Incitement & Violence
When online words turn into real-world harm — incitement, threats, and the trail that leads there.
Incitement & ViolenceCharlie Kirk's Accused Killer Will Stand Trial. Much of the Case Is Online.
On Sept. 1, a Utah judge ordered Tyler Robinson to stand trial for the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Prosecutors' evidence leans on his online life: an alleged Discord confession, private texts and bullets engraved with internet memes.
Two Children Died at a School Mass. The Gunman Idolized Mass Killers Online.
A gunman killed two children and wounded 17 people at a Minneapolis Catholic school Mass on Aug. 27, 2026. Videos he posted to YouTube showed a manifesto and firearms inscribed with the names of past mass shooters — the latest attacker shaped by an online subculture that venerates them.
Three Died at a San Diego Mosque. The Teen Who Spread the Video Is Charged With Murder
On Aug. 31, prosecutors charged a 17-year-old in North Carolina with murder over the May massacre at the Islamic Center of San Diego, accused of agreeing beforehand to record and spread the gunmen's livestream and publish their manifesto.
They Called the Drone a Game
On Aug. 24, 2026, Human Rights Watch reported that armed groups in Colombia have recruited about 1,500 children since 2021, training many to fly explosive-laden drones the fighters described to them as a game. The group found the recommendation algorithms of Facebook and TikTok in some cases 'appear to have actively promoted' the content used to reach them.
- Incitement & Violence
A Teenager Killed a Classmate, and Streamed It Live
On Aug. 18, 2026, a student at a university high school in the southern Philippines fatally shot a classmate and then took his own life, broadcasting the attack live from a body-worn camera. It was the latest killing staged for an online audience.
- Incitement & Violence
Radicalized Online, She Is Charged With Plotting to Bomb New York's Capitol
Federal prosecutors said on Aug. 20, 2026, that Jessica Bowie, an Albany woman they say was radicalized online, plotted to bomb the New York State Capitol and kill state senators. The FBI arrested her a day earlier as she took what she believed was a live explosive device.
- Incitement & Violence
77 Years for a '764' Administrator Who Groomed Children Online
On Aug. 19, 2026, a Tennessee federal court sentenced Kyle Spitze, an administrator of the online extremist network 764's 'HarmNation' cell, to 77 years in prison — the longest sentence yet handed to a member of what the FBI classifies as nihilistic violent extremism.
- Incitement & Violence
Three Dead in Nepal, and a Plea Against the Rumors
Sectarian clashes in southern Nepal killed three people in late July 2026. As curfews spread, Prime Minister Balendra Shah urged the public to stop sharing rumours and misinformation on social media.
- Incitement & Violence
Beaten for an Audience: France Convicts Two Streamers
A court in Nice convicted two streamers who beat and humiliated Raphaël Graven — 'Jean Pormanove' — for a paying online audience over nearly two years. He died on a Kick livestream in August 2025.
- Incitement & Violence
He Killed Four for Fame in an Online World That Idolizes Mass Shooters
On July 28, 2026, a Georgia judge sentenced 16-year-old Colt Gray to life without parole for a 2024 school shooting that killed four. Prosecutors said the massacre was a bid for fame inside an online 'true crime community' that idolizes mass shooters.
- Incitement & Violence
Two Died at a Synagogue. His Messages Exposed a Second Plot.
A British court jailed a man for life on July 23 for plotting a terror attack on a UK military academy — a plot investigators found in the messages of an associate who had killed two men at a Manchester synagogue.
- Incitement & Violence
A Terror Group Assembled Online. Then Synagogues Burned.
On July 13, 2026, Britain outlawed the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, an Iran-linked group that emerged online this spring and claimed a wave of arson attacks on London synagogues and Jewish sites, recruiting proxies on Telegram.
- Incitement & Violence
He Typed Death Threats Into YouTube. A Grand Jury Indicted Him.
A Pennsylvania man who called himself a Nazi posted threats to kill a member of Congress, transgender people and Muslims in YouTube comments, prosecutors say. A grand jury indicted him on 12 counts on July 10, 2026.
- Incitement & Violence
Online Lies Are Getting Refugees Attacked, the U.N. Warns
On July 7, 2026, the U.N. refugee agency warned that online misinformation, hate speech and AI deepfakes are inciting real-world harm to refugees — from blocked aid to attacks. A UNHCR survey found 93% of its staff had seen such content affecting their work.
- Incitement & Violence
An Incel Manifesto, and Two Dead in Montreal
A gunman killed a Montreal police officer and a bystander on June 22, 2026, before he was shot dead. He left a 104-page manifesto rooted in the online 'incel' subculture that rages against women and urges violence.
- Incitement & Violence
The Online Network the FBI Calls Terrorism
A San Antonio man who helped lead an online group that coerced children into self-harm and abuse was sentenced in July 2026 to 40 years in prison, part of a widening U.S. crackdown on the extremist network known as 764.
- Incitement & Violence
From Feed to Fire in Northern Ireland
On July 11, 2026, a Northern Ireland bonfire bore a replica mosque and four flags — the latest flashpoint in a summer of anti-immigrant violence that officials say was inflamed online, from circulated video to lists of immigrant homes.
- Incitement & Violence
Two Monks Mistaken for Thieves
A WhatsApp rumor about child-organ thieves during India's 2020 lockdown ended in a mob lynching in Palghar. Two Hindu monks and their driver were beaten to death; about 110 villagers were later arrested.
- Incitement & Violence
Twenty-Three Thousand Pills That Never Existed
A false Facebook story about seized sterilization pills helped set off deadly anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka in 2018. Facebook later apologized for its role.
- Incitement & Violence
Thrown From a Second Floor on a Rumor
A Pakistani student was beaten, shot and thrown from a university building by a mob over an unverified online blasphemy claim. Investigators later found no evidence he had committed blasphemy.
- Incitement & Violence
South Africa's July Unrest Was Organized Online
Days of looting and violence in July 2021 killed more than 300 people in South Africa. A presidential expert panel found social media played a major role in the unrest, and in 2025 Jacob Zuma's daughter was charged with inciting it online.
- Incitement & Violence
The Student Cleared After They Killed Him
A mob at a Pakistani university beat student Mashal Khan to death in 2017 over an online blasphemy rumour. Investigators found no evidence against him and courts called the killing premeditated murder.
- Incitement & Violence
The Rumor That Emptied a Village
False child-abduction rumors on WhatsApp fueled a wave of mob lynchings across India in 2017 and 2018. India's Supreme Court warned of 'mobocracy' and pressed the platform to curb viral forwards.
- Incitement & Violence
The 'Rebellion' Declared on Facebook
Minutes before he drove a van into Toronto pedestrians in April 2018, Alek Minassian posted a Facebook message hailing an 'incel rebellion.' The case became a landmark of online misogynist radicalization turning lethal.
- Incitement & Violence
The ‘Child-Lifter’ Rumor That Killed
False WhatsApp warnings about roving child-kidnapping gangs drove a wave of mob lynchings across India in 2018, killing more than two dozen people, including five men beaten to death in Maharashtra.
- Incitement & Violence
The Account That Called In the Bomb Threats
In 2022 the account Libs of TikTok amplified false claims that U.S. children's hospitals were sterilizing minors. Bomb and death threats followed, forcing lockdowns as clinicians were harassed.
- Incitement & Violence
An Hour of Hate After a Singer Fell
Within an hour of the June 2020 assassination of Oromo musician Hachalu Hundessa, Ethiopian social media filled with hate speech and calls for ethnic killing. Facebook posts had demonized him for months before.
- Incitement & Violence
Sudan's Battlefield Moved to the Feed
Researchers documented ethnic hate speech and a flood of AI-fabricated video and audio across social platforms during Sudan's civil war. In October 2024, X suspended the Rapid Support Forces' accounts.
- Incitement & Violence
A Voice Note and a Campus Turned Mob
A student in Sokoto, Nigeria, was stoned and burned to death over a WhatsApp voice note deemed blasphemous, and video of the killing spread online. Rights groups say such rumors routinely trigger mob violence before authorities can act.
- Incitement & Violence
A Stabbing, a Spire, a Riot
After a knife attack outside a Dublin school in 2023, far-right accounts online falsely cast the assailant as a foreign attacker and called crowds to the Spire. A riot followed, and Irish police began collating the online material.
- Incitement & Violence
A Lynching Video Filmed in Another Country
During India's 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, an old lynching video from abroad was passed off as fresh local atrocity and spread on YouTube and WhatsApp. An official inquiry said it helped inflame violence that killed at least 60 people.
- Incitement & Violence
A Lie in Class That Ended in a Beheading
A pupil's false account of a French teacher's free-speech lesson spread online with his name and school. In 2024 a Paris court convicted eight people over the campaign that marked Samuel Paty as a target.
- Incitement & Violence
The Southport Lie That Lit England's Riots
After three children were murdered in Southport in 2024, false online claims that the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker helped ignite riots across England. British courts later jailed people for online incitement.
See what they actually said, don't take it on faith
ACCOUNTability! scans thousands of someone's public posts across X, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn and flags extremist, hateful and conspiracy content — with the posts themselves as the record.
Run a scan