Brennan Gilmore didn’t want to post the video online at first. The 39-year-old State Department employee was taking part in an anti-racism demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia, last summer when a car plowed into the crowd, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. The driver, a white nationalist, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

Video of car hitting anti-racist protestors. Let there be no confusion: this was deliberate terrorism. My prayers with victims. Stay home. pic.twitter.com/MUOZs71Pf4 — Brennan Gilmore (@brennanmgilmore) August 12, 2017

Gilmore initially feared the footage would be used for alt-right propaganda, he told me. But he decided to post it on the internet after learning that some commentators were speculating that the attack was an accident. Media outlets around the world quickly shared what he’d filmed and interviewed him about his experience. The next day, his sister called and asked if he’d spoken to his parents.



“My heart kind of sank and I asked what’s going on,” he told me, “and she said, ‘Well, I found this alt-right website that said you were behind the attack, and they had put Mom and Dad’s address online.’ I looked at the link she sent me and they had all my family members’ names and my folks’ address.”

The doxxing of Gilmore was the first shot in what became a constant barrage of harassment and death threats from alt-right groups, conspiracy theorists, and other online commenters for his incidental role in documenting the attack. Conservative websites like InfoWars and The Gateway Pundit published articles that insinuated or outright accused Gilmore of staging the attack.

“The random Charlottesville observer who was interviewed by MSNBC and liberal outlets turns out to be a deep state shill with links to George Soros,” Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft wrote, referring to the billionaire liberal donor, who is a frequent subject of right-wing—and often anti-Semitic—conspiracy theories. “It looks like the State Department was involved in Charlottesville rioting and is trying to cover it up.” InfoWars founder Alex Jones published a video in which he accused Gilmore of being a CIA operative and claims he is paid $320,000 a year by Soros.