One click away: ADL research shows how online radicalization leads to extremism
Unrestricted internet access may seem harmless, but it can lead to devastating acts of real-world violence.
Jerusalem Post/August 24, 2025
Online interaction with extremist content can be linked to the commission of real-world violent crimes, an Anti-Defamation League (ADL) research project released on Thursday concluded.
The ADL's Center on Extremism followed the timeline of radicalization that led two teenagers, Natalie (Samantha) Rupnow and Solomon Henderson, to commit school shootings motivated by hatred, rage, and extremism.
The two interacted with online communities that center around violence and bigotry, including gore, antisemitism, racism, and misogyny.
Both followed shockingly similar timelines, carrying out their rampages within two months of each other in late December 2024 and early January 2025. During June of 2023, each created an account on the gore website WatchPeopleDie (WPD), a platform for viewing and sharing real-life footage of extreme, depraved violence. According to the ADL research, this is where their parallel descents began.
The contagious nature of online extremism
Extremist activity on websites like WPD is not limited to depictions of violence, according to the research. The ADL detailed that much of the content posted is tied to white supremacist communities, exposing users to yet another level of abnormal and disturbing influence. The more Rupnow and Henderson interacted with disturbing content, the more they spewed the same ideology.
Rupnow herself followed an account on WPD that celebrated Dylann Roof, a white supremacist convicted of a racially motivated shooting in 2015 at a church in America, and expressed that she wished to commit a copycat crime. In an online diary, Henderson frequently used slurs targeting African Americans, posted memes about the Holocaust, and discussed his admiration of white supremacist symbols.
Along with viewing, interacting with, and posting explicitly violent content, the teenagers openly glorified mass killers, including the perpetrators of the infamous 1999 Columbine school shooting. In manifestos discovered by law enforcement after Rupnow and Henderson’s crimes, they each cited such infamous killers as inspiration.
Henderson, whose rampage was carried out only a month after Rupnow, even claimed her as an inspiration, further demonstrating how online extremist content and communities cause a contagion effect. It is referred to as a vicious cycle by Jonothan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, who said that “extremist ideas combined with gore websites can inspire users to seek out more extremist content, while violence on extremist platforms can inspire others to look for even more violent content.”
The timeline is easily traceable through public postings and online activity. Both used platforms like TikTok, X/Twitter, Discord, and Tumblr, which are frequented by teenagers worldwide. Most teenagers today use these sites every day for everyday social interaction. Still, Greenblatt stresses that "kids and teens today have lived their entire lives with easy internet access, putting them even more at risk of encountering violent extremism online.”
Allowing youths open access to the internet might seem harmless because of how ubiquitous it has become, but examining the paths of Rupnow and Solomon demonstrates the very real life consequences of unrestricted browsing and social media usage, the ADL concluded, adding that it hopes that presenting this research can raise awareness by highlighting the dangers of the internet.
“Extremism, hate, and violent gore are just a click away for many children, making it urgent for schools and parents to implement safeguards," said Oren Segal, ADL’s SVP of Counter-Extremism and Intelligence. "These toxic online spaces can cause devastating harm in our communities and are increasingly becoming central to the broader violent extremist landscape,” said Oren Segal, ADL’s SVP of Counter-Extremism and Intelligence," he added.
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