Thread: What is an incel rebellion? Facebook deletes post linked to Alek Minassian

What is an incel rebellion? Facebook deletes post linked to Alek Minassian

Reference to trolling website 4chan is a “red flag” for online hoaxes involving mass killings, expert says.

Facebook said it deleted an account which used the name and photo of Alek Minassian to make this post, apparently on the same day Minassian was arrested after a van struck numerous pedestrians on Yonge St., killing 10 people. (FACEBOOK)

By JENNIFER YANG Identity and Inequality Reporter
Tues., April 24, 2018

Facebook is describing as legitimate a now-deleted post made on an account in Alek Minassian’s name which referred to an “incel rebellion” and invoked U.S. mass murderer Elliot Rodger, despite questions about the timing of the post and concerns it may have been a hoax.

Images of the post began circulating on social media hours after Minassian’s arrest Monday in connection with a van that struck numerous pedestrians on Yonge St. south of Finch Ave., killing 10 people. He appeared in a Toronto court Tuesday charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder.

“Private (Recruit) Minassian Infantry 00010, wishing to speak to Sgt 4chan please. C23249161,” read the post. “The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!”

Media manipulation researchers warned that online hoaxes around mass killings are extremely common — particularly when it comes to stories involving 4chan, a notorious messaging site associated with troll culture that is mentioned in the Facebook post made in Minassian’s name.

Images of the now-deleted Facebook page show updates to Minassian’s public profile picture on March 10, and to his status on Monday.

There are also questions around the timing of the post.

An image posted anonymously to 4chan suggested the alleged Minassian post was published at around 2:15 p.m. Monday, when he was already in police custody.

Facebook lets users change the time and date of a post, raising the possibility the account may have been hacked and modified, or is a fake.

A spokesperson for Facebook Canada would not answer specific questions about the timing of the post, but said the company believed it was legitimate and deleted the account, which had been made with Minassian’s name and photo.

“This is a terrible tragedy and our hearts go out to the people who have been affected. There is absolutely no place on our platform for people who commit such horrendous acts,” spokesperson Meg Sinclair said in an email.

“Incel” refers to the “involuntarily celibate,” or men who feel frustrated by their inability to find romantic relationships or sex. In many online communities, “chads and staceys” refer to attractive people who have no problem meeting partners of the opposite sex.

Online community forums devoted to incels are often characterized by misogynistic rhetoric and a subreddit of 40,000 “incels” — which featured posts like “all women are sluts” and “reasons why women are the embodiment of evil” — was banned in November by Reddit, citing its policy prohibiting content that “encourages, glorifies, incites or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual or group of people.”

Incel communities have gravitated towards the story of Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old man from Isla Vista, California who killed six people in 2014 shortly after posting a video ranting about his sexual frustration and the women who rejected him.

An online petition that urged Reddit to shut down its incel page last year noted that members have “canonized” Rodger and referred to him as “Saint Elliot,” “with many praising his actions and claiming that they would like to follow in his path.”

“Incels believe that they are entitled to the experience of sex,” the petition read. “With most every incel claiming to be unattractive, they believe that society has turned against them and are denying them a basic human right. This flawed way of thinking leads most incels to self-professed depression that has turned into bitterness that floods the subreddit’s posts. All sexually active women are routinely called whores. Violence against women is encouraged. Rape against women is justified and encouraged.”

The numbers cited in the Facebook post may be linked to Minassian’s time with the Canadian Armed Forces, which confirmed that he was a briefly a member in 2017. Minassian was released after 16 days of recruit training, it said, having made the request to leave voluntarily.

Whitney Phillips, an assistant professor with Mercer University who studies online communities, said stories linked to 4chan need to be approached with extreme caution, particularly when it comes to mass murders.

4chan is an image-sharing message board that is commonly referred to as the underbelly of the Internet and widely associated with trolling culture and far-right views.

Phillips, who has studied 4chan hoaxes, says there’s been a “very standard and steady effort” over the past 10 years to connect 4chan with high-profile tragedies, especially mass murders. To her, the post’s reference to 4chan, uncertainty around its timing, and the fact that it was shared on 4chan are all “red flags.”

“They always involve themselves in the story and they shift the narrative away form the victims and towards the ideal outcome, which is to manipulate the media and to confuse an already terrible situation,” she said.

“I think the natural and appropriate response is to be really really suspicious and allowing for the possibility that okay, maybe (it’s true).”

With files from Sabrina Nanji

Read more about: Facebook

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/04/24/facebook-deletes-post-linked-to-alek-minassian-amid-questions-about-its-authenticity.html

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