By Steve Neavling
FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday told a U.S. Senate committee that the number of domestic terrorism cases has more than doubled in the past 18 months.
The caseload increased to 2,700 current investigations from about 1,000 since the spring of 2020, Wray told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
“Some of these same people before might have been stewing away in the basement or the attic in one part of the country and not communicating with each other, but today terrorism moves at the speed of social media,” Wray testified. “You have the ability of lone actors, disgruntled in one part of the country to spin up similar like-minded individuals in other parts of the country and urge them into action.”
Wray said that white supremacy represents the “biggest chunk” of racially motivated violent extremism tracked by the FBI.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who also testified, said social media is a “terrain that can so easily propagate misinformation, false information and allow communications to occur among closely affiliated individuals.”
To read Wray’s complete statement before the committee, click here.
