Every 29 minutes, users of the most popular incel forum in the world write about rape, and the forum’s rules were modified six months ago to accommodate pedophilia.
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According to research, the incel movement is conducting a “war against women” and poses a growing threat to children. Tech companies are urged to intervene to prevent the radicalization of lonely men and boys online.
The incel – or “involuntarily celibate” – movement is an online subculture comprised of men who express hate and intense anger against women.
The leading incel forum is home to a “culture of furious, aggressive, and unapologetic” men who represent a “clear and present risk” to women and an “increasing menace” to children, according to research.
Every 29 minutes, users commented about rape, and the forum’s rules were modified six months ago to allow pedophilia.
The survey found that more than a fifth of posts contained misogynist, racist, antisemitic, or anti-LGBTQ language, with 16% of messages containing misogynist slurs.
The 18-month examination of more than one million messages revealed a 59% spike in posts addressing mass murders.
The Plymouth gunman Jake Davison, who killed five people, including a three-year-old daughter, is known to have been engaged in incel communities or to have discussed their beliefs.
Researchers cautioned that “unchecked, incel communities have the potential to become more radicalized” and urged tech companies to take action.
Not solitary wolves
Imran Ahmed, chief executive officer of the British non-profit organization Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which conducted the study, stated: “Incels are not solitary or socially isolated animals.
“In reality, they are embedded in extremely active communities with a cohesive, evolving ideology that has become more radicalized over the previous eighteen months.
They are encouraging each other to commit mass murder, normalizing sexual assault against women, and have even formalized their support of the sexualization of children.
‘Power-users’
The study was conducted by “scraping” forum messages and analyzing the activity, trends, and keywords of forum users.
The forum averaged 2,6 million monthly views with 17,118 registered users. During the period covered, just 4,057 individuals contributed posts.
Nearly half (43.8%) of forum visitors were from the United States, while 7.5% were from the United Kingdom.
406 “power-users” generate 74.6% of all posts on Discourse, with some spending more than 10 hours each day on the site.
In March, the forum’s rules were updated from “Do not sexually exploit youngsters” to “Do not sexually exploit prepubescent minors.”
Remove content from YouTube
According to the report, forum users most commonly posted content from YouTube, where incel channels have over 136,000 followers and 24.2 million video views.
The CCDH researchers reported that Davison subscribed to an incel material channel that YouTube has failed to remove despite public outcry.
Another channel features footage of ladies filmed in London undercover.
The CCDH demanded that YouTube remove all incel channels and that Google demote “anglosphere” websites in search engine results.
Mr. Ahmed said: “This study reveals a reciprocal relationship between online sexist communities and incels.
“They dispute with one another, encourage one another, discuss ideas, and promote the language and values of the other. In brief, they are allies in the war against women.
This is the reason why a small subculture numbering in the thousands has had such a profound impact.
‘Not all violent’
Dr. Lewys Brace, a senior lecturer at Exeter University who specializes in online extremist radicalization, particularly incel culture, concurred with the study’s conclusions.
“The thing that worries me the most about this incel movement is that people don’t have to actively seek out this content,” he said.
Although he stated that few members of the community posed a danger to others, he emphasized that the vast majority are not aggressive.
Clearly, he stated, not everyone in this community is aggressive. In reality, according to my study, actual violent exchanges are in the minority on these sites.
According to him, the difficulty for law enforcement is distinguishing between someone acting out on the internet and someone who poses a threat.
He said, “The ones that concern me are those who have written lengthy essays integrating these concepts with their own offline experiences.”
Dr. Brace, citing the example of Davison publishing lengthy YouTube videos with incendiary ideas, stated: “That’s the case. Those are precisely the kinds of instances about which we should be worried.”
