Free Republic

Bowdoin College conservative students went to bed afraid Sunday after administrators informed the campus of “credible” threats that prompted the cancellation of a vigil honoring Charlie Kirk, a student leader told The College Fix by phone and email. “Despite being the recipients of this ‘supposed threat,’ we have not been informed of anything else, so many of my members are living in complete fear,” Bowdoin College Conservatives President Zak Asplin said Monday. Safa Zaki, president of the private Maine college, issued an announcement Sunday night that the situation was investigated and no longer deemed to be a threat. However, in...

A cyber group known as “Purgatory” is behind a terrifying spree of AI-enhanced swatting calls on college campuses — and experts urge authorities to catch up to “internet speed” to stop it. Between Aug. 21 and Aug. 25, at least 10 universities across the US were thrown into chaos after fake active shooter calls sent armed federal and local law enforcement agencies to lockdown campuses, launching students into full-blown panic. The calls have since been linked to Purgatory, a group of cybercriminals who use AI tools to replicate sounds of screaming and gunfire while on the phone with local authorities,...

Those who are part of these networks target young teens, trans people, and those who already feel victimized by society. Minneapolis Catholic child killer Robert "Robin" Westman was reportedly linked to online dark extremist groups fixated on nihilism. The dark network of groups are reported to "prey on and exploit young people." Westman killed two children and injured 17 others at the Annunciation Catholic School. Some of the groups are called 764, COM, No Lives Matter, the Order of Nine Angels, and others, and operate in secret on the web where kids can access them and parents are primarily unaware....

Anti-extremism researchers say they have identified a group claiming responsibility for the hoax active-shooter calls that led to massive police responses and widespread panic at Villanova University and other colleges as students returned to campus last week. Members of the nonprofit Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) said Wednesday they believe the source of the calls is a group dubbed Purgatory, part of an online threat network called “The Com” that exists at the “intersection of extremism, cybercrime, child abuse, and violence,” according to the nonprofit, which was formed in 2020 by former members of the Southern Poverty Law...