In the days after a gunman killed five people at Club Q last month, much of social media lit up with the now familiar expressions of grief and disbelief. But on some online message boards and platforms, the tone was celebratory
But on some online message boards and platforms, the tone was celebratory. “I love waking up to great news,” wrote one user on Gab, a platform popular with far-right groups. Other users on the site called for more violence.On Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, researchers and LGBTQ advocates have tracked an increase in hate speech and threats of violence directed at LGBTQ people, groups and events, with much of it directed at transgender people.
Hospitals in Boston, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Washington, D.C., and other cities have received bomb threats and other harassing messages after misleading claims spread online about transgender care programs. The transphobic content targeting events such as Patterson's is just a subset of the hateful content about Jews, Muslims, women, Black people, Asians and others that has internet safety advocates and an increasing number of lawmakers in the United States and elsewhere pushing for tougher regulations that would force tech companies to do more.
Katz is co-founder of SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors far-right internet sites and has identified dozens of threats against LGBTQ groups and events in the U.S. in recent months. SITE released a bulletin Thursday detailing death threats against drag performers after one appeared at the White House bill signing of the Respect for Marriage Act.
Officials in a number of countries have cited social media as a key factor in extremist radicalization, and have warned that COVID restrictions and lockdowns have given extremist groups a powerful recruiting tool.
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