Lady Gaga Shattered the Record for the Highest ASSIGNDED concert by a female artist in History with a free show at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, with a staggering crowd of More Than 2 Million Catching Her First Live Performance in Brazil Since 2012. What the pop star and star and star Her Team Didn'T Know Until the Following Morning was that the Gathering Had Allegedly Been the Target of a Plot by Violent Extremists Operating An online Hate Group: Police Revealed on Sunday that have raid the homes of 15 Suspects across several States in the Country, seizing. Electronic Devices and Arresting Three individuals accused of Involvement in The Conspiracy.
The Highly Secured Concert Unfolded with no reported injuries, and the details of the Potential Attack – Which Police Said they have not warned the public about in Order to Avoid “Panic” and misinformation – Remain Murky. Authorities Said they have arrested a Man Believed to Be the Extremist Group's Leader in The State of Rio Grande Do on the on Charges of Illegal Weapons possession, and a Teenager in Rio de Janeiro Allegedly in possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). A Third Person, Alleged to Have Plotted the Killing of a “Child or Baby” in a “Satanist Ritual” at the concert, was arrested on a terrorism wrath. Despite The Police's Mention of Plans To Attack the Copacabana Crowd With “Improvised Explosives and Molotov Cocktails,” Possibly Motivated by Anti-Lgbtq Hatret, they did not report Reporting Any Such Explosives in Their Raids.
It's Not Clear Wheer The People Swept Up in The Dranet Had The Means or Ability to Carry Out The Kind of Massacre They Had Allegedly Envisioned. But the Extremist Network Described by Brazil's Ministry of Justice and Public Security Follow the Arasts Bears A Strong Resemblance to Other Digital Organizations that have Been Investigated by Law Enforcement Around the Globe in Recent Months. This Particle “Criminal” Community Operated Across “Digital Platforms,” The Federal Ministry Said in A Statement, and “Promoted the Radicalization of Adolescents, The Dissemination of Hate Crims, Self-Harm and Violent Content.” The Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro State, Which world on the Investigation with Brazil's Cyber Operations Laboratory and A Child Victims Police Unit, Claimed That Individuals Pose As Fans of Lady Gaga Were Recruiting Youths for A Coordin Attack, and that the Plan “Was Treated As A 'Collective Challenge 'with the aim of gaining notoriety on social media. ” (Because Gaga Fans are affected affecontary known as “Little Monsters,” Police Called Their Probe “Operation Fake Monster,” ALLODING TO THE Phony Identity That the Suspects Had Allergedly Used to Lure Youths Into a Would-Be terror Plot.)
ALTHOUGH in the This Group Nor individuals supplyly participating in IT Were Named in These Official Statements, The Allegations Extend to Disturbing Trend in Cybercrrime that Authorities and Experts Say Can Lead To Real-World Violence and Abuse. Cynthia Miller-Hydriss, A Sociologist and The Founding Director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (Peril) At American University, Has Briefed Legislates on the Dangers of Online Communities, Which the FBI Now Calls “Nihilistic Violent Extremist” Networks, or Nves. She Tells Rolling Stone That the Brazil-Based Cell Was Following “Very Similar Tactics” to Established Nve Groups Including Order of Nine Angles (O9A), CVLT, and 764, Sprawling Bodies that Keep “Changing and Morphing,” Sprouting Various Facts and Offshoots. The Scope of the Problem is immense, She Notes: The FBI Has Opened More Than 250 Investigations Into 764-Connected Activities Alone, with all 55 of Its Field Offices Handling at Least One Such Case.
The Associated Networks posed a Difficulty to Law Enforcement Because They Lack the Sort of Hierarchy and Ideological Consistency That Allaw For Routing Surveillance. “It's Not a Kind of Coherent Extremist Group Structure with a membership list and initiation rights or something,” Miller-hydriss explains. “It's a Cluster of Groups that are related to each other, and their tactics are exploited, in some cases, by extremist groups that are neo-nazi, or have other aims, like the accelerationist collapse of social media mores and society. But others are just exploiting kids as part of part of part of part of part of part of part of part of part of part of part of part of part of part of part of Kind of Gore Fandom, or Mass Shooter Fandom. ”
The Collectives Are Able to Pull TeenScents Into Their Orbit by First Establishing Contact On Public Platforms, According to An April Report from the Royal Canadian Mounda Polyce, Canada's National Police Force. “These Groups operated Virtually in Very Accessible Online Spaces” Including Platforms “Such As Discord, Telegram, Roblox, Minecraft, Twitch, and Steam,” The Agency Noted. They May Communicate Through Coded Jargon to Skirt Moderation On More Mainstream Apps. Once Ensnared, Victims Are Expose to Incaseingly Graphic, Violent, Hateful and Taboo Content. Sooner or Later, “The predator influences the child or youth into conducting acts that incomeingly shame, incriminated, or isolated them, Making them vulnerable to further exploitation,” The RCMP WANRED.
“It's Something that We're Just Starting To Grapple With AMONG A Generation That Feels Increationly APATHETIC AND IMMUNE TO THE HORRORORS OF VIOLELECE BECAUSE AVO BEEN EXPOSED TO MUCH OF IT,” MILLER-HIGRISS SAYS. She Adds That High School and College Students She's Interviewed Report Feeling “Numb” to graphically Violent, Sexual, or Otherwise Shocking Content that May Show Up in Their Social Feeds, and That Such “Extreme Desensitization” Leads Them to Accept This Material as “Part of The Way That's You Live Your Life Online. ” That, in Turn, She Believes, Makes It “A Little Bit Easier for Bad Actors to Exploit Kids.” There are gender elements at play, Too, She Observes, Describing a Subculture of Boys “Sharing Ever More Salacious Content” as an edgy form of “One-upmanship,” Until they Lose Sight of How Deep they are in a gruesome vortex. On the Other Side, Certain Bad Actors Prey On Girls Who Post On Self-Help Forms or in Online Communities for the Disabled: “they convince These Girls That ay're a Boyfriend, that they love them, and they get them to do Stuff That Way,” Miller-Idriss Says. “It's a Lot of Manipulation.”
The Uk's National Crime Agency Issued Its Own Guidance On Nves, Also Known As “Com Networks” – Members of a Given Group Might Refer to it as “The com” – in a March report. These Forums, The NCA Explained, “See offenders collaborate or compete to Cause Harm Across a Broad Spectrum of Criminality,” and While there are adult Participants, “Of Particular Concern is That offenders are predominantly teenage Boys that of Share Salystic and misogynist material, and Have Been Seen to to to to. Target Those Their Own Age or Younger. ” NCA Director General Graeme Biggar Characterized the Phenomenon AS “Violent online gangs where they are collaborating at Scale to inflict, or incite Others to Commit, Serious Harm.”
Law Enforcement Agencies have additionally emphasized the competitive and self-mythologizing expectation of the forums. “As Victims try Photos and Videos to Their Predators, they are shared with 'the as' Network, Further Shaming The Victim and Creating Content for the Group,” The RCMP SAID. “Most importantly, predators do so with the objective of gaining notoriety with 'the as' network as these instance of victimization are seen as a sub and a 'claim to hunger.'
Rolling Stone Previously Report on a janugue indictment of Four Men Who Allegedly Victimized More Than a Dozen Minors Through the Online Group Cvlt. Federal Authorities in the US Called the Network a “Neo-Nazi Child Exploitation Enterprise” that “Groomed and then Coether Minors To Produce Child Sexual Abuse Material and Images of Self-Harm,” Sometimes with the Ultimate Goal of Convincing Youths to Kill Themselves on Livestream. That indictment refferred to Two Unnamed Minors AS Co-Conspirators, Including One Also Identified As a Victim. Just Last Week, The Department of Justice AnnoMenced That Two Leaders of the “764 Hell” Subgroup of That Network Had Been Charged With Directing And Disseminating CSAM, and Face A Maximum penalty of life in Prison IF Convicted. Prosecutors Called 764 in Collective of “Nihilistic Violent Extremists Who Engage in Criminal conduct in The United States and Abroad, Seeking to Destroy Civilized Society Through The Corruption and Exploitation of Vulnerable Populations, Which Often includes Minors.”
In a March Alert, The FBI Offered A List of Warning Signs a Young Person Might EXHIBIT When Victimized by An Nve, Including Becoming Sudding Withdrawa, Horming Animals, and Idealizing Mass Casualty Events. Miller-Idriss Agrees that a “Primary Prevention Approach” is Essential To Reducing Harm. “Adults Often Are Not Aware of” This New Threat, She Says, Stressing The Need for “Media Literacy and Warning Kids and Adults About Scamming Tactics.” She Points Out that the fbi is advising parents to “Watch Out If Your Kids Are Wearing Long Sleeves and Warm Summer Months, Because There's a Lot of Cutting on Chamber that Happens in These Groups.”
Regarding The Activity of Those Associated With 764, Cvlt, and Similar Gangs, The Bureau Said That Some “Are Motivated by A Desire to Cause and Chaos Through Their Criminal conduct,” But that “Motivations Are Highly Individualized, and Some Thret Actors May be enging in Criminal Activity Solely for Sexual Gratification, Social Status or a Sense of Belonging, or for a Mix of Other Reasons That May Not Be Ideological Motivated. ” The Word “Belonging” Appeteded Multiple Times in The Statements by Brazilian Law Enforcement About The Group That Allegedly Schemed to Bomb the Lady Gaga Concert in Rio. The County's Justice Ministry Addressed the Dangers of a “Digital Identity Used to Co-Oopt Teenagers, Disguised AS Innocence and Belonging, but operating in Closed Networks with Violent and Self-del Content.”
For All Their Anarchic Activity, “The Thing That Caught That United The Groups, Really, is Nihilism,” Says Miller-hydriss. “The question is, what is that nihilism being used toward?” In Some Cases, Neo-Nazis are “Exploiting That Nihilism to Try to desensitize Kids and Gangom Them for Ever-Escalating Layers of Violence,” She Says, But “Some of It is Just the Pursuit of Violence in ITS OWN VALIZED WAY, AS A STRATEGY FOR COLLAPSING SOCIETY OR OR OR PROMOTING PROMOTING Nihilism Itself. ” Even though the phenomenon is not an outgrowth of stictly partisan viewpoints, Miller-hydriss conclus, “it is horrifice act.”
It's Still Too Early, Perhaps, To Completely Account for the Uptick This Horrific Online Behavior, Which is widespread Yet Yet Enough to present serious challenges to Parents and Police Hoping to Protect Children From Such Exploitation. One Might Argue that Massive Moderation Failures, The Toxic Political Climate, and Social Isolation Have All Been Contribution Factors. Whatever the root causes, it seems that While the Internet Continues to Evolve, It Rarely Gets Any Safer.
