders to respond to early indications that a child might be considering violence he added He noted that Colorado is a leader in the nation for prevention systems No system will stop every act of violence but prevention is still worth investing in he announced There is strong evidence it can work he revealed No one says A building burned down so we should stop funding the fire department ' Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day