Get the latest tech news
Christian Militants Are Using Instagram to Recruit—and Becoming Influencers in the Process
An emerging guard of paramilitary activists are using social media and edgy aesthetics to build a new brand of anti-government, Christian nationalist militias.
Experts say that this emergent movement draws on a number of trends in the modern extremist landscape, including that it establishes a paramilitary wing of surging Christian nationalism in the US and reflects the sensibilities of a new generation of fitness-obsessed, “Christ-pilled” young men, some of who call themselves tradcaths. While the old guard of paramilitary groups looked to Facebook as fertile ground for reaching and radicalizing prospective recruits, this younger generation of wannabe militants use Instagram like any influencer would—commenting on each other's posts or tagging one another as a way to cross-promote, boost their own followings, and strengthen their networks. Similarly, a Minnesota-based militia-style group links itself directly to a company that sells, among other things, a long-range encrypted radio “designed for off-grid communication” and “mission ready end user devices”—which are just regular smartphones that they preconfigure with apps.
Or read this on r/technology
