The Guardian

Coded language of hate groups makes threats hard to spot

Sick jokes and deadly intentions can often be difficult to tell apart for those policing online culture
Tribute to victims of the mosque attacks near a police line outside Masjid Al Noor in Christchurch, New Zealand on Saturday. Photograph: Jorge Silva/Reuters

The irony-laden vocabulary of the far-right online communities that spawned the terror attack in Christchurch on Friday makes it “extremely difficult” to distinguish a sick joke from a deadly serious threat, according to experts on the international far right and online information warfare.

References to “shitposting”, YouTube stars and the 17th-century are hallmarks of “that online culture where everything can be a joke and extremist content can be a parody and deadly serious all on the same page,” said Ben Nimmo, a

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