Everytown and Moonshot Release New Report Exploring the Valorization of Mass Shootings Online

Report Identifies Google, YouTube, 4chan, and Reddit as Key Platforms Containing Discussion and Glorification of Mass Shootings

NEW YORK – Today, Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund and Moonshot, a social impact business with a mission to end online harms, applying evidence, ethics and human rights, released a new report exploring the valorization of mass shootings online by analyzing patterns in Google search and across social media. 

The report found that content valorizing mass shootings is easily accessible online, and popular sites like YouTube host content featuring mass shootings that can facilitate a deeper interest and concerning behaviors. As the report shows, these behaviors have been commonly reported among historic perpetrators of mass shootings, who have often been motivated by anger or resentment towards society — which can be exacerbated by extremist narratives. 

Key findings from the report:

• YouTube and Reddit host content featuring mass shootings that can facilitate a deeper interest and concerning behaviors.

• Across five states, more than 15% of Google searches for mass shootings indicated a “developed interest” in mass shootings, such as music relating to a shooting or obscure nicknames for perpetrators

• YouTube plays a key role as the primary video-sharing platform.
  • On YouTube, perpetrator-centered content includes fan edits, compilations of perpetrator-produced videos, analyses of their behavior, interview footage, and readings of perpetrator-generated content. 
  • 67% of all ‘developed interest’ Google searches recorded indicated users were looking for video content related to mass shootings, and 13% of the ‘developed interest’ searches mentioned YouTube directly — the most-referenced tech platform within search data.

• Fringe platforms like 4chan and a forum (unnamed in the report) dedicated to the discussion of mass shootings are spaces that normalize mass shooting violence.

• 10% of the concerning behaviors identified on social media included an explicit desire to harm or incite violence.

• Perpetrator-produced manifestos prompt some users to glorify violence.
  • On YouTube and a forum (unnamed in the report) dedicated to the discussion of mass shootings, users discussed perpetrators’ manifestos in detail, often prompting the glorification of perpetrators’ actions.
  • Text-based posts, PDFs and videos of manifestos were identified across these two platforms.

“In the aftermath of mass shootings, we often learn that the shooter was radicalized with help from vile content he found on sites like YouTube — and yet the leaders of these platforms consistently refuse to crack down on users who violate their own policies,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “We call on these companies to put public safety ahead of traffic numbers, and proactively moderate spaces that are breeding grounds for hate and violence.”

“While the reasons people radicalize to violence are complex, the method is not. Nearly all mass shootings in the past decade are perpetrated by people who radicalized online, and many used the internet to design their attack plans,” said Elizabeth Neumann, Chief Strategy Officer at Moonshot. “This is why it is so critical for prevention efforts to occur online. Online interventions — providing at-risk individuals with offers of mental health support — have thwarted attacks and saved lives. The data-driven insights of this study allow future online interventions to be designed in a compelling and responsible way.”

“As social media platforms and online forums have grown in the twenty five years since the Columbine High School shooting, many have become a cesspool for violent content — giving individuals looking to glorify mass shootings a home to connect,” said Justin Wagner, Senior Director of Investigations at Everytown for Gun Safety. “Far too often, policies against violent content go unenforced. These platforms need to strictly moderate policies in place to remove violent and disturbing content and identify those who could pose a danger to themselves or others.”

“When I survived the shooting twenty five years ago that took the lives of twelve of my classmates and one of my teachers, at the time I could never have imagined social media, let alone what these sites would become,” said Salli Garrigan, a Moms Demand Action volunteer and Senior Fellow with the Everytown Survivor Network who survived the mass shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. “As a mother now, it’s terrifying to know how easy it is to access violent content, especially when it’s content glorifying one of the worst days of my life. These companies owe it to our communities to do better.”