By Jared Keller, Pacific Standard, August 5, 2019
The El Paso, Texas, mass shooting that left 20 dead on Saturday may actually spell the end for one of white nationalism's greatest resources: the online radicalization of potential domestic terrorists.
Almost immediately before he opened fire at a Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall, the 21-year-old shooter posted a crazed, hate-filled manifesto to the online message board 8chan that's become "a megaphone for mass shooters, and a recruiting platform for violent white nationalists" in recent years, as the New York Times put it. Both the Poway, California, synagogue and Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque shooters announced their respective hate-driven rampages on 8chan as well. In the aftermath of the El Paso shooting, even the site's founder Fredrick Brennan urged Jim Watkins, an Army veteran and the site's current proprietor, to shut the entire operation down despite its ostensible commitment to "free speech."
The El Paso massacre may be the end of the free speech defense. On Sunday, federal authorities announced that they are not just charging the El Paso suspect with federal hate crimes as they did with the Poway shooter, but with domestic terrorism as well. The decision doesn't just suggest the Department of Justice (DOJ) is reconsidering whether online forums for white nationalism are a threat worth pursuing at the federal level; by applying "domestic terrorism" to El Paso, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is also actively pushing boundaries of "association" beyond explicit membership.
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