The internet has replaced door-to-door evangelists with online influencers
It began as just another niche game inside Roblox, an American video-game platform. Players wandered through dark forests, exchanged clues and chatted as they explored. Within these spaces a group of adults steered some children into Discord, an online messaging service. They told them that the game’s geometric symbol had real-world power and could connect them to a “higher state”. Entry to the group’s inner circle required proof of loyalty. Children were asked to film themselves performing a series of tasks. At first the challenges seemed harmless. Over time they became more intrusive, with some children pushed into carving the symbol into their skin.
Incidents like this illustrate how the internet has changed the way cults operate by replacing the door-to-door evangelists and street-corner preachers of the past with online influencers, life coaches and self-styled healers. These new cult leaders target people where they are most vulnerable: alone online.
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