In the days and weeks after the extremist Abundant Life School Shooting, disinformation and misinformation has been rapidly circulating online, spreading false details about the event. Our guest author Joshua Bowes examines the challenges associated with disinformation and misinformation in the wake of mass shooting events and terror attacks
By Joshua Bowes
18 January 2025
Introduction
On 16 December 2024, 15 year old Natalie (Samantha) Rupnow carried out a mass shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, killing one teacher and one student, before committing suicide. According to the shooter’s alleged manifesto, Rupnow was a self-prescribed ‘radfemcel,’ or a radical female incel, citing a deep hatred for men and a desire to revolt against society. Rupnow’s manifesto made it clear she had a deeply nihilistic and misanthropic outlook and that the shooting was carried out as a result of her disgust with perceived societal oppression against women. In the aftermath of the shooting, baseless assertions claiming that the shooter was transgender began to circulate on social media, incorrectly linking her actions to what is described as a radical transgender ideology.
This analysis will shed light on how such unverified claims spread online and will examine how the conflation of gender identity with the shooter’s motives furthered fringe online discourse.
Misleading Social Media Posts
Rupnow’s alleged manifesto, which remains unverified by authorities but has been publicly reported on by other credible sources, including her online activity prior to the mass shooting, delineates an array of extremist ideologies, connecting her not only to misanthropic hate, but also white supremacism and neo-Nazism. At its core, the shooting was carried out in the name of militant accelerationist hate; that is, to start a so-called ‘revolution’ against society through violent means. Rupnow’s online presence revealed that she engaged with various extremist ideologies, and that she used messaging service Telegram to chat with neo-Nazis. She also shared racist, white supremacist and anti-semitic memes.
Immediately after the shooting, various X accounts were created or used to disseminate disinformation. One particular post asserted that the shooter had an X profile that included imagery associated with anti-Christian sentiments, implying a motive linked to gender identity (Figure 1). This claim was unverified and is part of a broader pattern observed in previous school shootings where the identities of the shooters have been misrepresented as transgender to fit the narrative that transgenderism is a pathway to mass violence. The shootings at the STEM School Highlands Ranch (2019), Robb Elementary School in Uvalde (2022), and Nashville Covenant School (2023) were all subject to online rumors that gender identity catalyzed these acts of mass violence. Another post shared in the hours after the 16 December shooting claimed that Rupnow was just ‘another trans activist’ (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Example of a X/Twitter Post from a user claiming the shooter was transgender
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Figure 2. Another examples of X/Twitter Posts claiming that the Abundant Life school shooter was influenced by gender identity
Additionally, further disinformation efforts linked Rupnow to previous school shooters who were falsely labeled as transgender or influenced by transgender ideology. Users tried to suggest similarities with the Nashville school shooting in 2023, which was carried out by shooter Audrey Hale, later confirmed to be transgender by authorities. Others tried to point to Rupnow’s alleged manifesto as evidence of radical gender identity, but her alleged suicide note does not indicate any evidence of gender identity being a motivator for the attack. The above posts were quickly taken down by X’s moderation system, but other messages characterizing the shooter as transgender or mentally ill have not been removed by the platform and have acquired thousands of impressions and views. In the hours following the shooting on 16 December, popular conspiracy theorist Alex Jones posted the following to X: “If the statistical trend continues with this tragic event, there is a 98% chance the shooting is trans or gang related. If it is another trans wack job or a gang shooting, it will be out of the news in less than 24 hours.” Jones’ post was viewed almost 300 thousand times. Immediately following the shooting, during a press conference with police, right-wing account ‘EndWokeness’ shared a clip of Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes unable to affirm the shooter’s gender identity, taking the clip out of context and attempting to spread the idea that transgenderism was a motivating factor. Additionally, after President Joe Biden released a statement calling for increased gun control following the shooting, Former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz asserted the idea that ‘trans control’ should instead be implemented.
Political Exploitation
In the fallout of the shooting, online political commentators and social media users attempted to manipulate the incident in their political favor, attempting to claim that transgender ideology was a direct motivator of the shooting. For example, one post attempted to vilify transgender individuals as ‘mentally ill,’ contributing to a broader online narrative that transgenderism is a radical and violent ideology. Other posts inverted this narrative and blamed political ideology as the reason for the mislabeling of the shooter’s gender identity. As one post reads: “MAGA is out here trying to convince the world that the 15 year old far right Nazi who shot up Abundant Life Christian School is a trans leftist because they refuse to admit that their hateful ideology is literally killing kids." This post had over 150 thousand likes and almost four million views at the time of writing. Another post weaved in the conspiratorial belief that the shooting was actually carried out by the government in an attempt to galvanize a national ‘gun grab’: “This all but confirms the Abundant Life Christian School shooting in Madison Wisconsin was yet another Trans 'non binary' person who was SSRI’d up & 1000% MK Ultra’d thru Bluelight by the CIA & DARPA like @DrJackKruse has proven. Going for another gun grab." One X post falsely reporting the shooter’s name and claiming she was a ‘non-binary trans girl’ received almost 100 thousand views. The post is now accompanied by a ‘Community Note,’ adding context to the post and alerting users that it was posted for satirical purposes.
Conclusion
The online furor that erupted in the aftermath of the Abundant Life Christian school shooting was dominated by disinformation and baseless claims. These false contentions spread with great speed and became visible to hundreds of thousands of viewers. While many of the falsities alluding to the shooter’s gender identity have since been taken down by X, many are still readily available through a simple search, indicative of a growing trend of fast-moving online conspiracy. The politicization of such claims permeated online discourse in the aftermath of the shooting, reflecting a level of online behavior that is dangerously impactful to the average observer. X’s moderation policy must be hasty in its removal of harmful disinformation and must target small-scale posts as well as those made by larger influencers and politically-oriented accounts.
Joshua Bowes is a Research Associate with futures think tank South Asia Foresight Network (SAFN) in Washington, D.C, focusing on South Asian security challenges. His research primarily covers synergetic thinking, militancy, armed conflict and extremism.