While there is an ongoing need for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to identify and assess the online activities of violent extremists before they engage in offline violence, it is known little empirically about their online posting habits in general or the differences in their online habits compared to nonviolent ones. especially violent extremists who share similar ideological beliefs. Even less is known empirically about how their online habits compare to those posting in extremist spaces in general. This study fills this gap through a content analysis of posts from a unique sample of violent and non-violent right-wing extremists (RWEs) as well as a sample of posts within a sub-forum of the larger forum online about white supremacy, Stormy Front. Here, the existence of extremist ideologies, personal grievances, and violent extremist mobilization efforts was quantified in each of the three sample groups (n = 3,000). Several conclusions can be drawn from this study.

First, a large proportion of ideological messages targeting the outgroup were observed in violent, nonviolent, and comparison groups.

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