This week, a murder went viral.

Brandon Clark, 21, allegedly killed 17-year-old Bianca Devins, then posted photos of her body on the gaming site Discord, taunting her followers: “You’re gonna have to find somebody else to orbit."

Clark met Devins on Instagram a couple of months ago, according to Utica, N.Y., police, and their relationship grew "intimate."

Devins' death stirred widespread outrage about the proliferation of violent content online as photos of her body were shared on Instagram and the online message board 4chan, according to media reports.

But experts say Devins' case is less about social media and more about how male entitlement and toxic masculinity continue to fuel violence against girls and women.

"This is not an Instagram story. This is a story about dating violence and homicide, about power and control, about a man who felt entitled to take a girl's life and emboldened to post photos of it on a gaming platform," said Cindy Southworth, executive vice president at the U.S. National Network to End Domestic Violence. "People who control their partners don't care if they meet online or in college — they were dating and he killed her. My guess is they were fighting — he was trying to exert control and she was resisting control."

Police say Devins and Clark got into an argument at a concert before her death.

More than half of female homicide victims are killed through intimate partner violence, according to a 2017 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Southworth says hearing that Clark taunted Devins' followers makes him sound like a "classic domestic violence abuser."

"It's about dominating her world and wanting to be the only person who is important," she said.

Why would someone broadcast their own crime?

The way the alleged murder was publicized feels uniquely of the Internet age.

"I think obviously through [Clark] posting things ... through social media post-killing, that was his way of generating attention and generating fame for himself," said Utica Police Sgt. Michael Curley.

However, experts question possible motives and pre-Internet patterns.

"Flaunting crimes is not new behavior. Social media has just given those behaviors a new forum with greater amplification," said Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center. "The sharing of the girl’s dead body on social media could be seen as an act of showing off and an attempt to reclaim power to feel in control."

Evelyn Stratmoen was the lead author on a 2018 study which found some men show aggression when their romantic advances are rejected.

"A part of masculinity is connected to your social status. If that's been threatened or lowered in some way, a man may try and regain it," Stratmoen said. "So in this case, it wouldn't be good enough for him to simply kill her ... he has to record it and then show his peers."

Clark is not the first to allegedly broadcast his crimes. In 2017, several men sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl in an attack that was streamed on Facebook Live. In 2012, Derek Medina fatally shot his wife Jennifer Alfonso and then posted a bloody photo of her body on Facebook. He wrote that he was forced to kill Alfonso after suffering years of physical abuse. A judge ruled there was no evidence that Medina had “suffered any cycle of battering.” Medina was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

"They really expect viewers to empathize with them, to think they're entitled to teach her a lesson," said Lori Andrews, a law professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology and author of "I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did: Social Networks and the Death of Privacy."

Rutledge calls such sharing a "misguided attempt to achieve social validation and feel special."

"The drive for these sources of 'admiration' override any concerns of being caught," she said.

Incels respond

And admiration Clark got.

Many users online who saw Clark's posts reported him to police. But some weren't horrified by the taunts or sickened by the images. They were laudatory.

Some self-identified incels ("involuntary celibate," a term to describe men who are angry women won't have sex with them) praised Clark. One user on the website incel.co, wrote, "her death pleases me." Another said, "Honestly, based on screenshots the thot [that ho over there] was a horrible person anyway and reaped what she sowed."

A user with an avatar of Elliot Roger — who killed six people near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2014, and wrote a manifesto in which he blamed women for his loneliness — wrote "he orbits her for god knows how long, she belittles him makes him feel like human sh*** and treats him this way."

Experts say many posts from self-identified incels are misogynistic and violent. Their chatter may be extreme online, but experts say these posts reflect views about women's inferiority that make them vulnerable to male aggression in real-life.

"I think there is an especially intense thing going on against women. Men are fighting for their maleness, fighting for other men, and they are committing these acts and getting a lot of pats on the back for it," said Andrews.

Southworth says it's essential for boys and men to see girls and women as equals.

"The message from an early age must be that healthy, respectful discourse is sexy. If you raise children to see that throughout their lives ... they are less likely to dominate and harm another, whether that be a female partner or another member of a marginalized community. Help them see that they are equals, that they are peers, no matter what."

PSYCHOLOGISTS:'Traditional masculinity' harmful

If you are a victim of domestic violence, The National Domestic Violence Hotline allows you to speak confidentially with trained advocates online or by the phone (800-799-7233), which they recommend for those who think their online activity is being monitored by their abuser. They can help survivors develop a plan to achieve safety for themselves and their children.