On August 26, 2023, three shoppers were shot dead in a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida. The gunman, who used an AR-pattern rifle emblazoned with swastikas and white supremacist slogans, left three manifestos on his personal computer which revealed that the attack was motivated by white supremacy and anti-Black hatred. The perpetrator, Ryan Christopher Palmeter, chose the Dollar General store due to its high volume of Black customers.
While Palmeter did not appear to leave a significant social media footprint, neo-Nazis and white supremacists online reacted with glee to the shooting. Users across social media celebrated Palmeter and promoted further violence. On Gab, which has become a hub for racism and antisemitism online, users continued to promote anti-Black hatred. In the wake of the shooting, posts expressing racist ideology increased significantly on the site, and users – emboldened by the shooting – incited further racist violence against the Black community. Neo-Nazi and white supremacist users promoted segregationist policies, lynching, systematic execution, and harassment, intentionally stirring racist sentiment.
Gab has a long history of facilitating white supremacist and neo-Nazi violence. The perpetrator of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting, Robert Bowers, was a regular user of the platform, and numerous other users have been involved in hate crimes and violence, including a California man who recently shot dead a woman for flying an LGBTQ+ Pride flag.
The following report highlights anti-Black content on Gab on the day of the Jacksonville mass shooting and in the days following.
YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO THE MEMRI DOMESTIC TERRORISM THREAT MONITOR (DTTM) TO READ THE FULL REPORT. GOVERNMENT AND MEDIA CAN REQUEST A COPY BY WRITING TO DTTMSUBS@MEMRI.ORG WITH THE REPORT TITLE IN THE SUBJECT LINE. PLEASE INCLUDE FULL ORGANIZATIONAL DETAILS AND AN OFFICIAL EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR REQUEST. NOTE: WE ARE ABLE TO PROVIDE A COPY ONLY TO MEMBERS OF GOVERNMENT, LAW ENFORCEMENT, MEDIA, AND ACADEMIA, AND TO SUBSCRIBERS; IF YOU DO NOT MEET THESE CRITERIA PLEASE DO NOT REQUEST.
Neo-Nazis And White Supremacists On Gab Post Anti-Black Content And Stir Racist Hatred
A neo-Nazi posted about the attack: "The news is so quick to say the Dollar General shooter wanted to kill black people. Yet somehow we're still waiting to find out the motive of the transvestite that shot up the school... the muzzle that shot up the base... and the Black kid that shot up his Texas school. Because, well, we don't know, but we know this white kid hated n**gers because it fits the jew media narrative... if it is true this kid was a hero for killing n**gers... they do it every day to us without fanfare. Exterminate n**gers."
A neo-Nazi account posted a graphic depicting figures representing Jews and Blacks holding guns to the head of a figure representing "whites." Text below the image simply reads "Democracy," and a happy merchant caricature can be seen in the lettering. The channel wrote "Any questions?"
A white supremacist and antigovernment user commented on news of the Jacksonville attack, writing: "I think these 'mass shooters' are fuckin' amateurs."
The user posted more anti-Black content, sharing a screenshot of a joking tweet by a Black Twitter user reading: "can we all agree that shower heads that spray directly down on your head are anti-Black?" The user wrote: "Fuck your knappy hair! They should be spraying cyanide."
A white supremacist user shared news that Capitol Police Officer Michael Byrd, who fatally shot protestor Ashli Babbitt on January 6, 2021 was promoted to the rank of Captain, writing: "Someone needs to dox this n**ger."
A neo-Nazi account forwarded a post reading: "If it's brown it belongs in the ground," adding: "If it's brown it needs a noose around the neck."
Another neo-Nazi user shared a three-panel comic depicting a fisherman and the text: "Another hurricane hitting the coast; It'd be a real shame if it destroyed all of the n**gers."
The full text of this post is available to DTTM subscribers.
If you are a subscriber, log in here to read this report.
For information on the required credentials to access this material, visit the DTTM subscription page
