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On fringe social media sites, Buffalo mass shooting becomes rallying call for white supremacists

By Caitlin Dewey News Staff Reporter
Aug 7, 2022
Aug 7, 2022 Updated Feb 17, 2026
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Gendron Social Media

Shooters like the Buffalo gunman are often described as “lone actors,” Georgetown University professor Jacob Ware said, but they are better understood as members of a leaderless movement with extreme political goals, a willingness to use violence and a constant desire to recruit more people into their ideology and social networks. Violence is less the end goal for neo-fascist accelerationists, Ware said, and more the means to attract attention and recruits to a far-right terror movement.

Victims of Tops shooting

Ten people were killed in the racist mass shooting at Tops on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo on May 14, 2022. The passage of time has not dulled the memory of those lost.

By Caitlin Dewey News Staff Reporter

While most of the world reacted with horror to the racist May 14 massacre at a Buffalo supermarket, one shadowy corner of the internet – the corner frequented by the accused gunman in the lead-up to his attack – continues to celebrate the murder of 10 Black people and goad each other to similar acts.