christchurch shooting livestream video 4chan

Shortly before the attack, which was livestreamed from a camera the shooter wore on his head, the shooter posted a link to a lengthy manifesto on 8chan, an anonymous forum for people too hateful even for 4chan. Saying that this shooting was “designed for social media” is like saying a car was “designed for roads.” It would be a mistake to treat the internet-ness of this attack as some new phenomenon rather than as a reflection of the fact that memes and virality are common ways of communicating and altering discourse and have been for years. One might be tempted to say, incorrectly, that the Christchurch shooter “masterminded” his attack for “virality” - but the simpler explanation is that trolling tactics take many forms, and they can apply to mass violence as much as to anything else. Participation in contemporary society practically requires internet access and platform usage. These digital clues often surface quickly, because social media is ubiquitous. In the case of the Christchurch shooting, the alleged perpetrator posted an explicitly pro-fascist, Islamophobic manifesto online prior to the attack.

Mining a shooter’s social-media history on Facebook, or Twitter, or Gab, or wherever, will often reveal warning signs and foreshadowing.

Almost always, it will be revealed that the perpetrator has a record of domestic abuse, or that they were radicalized online, redpilled via anonymous forums like /pol/ or 8chan, or via YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, which provides an endless buffet of rage-inducing testimonials.

It is a depressing fact now that mass shootings generally tend to follow a standard chain of events. Photo: Diederik van Heyningen/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Christchurch shooting livestream video 4chan