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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 2h

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Decoherence Media

Decoherence Media investigates authoritarian and anti-democratic movements using open-source and data-driven methods

decoherence.media

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 2h

This is the second in a three part series that investigates the Rope Culture web server, part 3 drops tomorrow. In the meantime, read all of our articles on our website, and view the Rope Culture data on fashyleaks.com.

FashyLeaks

Search interface for Nazi forum datasets, including Iron March and Rope Culture.

fashyleaks.com

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 2h

Based on data in the web server, the most common website that users were referred to Rope Culture from (clicking a link that took them to the Rope Culture website) was Facebook.

Stacked timeseries bar chart showing the sites that visitors were most commonly referred to the Rope Culture website from, between December 2015 and November 2017. The most common site was Facebook, followed by The Daily Stormer, Iron March, Twitter, Reddit, 8chan, Disqus, and Tumblr

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 2h

Atomwaffen Division founder Brandon Russell, who is serving a 20 year sentence for trying to destroy an energy facility, published a painting on Rope Culture, and designed an advertisement for the site that ran on the image board 8chan.

Painting from Atomwaffen Division founder Brandon Russell that was published in Rope Culture, showing a Nazi soldier after the battle of Kursk. Based on a photograph: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/german-soldier-sitting-with-his-head-in-his-hands-by-a-news-photo/3364054

Screenshot of archived 8chan snapshot showing an ad for submitting articles to Rope Culture, designed by Atomwaffen Division founder Brandon Russell

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 3h

The server also contains nearly 1000 comments on the website, with every commenter’s email and IP address. Commenters include 40 Iron March users, former Atomwaffen Division leader John Cameron Denton, Daily Stormer writer Ben Garland, and convicted pedophile Wesley Gilreath.

Screenshot of FashyLeaks page showing a table of every person who commented on a Rope Culture article, including their email address and IP address: https://fashyleaks.com/rope-culture?tab=commenters

Personal information (email handle and IP address) redacted in screenshot but not on the FashyLeaks website

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 3h

The server contains the edit history of every article published on Rope Culture. The site's editor criticized one author, writing “can you check your own writing time to time? we go through like 3-5 edits with the grammar and the comas and the longass sentences and crazy amount of commas.”

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 3h

Yesterday we published the first of 3 articles that investigate the exposed web server for the neo-Nazi magazine Rope Culture. Today we've just published the second part, which analyzes the published articles, reader comments, and web traffic data.

Uncovered: Identities and tactics behind the neo-Nazi “Rope Culture” web server

Part II: Examination of the magazine's publication decisions, its odious commenters, and the platforms that promoted it

decoherence.media

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 22h

The source code for FashyLeaks’s frontend, backend & data pre-processing is on our GitHub page. If you have questions about how to use it, notice a bug, or have an idea for how to improve any part of it, create an issue on our GitHub page or contact us!.

Decoherence Media

Decoherence Media investigates authoritarian and anti-democratic movements using open-source and data-driven methods. - Decoherence Media

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 22h

To help familiarize yourself with FashyLeaks, read our written guide or watch our video guide.

How to use FashyLeaks

Navigating our new search interface for searching neo-Nazi datasets

decoherence.media

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 22h

FashyLeaks provides an unprecedented view into the evolution of the modern neo-Nazi community. In particular we can see how once-fringe ideas (like the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory) have been embraced and promoted, first by Nazis and then the mainstream right.

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 22h

We’ve made enhancements to the Iron March database, incorporating additional messages, posts, and users and filling holes in the original database by merging tables and including additional sources, like snapshots from the Internet Archive.

Screenshot of FashyLeaks website, showing the table of Iron March users (personal information blurred in image)

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 22h

As part of our investigation into the Rope Culture web server, we created a search interface for Nazi forum scrapes and leaked databases called FashyLeaks. Currently it includes the Iron March and Rope Culture datasets, with many more to come.

Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 1d

We found the exposed web server of Rope Culture, a neo-Nazi online magazine from the same Nazis behind the notorious Iron March forum. It contains hundreds of email addresses of the site’s commenters, emails sent to & from their mail server & the IP address of every visit to the site.

Neo-Nazi “Rope Culture” Web Server Reveals the Structure and Culture of a Far-Right Network

Part I: The exposed web server of Rope Culture, a neo-Nazi online magazine, contains a trove of data for understanding the transnational far-right

decoherence.media

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 1d

This is the first in a 3 part series investigating the Rope Culture web server, parts 2 and 3 drop this week. Read all of our articles on our website, and view the Rope Culture data on fashyleaks.com. If you want to support us, you can subscribe or make a tax-deductible donation.

Donate

We are an independent, journalist-founded nonprofit and 100% supported by readers like you.

decoherence.media

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 1d

Looking at a map of nearly 300k visits to the Rope Culture website, we see heavy traffic from North America and Europe—not surprising for a neo-Nazi website. There’s also a South American presence, consistent with an old Iron March infographic showing branches in Chile and Brazil.

Screenshot of interactive heatmap showing geographic locations of all visits to the Rope Culture website, based on IP address. Interactive map available at https://decoherencemedia.github.io/rope-culture-map/

Part of Iron March infographic that shows “Iron March National Branches” in Chile and Brazil

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 1d

Rope Culture & Iron March were taken offline in November 2017. The link to the archive containing both databases was posted 4 times on Fascist Forge, a forum which tried and failed to recreate Iron March. The earliest share of the link we found was in a Pastebin file from June 2018.

Screenshot of January 2019 post on Fascist Forge forum from user “Femto” sharing the link to the mega.nz archive containing the Iron March and Rope Culture datasets

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 1d

We’ve made the Rope Culture database, as well as the previously leaked Iron March database, searchable through a data interface we’ve developed called FashyLeaks. We’ve published a guide and a video version of the guide that shows you how to use it.

How to use FashyLeaks

Navigating our new search interface for searching neo-Nazi datasets

decoherence.media

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 1d

Remember the leaked Iron March database in 2019 causing dozens of neo-Nazis to get identified, including a captain at an ICE detention facility? The Rope Culture server was hidden in the archive that contained the Iron March database, but nobody seemed to notice, until now.

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 1d

We found the exposed web server of Rope Culture, a neo-Nazi online magazine from the same Nazis behind the notorious Iron March forum. It contains hundreds of email addresses of the site’s commenters, emails sent to & from their mail server & the IP address of every visit to the site.

Neo-Nazi “Rope Culture” Web Server Reveals the Structure and Culture of a Far-Right Network

Part I: The exposed web server of Rope Culture, a neo-Nazi online magazine, contains a trove of data for understanding the transnational far-right

decoherence.media

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 1d

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Donate

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 1d

Today we’re publishing our first investigation into the exposed web server of Rope Culture, a neo-Nazi online magazine made by the same people behind the infamous Iron March forum.

Neo-Nazi “Rope Culture” Web Server Reveals the Structure and Culture of a Far-Right Network

The exposed web server of Rope Culture, a neo-Nazi online magazine, contains a trove of data for understanding the transnational demographics and scope of its user base, and the activity of prominent ...

decoherence.media

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 1d

Decoherence Media will identify and expose fascists, whether they’re wearing khakis, a suit, or a badge.

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 1d

At a time where masked agents of the state act with impunity, emboldened neo-Nazi groups march in the streets, and one institution after another legitimizes authoritarian consolidation, there’s a need for unflinching reporting to hold these forces to account.

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 1d

We’ll publish investigations, data interfaces, analyses, and educational guides. We’re motivated by the open-source ethos, so we’ll always strive to share our methods, as well as the source code for any tools, interfaces, investigations, or visualizations we make.

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Decoherence Media @decoherence.media · 1d

Welcome to Decoherence Media, an independent nonprofit founded by @jennefer.bsky.social and @tristanl.ee that investigates authoritarian and anti-democratic movements using open-source and data-driven methods.

Welcome to Decoherence Media!

We're an independent, journalist-founded nonprofit investigating authoritarian and anti-democratic movements using open-source and data-driven methods.

decoherence.media

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