Virus battle cry for U.S. extremists

America’s extremists are attempting to turn the coronavirus pandemic into a potent recruiting tool both in the deep corners of the internet and on the streets of state capitals by twisting the public health crisis to bolster their white supremacist, anti-government agenda.

Although the protests that have broken out across the country have drawn out a wide variety of people pressing to lift stay-athome orders, the presence of extremists cannot be missed, with their anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic signs and coded messages aimed at inspiring the faithful, according to those who track such movements.

April is typically a busy month for white supremacists. There is Adolf Hitler’s birthday, which they contort into a celebration.

There is the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, the domestic attack 25 years ago that killed 168 people and still serves as a rallying call for new extremist recruits.

But this April, something else overshadowed those chilling milestones. It was the coronavirus and the disruption it wreaked on society that became the extremists’ battle cry.

Embellishing COVID-19 developments to fit their usual agenda, extremists spread disinformation on the transmission of the virus and disparage stay-athome orders as “medical martial law” — the long-anticipated advent of a totalitarian state.

“They are being very effective in capitalizing on the pandemic,” said Devin Burghart, a veteran researcher of white nationalists who runs the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, a Seattlebased research center on far-right movements.

What success the groups have had in finding fresh recruits is not yet clear, but new research indicates a jump in people consuming extremist material while under lockdown. Various violent incidents have been linked to white supremacist or anti-government perpetrators enraged over aspects of the pandemic.

The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness said in March that white supremacists have encouraged followers to conduct attacks during the crisis to incite fear and target ethnic minorities and immigrants.

“We have noticed domestic extremist groups taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic by spreading disinformation,” Jared Maples, its director, said in a statement.

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security warned law enforcement officials throughout the United States of the mobilization of violent extremists in response to stay-at-home measures, according to a senior law enforcement official and a congressional staff member, who were not authorized to discuss the warning publicly.

Engagement with violent extremist content online in states with extended stayat-home orders grew 21% in early April compared with the eight previous months, according to a report by Moonshot CVE, a startup that monitors extremist searches on Google.