Twitch Shooting Planned On Discord Investigated As Hate Crime

Tragedy struck New York on May 14 as an 18-year-old white male shot and killed at least 10 people in the city of Buffalo, police said. The shooter, whose online username is reportedly “jimboboiii”, has been taken into custody after livestreaming the whole thing on gaming platform Twitch, the company confirmed on Saturday evening. The shooter released a 180-page manifesto detailing his racist and anti-Semitic views, which he partially attributes to controversial online forum 4chan. The document also mentions what appears to be a private Discord chat server, where he allegedly detailed his plans in advance.

The shooting happened at a Tops Friendly Market on Jefferson Street, a dense suburban area in western New York state. According to local outlet The Buffalo News, a witness said the store was “filled” and busy. Jimboboiii, who Buffalo police identified as Payton Gendron, pulled up to the supermarket and immediately shot four people in the parking lot, killing all but one. Gendron then proceeded into the store, shooting multiple people, including a recently retired Buffalo police officer who was the store’s security guard.

According to the Associated Press, Gendron comes from Conklin, a town about 200 miles southeast of Buffalo. Joseph Gramaglia, the just-nominated Buffalo city police commissioner, said in a press conference Gendron was decked out in heavy armor. He had on “tactical gear, a tactical helmet, and a camera that he was livestreaming what he was doing.” While many are sharing a Twitch account connected to the shooter’s known username, the Amazon-owned company has terminated the Twitch channel known as “jimboboiii”.

Video of the incident has been pulled offline, though there are screenshots and short clips of the event still floating around. And while Jimboboiii’s Twitch channel has been pulled, there is a YouTube channel possibly connected to him that hasn’t been updated in at least three years. He’s also got a PC gaming Steam account.

The long manifesto, which dives deep into the shooter’s supposed mindset and aims, cites 4chan as the source of his radicalization, noting “There I learned through infographics, shitposts, and memes that the White race is dying out, that blacks are disproportionately killing Whites, that the average black takes $700,000 from tax-payers in their lifetime, and that the Jews and the elite were behind this.” The manifesto also included not only step-by-step instructions for the mass shooting he intended to carry out, but diagrams as well. Screenshots of Discord shared on social media, while not confirmed to be legitimate, also purport to show someone with the same username going into deep specifics regarding the planned action, apparently well ahead of the shooting.

A Twitch spokesperson told Kotaku over email that it’s saddened by the news and notes that it has strict “zero-tolerance” policies against violence.

“We are devastated to hear about the shooting that took place this afternoon in Buffalo, New York. Our hearts go out to the community impacted by this tragedy,” a spokesperson said. “Twitch has a zero-tolerance policy against violence of any kind and works swiftly to respond to all incidents. The user has been indefinitely suspended from our service, and we are taking all appropriate action, including monitoring for any accounts rebroadcasting this content.”

The shooter also mentioned 8chan as a spot where he intended to initially post his plans, with a 4chan link supposedly pointing back to where the OG 8chan post would live. An administrator for 8chan told Kotaku in an email that the alleged gunman never posted on its message board.

“After a thorough search there is no evidence that this person has ever posted on our small, hobbyist platform and we believe that he capitalized on the similar naming to the former 8chan to suit his agenda,” they wrote. “We denounce the actions and motivations of this killer in the strongest of terms, and we denounce any association between his acts and our website in equally strong terms.”

According to the New York Times, Discord said that it was both investigating the posts Gendron supposedly made on the private server before the shooting occurred and cooperating with law enforcement officials.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the victims and their families, and we will do everything we can to assist law enforcement in the investigation,” the company said.

In the past, Discord has been has been open about extremism on the platform. In a transparency report reflecting only the second half of 2020 shared by the chatting social media network, Discord noted that it removed 1,500 private servers related to “violent extremism,” which at the time it stated was a “93% increase from the first half of the year.” Stats like this, alongside further research and media attention, have helped the narrative that groups like the far right on the platform have, as Wired once put it, “exploded.”

According to Discord, the apparent rise in numbers actually reflect proactive efforts on its part to deal with a larger issue on the internet; the 2020 report coincided with the rise of QAnon, for example. But back in 2017, the NYT claimed that Discord was the alt-right’s “favorite” chat app, apparently used at the time to help plan things like the Unite The Right rally that was attended by white supremacists, among others.

Kotaku has reached out to 4chan, 8chan, and Discord for comment.

Police have called the shooting a racially motivated hate crime, with a CBS News correspondent reporting that the Buffalo city FBI branch, the police department, and the U.S. Department of Justice are investigating it as such. However, Payton Gendron, who was arraigned and charged with first-degree murder, has pleaded not guilty to his crimes, according to The Independent.

Developing…

Update: 5/15/22, 10:02 a.m. ET: Added comment from 8chan administrator.