You just run them over.” Because the internet can be a terrible place, the term took off, becoming popular on 4chan’s white-nationalist /pol/ board and spreading to other platforms. In a 2017 YouTube video that has been viewed nearly 1 million times, Davis says: “The CIA niggers glow in the dark you can see them if you’re driving. ![]() The term originated with Terry Davis, a computer programmer who had schizophrenia and harbored paranoid conspiracy theories about the government. The mere possibility of glowies among the militias might be enough to reduce the threat of extremist violence in the coming months.į ar-right forums are rife with racism and misogyny, so perhaps it’s no surprise that glowie derives from the language of hate. But federal agents don’t have to be actively watching the channels to complicate the extremists’ mission. The FBI declined to comment on whether its agents or informants are currently monitoring far-right communications channels or posting in them directly. FBI informants infiltrated both the far-left Weather Underground and the Ku Klux Klan, among others. “With increased content moderation by platforms and tons of researchers/analysts paying more attention to the right, it appears these folks want to keep the momentum of the sixth going but are afraid to talk about it openly,” Conroy told me via email.įederal law enforcement, of course, has a long history of monitoring extremist groups. marshals in Idaho that led to the deaths of three people. “ Since all you glowies are here looking for ‘Domestic Terrorists,’” another wrote, “Look in the mirror then apologize for Ruby Ridge you sick fucks,” referring to the 1992 siege by U.S. On TheDonald.win, someone suggested that the death of Ashli Babbitt, the woman killed during the Capitol riot, was possibly staged or orchestrated by glowies. The same thing happened when another user asked about the best place to store guns. This, another person responded, seemed like “glow”-the potential sign of an FBI agent. On the January 11, someone on 4chan asked, “What kind of shit should I get for the boogaloo?,” meaning the civil war that the far-right boogaloo bois are preparing for. ![]() All three platforms featured discussions of storming the Capitol in the days leading up to January 6.Įxtremists have become more wary of real or perceived glowies since January 6. In addition, I found variations on the “glow” terminology all over 4chan, the imageboard that froths with racist and misogynist messages, and on TheDonald.win, the far-right successor to the pro-Trump subreddit r/The_Donald. ![]() Screenshots of these Telegram channels were provided to me by Meghan Conroy, who researches far-right extremism at Moonshot CVE, an organization that aims to counter violent extremism. * One user recommended downloading an alternative platform, ZeroNet, saying, “Glowies cannot take it down.” The term is in widespread use among extremists: On January 6, one Telegram user made their channel, which was popular with the far right, private because “nameless faceless glowies are joining.” Two days later, another person suggested that glowies would “float dead cop story, to redirect public attention and sympathy,” referring to the death of the Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick. But as federal law-enforcement officials continue to round up people suspected of involvement in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, and Joe Biden’s administration promises a crackdown on white-supremacist and anti-government radicals, extremists are on the verge of a crack-up, posting widely and worriedly about spies in their midst-“glowies.” That’s the term far-right groups use to describe people they suspect of being federal law-enforcement agents or informants infiltrating their communication channels, trying to catch them plotting violence, or prodding them into illegal acts. But they do fear one thing: glowies.ĭuring the Trump administration, many far-right groups’ main concern was figuring out how to recruit more people to the cause. J udging by the actions of those who stormed the Capitol, far-right extremists don’t fear arrest.
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