The attacker of the hall alone is to have acted. But he was part of a digital Community. Hatred and incitement will be widely used on the Internet across borders. A view into the virtual world of right-wing extremism.
On Thursday morning – not even 24 hours have passed since the stop of the hall sits a young man in front of his screen in a Live Chat. He is a Gamer, operates its own channel on Twitch. It is the same Streaming platform, which the assassin Stephan B. on the day before his murders live on the Internet had transferred.
Normally, the Gamer meets on Twitch with like-minded people to play. This Time he wants to talk. “I would never have believed that something like that can happen for us, that one do so. I thought to myself, we play today, but have a chat,” writes the man in the Chat. He was a self-made hall and have heard everything from the vicinity. He expresses his disbelieving horror: “The was Yes as I do. A Streamer. The was live on Twitch, had a profile on here.”
Over 20,000 Followers of the man on the platform, after a few minutes, the first a spin, write comments. A User asks an open question: “Where can I find the Original Video?” He was also the assassination of Christchurch completely on the phone.
“Co-dissemination” of the video
Stephan B., the default parameters are already bombers of the hall, had created his profile on Twitch just two months ago, the Streaming platform is still in the night of the Crime via Twitter. Clearly B. to put the profile in order to disseminate its fact, live here. Before his stroke of death was shot a single Time stream.
Twitch, the Video indeed removed after 30 minutes. Until then, it had seen to the details of the Amazon belonging to the platform approximately 2200 people. Five to even saw live. After Deleting the Video had been distributed coordinated by users on Messenger services.
The American Computer scientist Megan Squire tries to bring light into the dark corners of the Internet. Squire has followed the path of the video over Messenger services. Alone on Telegram had watched, therefore, until Thursday evening (10.10.2019), about 55,000 people in the Video.
Virtual Restraint
In the crude document that has left the assassin as a PDF on the net, he had announced that he wanted to spread his deed, to “strengthen the morale of other oppressed White”. The document is written in English, even during the Live stream of his fact, Stephan B. had always spoken in English again.
The killer of the hall wanted to turn on the power clearly to an international law audience, concludes right-wing extremism expert Matthias Quent. “It was (him) to achieve this International of the people haters, anti-Semites and racists, the scene and other social networks around the Internet in different Sub-channels of the Gamer,” explains the Director of the Institute for democracy and civil society. “He wanted to impress and also to incite to commit such acts themselves, and in particular the Jews to kill.”
Even if Stephan B. has acted in the hall alone, stressed Quent: “The are not isolated. You are part of an ideological movement, is also part of social exchange processes. But it is less, but in the virtual space”.
For years, the Berlin political scientist Jens Rathje observed the right-wing extremism on the net. The radicalisation mainly of young men takes place primarily on the so-called Image Boards, says Rathje, who works for the Amadeu-Antonio-Stiftung. These Image-Boards were originally created to Share Asian cartoon drawings. Then came the policy into play.
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Grief and horror after the brutal attack in the hall
Completely anonymous and virtually without any Moderation by the User on the Image can interact Boards like 4chan or 8chan. “These people have become within this Community great. They associate with and identify with this extreme right-wing ideology,” says Rathje, and adds: “you find there-Holding, encouragement, and, in the case of terrorist attacks in case of doubt, a rating”.
Mocked Victims
How dehumanising User exchange to Halle on such platforms, a Chat on the Imageboard 4chan. For example, there are photos of the woman to see, the Stephan B. shot and killed in the hall on the street. User call for the victim to laugh at, and spit on her grave.
Multiple Links to 35 are in the context of the Chats-minute Original Version of the streamed Videos is the fact fitted to have the, apparently, almost all of the seen seem.
Also the second victim of the death to protect a hall, a Chat participant makes fun. He delights in drastic words, the fear of death of the young man who died in a Doner kebab shop. In addition, the User made a mockery of the offender as a dilettante, because it is Stephan with his self-made weapons had not managed to kill more people.
Polarization is preferred
Image Boards like 8chan and 4chan are relatively small platforms, where only a very small section of the society. The Berlin-based net activist Markus Beckedahl has observed: Who’s to imageboards on the go, is typically used by other platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
Stephan B. is presented to the attorney General. His Video continues to spread in the network.
Because the Algorithms reward here is Engagement and interaction, contributions, and comments that polarize, or even fear, and ultimately hatred, promote rating, higher. So you land more in the Timeline of the User as balanced contributions. “There are research findings that, for example, YouTube radicals, popularisier the end of the content preferably further directs,” says Beckedahl. “Anyone who has ever used Youtube, have wondered why it landed on the function of related videos so quickly in the case of any conspiracy theorists.”
Facebook is now stepping up the fight against hatred, deletes posts and blocks users. The reaction: a wave of Migration to other platforms. The so-called Dark Social, in which the Internet-traffic from the outside is hardly visible. This also includes private groups in Messenger services such as WhatsApp or Telegram, in which the Video and the inflammatory pamphlet of the killer from the hall to circulate on.
The extreme right would have understood the Internet as what it is, recognized political scientist Jens Rathje: a platform in which only a few barriers exist when it comes to international networking and communication.
Staff: Nadine Wojcik and Julia Bayer