oh, they HAVE escalated, haven’t they!
Yes, and no. It's happened in the past, but apparently today was something special.
With that type of material it gets serious quickly. By law, the computer it's on, and whoever sent it, are in for some federal time if they get caught.
So they use VPNs to post from, which makes catching the perps unlikely. But they burn the IPs whenever they post and in the case of 8Chan, those IPs are permanently banned.
Something is going on for a concerted effort by people who are willing to take the risk. I smell desperation.