Iron March
 | |
Type of site | Fascist, White supremacist, Neo-Nazi, Holocaust denial forum |
|---|---|
| Available in | English, with sub-forums in multiple languages |
| Dissolved | November 2017 |
| Predecessor(s) | International Third Position Federation |
| Owner | Alexander Mukhitdinov |
| Created by | Alexander Mukhitdinov |
| URL | ironmarch.org |
| Commercial | No |
| Launched | 2011 |
| Current status | Defunct |
Iron March is a now-defunct fascist web forum. The Southern Poverty Law Center linked Iron March to nearly 100 hate crime murders as of mid-2018.[1]
History
Russian nationalist Alexander "Slavros" Mukhitdinov founded Iron March in 2011 as a fascist online message-board.[2][1] Mukhitdinov remained a murky figure at the time of the leaks.[3]
Iron March acted as a platform for militant neo-Nazi groups such as the Nordic Resistance Movement, Azov Battalion and Golden Dawn to network. The members are tied to several acts of terrorism and murder, such as the murder of an anti-fascist in Helsinki in September 2016 and the murder of a left-wing rapper in 2013. A group consisting of members of Serbian Combat 18, another local neo-nazi gang "MC Srbi" and Atomwaffen also used the forum to traffic firearms.[4][5][6] The forum’s users organized a number of violent neo-Nazi groups, including the Atomwaffen Division, Antipodean Resistance and National Action. The userbase embraced the accelerationist ideology of James Mason, a neo-nazi and associate of the serial killer Charles Manson. Members of Iron March republished and popularized Mason's book "Siege" and its brand of explicitly terroristic neo-nazism. According to SPLC: "IM became home base for those who were personally invested in neo-Nazism, fascism and organized white extremism on a global scale...through total immersion in Mason’s teleology, now, they are challenging the established far-right and far-left with their eagerness to perpetrate violence." [7][1]
In 2016, posters urging students to visit the Iron March site were posted on college campuses, including Boston University, Old Dominion University, and the University of Chicago. These posters included racist and antisemitic language ranging such as '#Hitler Disapproves', 'No Degeneracy, No Tolerance, Hail Victory', and 'Black Lives Don't Matter'.[8][9][10]
The site closed in November 2017 for reasons that remain unclear[2] in 2020. According to an investigation by BBC Russia, it is suspected Mukhitdinov was pressured by the Russian government for raising funds for the neo-nazi Azov Battalion which is considered a terrorist group in the Russian Federation. A spokesperson for Azov refused to comment on the case.[11]
In 2018, Iron March-affiliated Discord servers were removed by the messaging service alongside a variety of other hate group servers.[12]
In April 2018, a networking site called Fascist Forge was placed online, and a note by the founder indicated that it was meant as a replacement for Iron March. The site continued Iron March's virulent propaganda and grew rapidly through 2019. In February 2019, the site was taken offline by its registrar.[13]
Notable Users
In February 2015, three people were arrested for planning to commit a mass shooting at a shopping mall in Halifax, Nova Scotia on Valentine's Day. One of the suspects, 23-year-old Lindsay Souvannarath of Illinois, was found to have been an active member of IronMarch and to have made many online posts in favor of fascist or neo-Nazi ideologies.[14][15]
Devon Arthurs, an Iron March user and member of the Atomwaffen Division (AWD), killed his two roommates and fellow members of AWD in May 2017. Neo-Nazi literature, radioactive materials, a photo of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, and explosives were found in his home by police.[2] Arthurs' remaining roommate and another Iron March user, Brandon Russell, was arrested by Tampa, Florida police for stockpiling of illegal weapons and bomb-making materials.[1] Russell had been among Iron March's most prolific users, having written around 1500 posts on the site.[16]
As a result of the Iron March leak in 2019, it was discovered that the Latvian national-conservative politician and activist Raivis Zeltīts had posted on Iron March under the handle Latvian_Integralist. Zeltīts admitted in a Facebook post that he written under these handles, but that the writing expressed no-longer-held views.[17] However, later journalism indicated that Zeltīts remained in contact with Iron March administrator Benjamin Raymond as late as 2015.[18]
Zack Davies, 26, of Mold, Flintshire attacked a Sikh man with a machete and claw hammer while shouting "White Power". Davies left his victim with life-threatening injuries and it was the judge's view that he would have surely died if Davies had not been stopped by passerbys. Davies was found guilty of attempted murder and was given a life sentence by a British court in 2015. Davies had an Iron March account, was member of the community and supporter of National Action.[1][19][20]
Leak
An unknown individual uploaded a database of Iron March users to the Internet Archive in November 2019 and multiple neo-nazi users were identified, including an ICE detention center captain and several active members of the US armed forces.[2][21][22]
References
- ^ a b c d e Poulter, James (12 March 2018). "The Obscure Neo-Nazi Forum Linked to a Wave of Terror". Vice.
- ^ a b c d Wilson, Jason (7 November 2019). "Leak from neo-Nazi site could identify hundreds of extremists worldwide". The Guardian.
- ^ Ross, Alexander Reid; Bevensee, Emmi (19 December 2019). "Transnational White Terror: Exposing Atomwaffen And The Iron March Networks". Bellingcat.
- ^ "Fašistička braća (Fascist Brothers)". Novosti (Croatia). November 15, 2019.
- ^ "Canadian Soldier With Ties To Neo-Nazi Terrorist Groups Arranged For Illegal Weapons Sale In Bosnia". Canadian Anti-Hate Network. November 14, 2019.
- ^ "Desničarske i neonacističke organizacije neometano ističu simbole u Prijedoru". BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina. 15 June 2020.
- ^ "Atomwaffen and the SIEGE parallax: how one neo-Nazi's life's work is fueling a younger generation". Southern Poverty Law Center. 16 June 2020.
- ^ Farrell, Brian (28 March 2016). "Fascist, pro-Nazi flyers posted at Old Dominion University". 13 News Now.
- ^ Clauss, Kyle Scott (2 May 2016). "Neo-Nazi Posters Spotted on Boston University's Campus". Boston Magazine.
- ^ Thorp, Adam (5 December 2016). "Militant Neo-Nazi Group Claims Credit for Hanging Hitler Portrait, Swastikas on Campus Building". The Chicago Maroon.
- ^ ""Наполовину русский": история москвича Алишера Мухитдинова и его глобальной фашистской сети". BBC News. 15 June 2020.
- ^ Alexander, Julia (28 February 2018). "Discord is purging alt-right, white nationalist and hateful servers". Polygon.
- ^ Lamoureux, Mack (15 February 2019). "Fascist Forge, the Online Neo-Nazi Recruitment Forum, Is Down". Vice.
- ^ Lamoureux, Mack (21 February 2019). "The Woman Who Plotted a Valentine's Mass Murder Shares How the Internet Radicalized Her". Vice. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
- ^ Neiwert, David (18 February 2015). "Illinois Woman With Neo-Nazi Leanings Charged in Canadian Mass Murder Plot". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
- ^ Singer-Emery, Jacques; Bray III, Rex (19 April 2020). "Lingua Ferro Iter: Insights Gained Through Linguistic Analysis of Iron March". Small Wars Journal.
- ^ "Senior National Alliance figure apologises for "cloud" of far-right messages". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. 12 November 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
- ^ "De Facto: British neo-Nazi visited Latvian political party office". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. 25 November 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
- ^ Morris, Steven (15 June 2020). "Nazi-obsessed loner guilty of attempted murder of dentist in racist attack". The Guardian.
- ^ "Lee Rigby revenge attacker Zack Davies given life sentence". BBC News. 15 June 2020.
- ^ "ICE Detention Center Captain Was on a Neo-Nazi Website and Wanted to Start a White Nationalist Group". Vice News. 15 June 2020.
- ^ "EXCLUSIVE: A U.S. Marine Used the Neo-Nazi Site Iron March to Recruit for a 'Racial Holy War'". Vice News. 15 June 2020.