US: White Supremacists Sought to Spark Global Race War Via Telegram
The Facts
US prosecutors Monday charged two persons with attempting to incite racial attacks on Blacks, Jews, LGBTQ people, and immigrants, and to spark a global race war.
Dallas Erin Humber and Matthew Robert Allison allegedly used Telegram for their mission, targeting senators, judges, and other government officials.
The Spin
White supremacism poses a grave and escalating threat to the US — and the wider world. With a significant rise in violent incidents in recent years, extremists driven by white supremacist ideologies have outpaced all other forms of domestic terrorism. These groups, often operating through decentralized networks and heavily influenced by online propaganda, have been responsible for the majority of terrorist plots and attacks in recent years. The growing frequency and intensity of their actions highlight the urgent need for robust countermeasures to protect public safety and maintain national security.
The threat of white supremacist terrorism in the US is exaggerated. A closer examination of the Justice Department's data on domestic terrorism convictions show that many cases labeled as terrorism involve unrelated personal disputes or non-terrorism crimes. Despite a decade of substantial funding for counterterrorism, the actual number of cases linked to white supremacist violence is much lower than reported. This overstatement undermines public confidence and suggests that the perceived threat may not be as severe as the government claims.