 | |
Type of site | Hate site[a] andweb forum[2] |
|---|---|
| Available in | English, with sub-forums in multiple languages |
| Dissolved | November 2017 |
| Successor(s) | Fascist Forge Terrorgram[3] |
| Created by | Alisher Mukhitdinov[1] |
| URL | ironmarch.org (archived) |
| Commercial | No |
| Launched | 2011 |
| Current status | Defunct |
Iron March was afar-right,[1]neo-fascist[1] andNeo-Nazi[1]web forum open from 2011 to 2017.[2] The site attracted neo-fascist and Neo-Nazi members, includingmilitants from organized far-right groups and members who would later go on to commitacts of terror.[1] People linked to Iron March have been connected to 100 hate crimes.[4][5]After the site closed, former users moved to alternative websites andsocial networking services, such asDiscord.[1] In 2019, an anonymous individual leaked the database that hosted all Iron March content.
Russian nationalist Alisher Mukhitdinov (who goes by the moniker "Alexander Slavros") founded the online message board Iron March in 2011.[1][6][2][7] Mukhitdinov is aRussian-Uzbek related toNuritdin Mukhitdinov, a formercommunist leader ofUzbekistan.[8][9] Since the 2010s, the political ideology and religious worldview of theOrder of Nine Angles (ONA), atheistic Satanist organization founded by theBritish Neo-Nazi leaderDavid Myatt in 1974,[1] have increasingly influencedmilitantneo-fascist andNeo-Naziinsurgent groups associated withright-wing extremist andWhite supremacist international networks,[1] most notably the Iron March forum.[1]
Iron March became a platform formilitantneo-fascist andNeo-Nazi violent extremist organizations, including theNordic Resistance Movement,National Action,Azov Battalion,CasaPound, andGolden Dawn.[1] Some of the board's members were later linked to several acts ofterrorism andmurder,[1] such as the murder of ananti-fascist inHelsinki in September 2016. A group consisting of SerbianCombat 18, "MC Srbi", andAtomwaffen Division also used the forum to traffic firearms.[10][11][12] The forum's users organized a number of violent Neo-Nazi groups, including theAtomwaffen Division,Antipodean Resistance, andNational Action. The userbase embraced theaccelerationist ideology ofJames Mason, a Neo-Nazi militant and associate ofCharles Manson.[2][13] Members of Iron March republished and popularized Mason's bookSiege and its brand of explicitlyNeo-Nazi terrorism.[2][13] According to theSouthern Poverty Law Center:
[Iron March] became home base for those who were personally invested in Neo-Nazism, Fascism, and organized White extremism on a global scale. [...] through total immersion inMason's teleology, now, they are challenging the established far-right and far-left with their eagerness to perpetrateviolence.[2][13]
In 2016, posters urging students to visit the Iron March website were posted on university campuses, including those ofBoston University,Old Dominion University, and theUniversity of Chicago. These posters included racist and antisemitic slogans, including "#Hitler Disapproves", "No Degeneracy, No Tolerance, Hail Victory", and "Black Lives Don't Matter".[14][15][16]
The website closed in November 2017; the reasons for its closure remain unclear as of late 2019.[6] According to an investigation conducted byBBC News Russian, it is suspected Mukhitdinov was pressured by thegovernment of Russia for raising funds for the Ukrainian neo-NaziAzov Battalion, which isconsidered a terrorist group in the Russian Federation.[8] A spokesperson for the Azov Battalion refused to comment on the case.[8]
In February 2018, Iron March-affiliatedDiscord servers alongside several otherhate group servers were removed by the messaging service.[17] In April 2018, a networking site called Fascist Forge was launched; according to a note by its founder, it was meant as a replacement for Iron March. The site continued Iron March's virulent propaganda and grew rapidly until February 2019, when the site was taken offline by its registrar.[18]Terrorgram grew in large part from the defunct Iron March and Fascist Forge.[3]
In February 2015, three people were arrested for planning to commit amass shooting at a shopping mall inHalifax, Nova Scotia, on February 14 that year. One of the suspects, 23-year-oldLindsay Souvannarath of Illinois, was found to have been an active member of the Iron March forum, to have been the ex-girlfriend of Iron March founder "Slavros",[19] and to have made many online posts in favor of neo-fascist or neo-Nazi ideologies.[20][21]
Devon Arthurs, an Iron March user and member of theAtomwaffen Division (AWD), killed his two roommates, also members of AWD, in May 2017. Police found neo-Nazi literature, radioactive materials, a photograph of Oklahoma City bomberTimothy McVeigh, and explosives in his home.[6] Arthurs' remaining roommate and fellow Iron March userBrandon Russell was arrested inTampa, Florida, for stockpiling of illegal weapons and bomb-making materials.[2] Russell had been among Iron March's most prolific users, having written around 1,500 posts on the site.[22]
As a result of the Iron March leak in 2019, it was discovered the Latviannational-conservative politician and activistRaivis Zeltīts had posted on Iron March under the handle "Latvian_Integralist". Zeltīts acknowledged in aFacebook post that he had written using this handle, but Zeltīts said that he no longer held those views.[23] Zeltīts remained in contact with Iron March administrator Benjamin Raymond as late as 2015.[24]
Zack Davies, 26, ofMold, North Wales, attacked aSikh man with a machete and claw hammer while shouting "White Power". Daviesinflicted life-threatening injuries; in the judge's view, the victim would have died had Davies not been stopped by passers-by. In 2015, a British court found Davies guilty and assigned him alife sentence (with a minimum tariff of 14 years).[25] Davies had an Iron March account and was a member of the British terrorist groupNational Action, which was proscribed in 2016.[2][26]
In November 2019, an unknown individual uploaded a database of Iron March users to theInternet Archive; multiple Neo-Nazi users, including anICE detention center captain and several active members of theU.S. Armed Forces, were identified using information from the leak.[6][27][28]
A variety of individuals and organizations used information from the leak: