The cryptic numbers in the Facebook post attributed to Alek Minassian — C23249161 — are the same as his service number with the Canadian military, a defence department source confirmed to the Star Wednesday.

Minassian was in the Canadian Armed Forces between Aug. 23 and Oct. 25, 2017 and did just 16 days of recruit training before he voluntarily withdrew. But on Monday afternoon, the identification number assigned to him by the military appeared in an enigmatic Facebook post that referenced an “incel rebellion” and invoked U.S. mass murderer Elliot Rodger.

The post began circulating on social media shortly after a rented van drove into pedestrians on Yonge St. south of Finch Ave., killing 10 people and leaving 14 injured. Minassian, 25, now faces 10 charges of first-degree murder.

“Private (Recruit) Minassian Infantry 00010, wishing to speak to Sgt 4chan please. C23249161,” read the message. “The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!”

Read more:

‘He was the best hire we never hired’ recruiter says of Alek Minassian

‘Virulent and hateful’ incel movement condemned by Edmonton women’s rights advocates

Sunny spring day turns to unforgettable tragedy as van driver kills 10 and injures 14

While many people have questioned the authenticity of the Facebook post — including media manipulation experts, who warned of online hoaxes in the wake of mass killings — few people can access Minassian’s service number, which is akin to a social insurance number and subject to privacy restrictions. The Facebook post has also been acknowledged by Toronto police and verified as legitimate by Facebook.

“Incel” refers to the “involuntarily celibate,” or men who feel frustrated by their inability to find romantic relationships or sex. In many online communities, “Chads and Stacys” refer to attractive people who have no problem meeting partners of the opposite sex.

Online incel forums are frequently characterized by misogynistic rhetoric and hatred towards women. According to an online petition last year, urging Reddit to shut down its incel subreddit, “incels believe that they are entitled to the experience of sex.”

“This flawed way of thinking leads most incels to self-professed depression that has turned into bitterness that floods the subreddit’s posts,” the petition stated. “All sexually active women are routinely called whores. Violence against women is encouraged. Rape against women is justified and encouraged.”

An excerpt from TPS press conference on Tuesday, April 24th, 2018, 3:00PM. Video courtesy of TPS via YouTube.

The petition wrote that many incel commenters have “canonized” Elliot Rodger, a 22-year-old California man who killed six people in 2014, shortly after posting a video ranting about his sexual frustration and the women who rejected him. He is sometimes referred to as “Saint Elliot,” with some incels even calling on others to follow in Rodger’s footsteps.

On the website We Hunted the Mammoth, which tracks online misogyny, writer David Futrelle noted that commenters on the forum Incels.me have celebrated the Toronto van attack, writing posts like “I really want it to be true that the guy was an incel lmao” and “joyous day.”

“The incel revolution has begun,” wrote one commenter, who changed his avatar to a picture of Minassian.

Another commenter, writing under the username BlkPillPres, mused that perhaps Minassian saw his post from late March, where he hoped for more mass killings.

“This s—t right here is lifefuel for me and exactly what I was talking about,” BlkPillPres wrote about the van attack in Toronto. “This is literally what I asked for, finally somebody breaking the mold.”

The BlkPillPres posts were screengrabbed by Futrelle but were no longer accessible on the forum as of Wednesday. This week, a forum administrator posted a message that “being incel has no relation whatsoever with violence, aggression, misogyny, or any other negative connotation.”

The administrator also wrote that Minassian has never posted on Incels.me and “as far as we are concerned, no one on the forum heard of him before these latest news.” “While he may have called himself an incel, he does NOT in any way represent the community,” the administrator wrote.

There have been reports that Minassian had a form of autism called Asperger syndrome, though experts stress the neurobiological disorder is not linked to a propensity for violence.

Former classmates have described Minassian as a “socially awkward” person who often twitched or fidgeted. They said he was part of a special needs program in high school before attending Seneca College, where he demonstrated a knack for computer programming.

To get into the military, Minassian would have passed a process that involves online applications, aptitude testing, a medical and an interview to determine an applicant’s fitness for military service. Potential recruits are required to write the Canadian Forces Aptitude Test — multiple choice questions that test verbal skills and problem solving — to help determine what trades they are best suited for.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

According to Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, the military saw no red flags during Minassian’s recruitment.

“We have a very rigorous process when it comes to how people are selected, everything from the medicals, to the security clearances that are needed, the interviews, the testing process,” Sajjan said Wednesday.

“We want to select the best of Canada,” he said.

But Minassian struggled during his short stint in the regular force basic training. He was assigned to the infantry, a choice that may been influenced by the results of his aptitude test, a source told the Star.

His performance was judged to be below average in training, a gruelling period when new soldiers are schooled in the regimen and rigours of military life.

“You have to adapt to a different way of being and for good reason. That’s how militaries are run. To get people to obey orders, you need that,” the source said. “It wasn’t for him.”

In the Facebook post on Minassian’s profile, the message is directed at “Sgt 4chan,” a reference to an online message board that has become notorious for its association with trolling culture and far-right views.

There is extensive overlap between 4chan and incel communities, said Whitney Phillips, an assistant professor with Mercer University who studies online communities and media manipulation.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other politicians were asked about the possibility the suspect in Toronto’s deadly van attack was targeting women, after a Facebook post was attributed to Alek Minassian. (The Canadian Press)

She was deeply skeptical of the Facebook post when it first emerged on social media — including on 4chan — because there has been a “standard and steady effort” over the past decade to connect 4chan with mass killings and other atrocities.

Members of 4chan have long delighted in tricking journalists into mentioning the website in their news reports, to the point where claiming a 4chan connection in the wake of a high-profile atrocity has become a recurring trope or “meme” online. The meme is then further amplified by inaccurate media outlets reporting the alleged 4chan connection.

On Wednesday, Phillips said she is devastated for the victims in Toronto and their families. And if the Facebook post is indeed real, it is also “devastating for all of us.”

“If it’s true, it’s internet culture, fully metastasized,” Phillips wrote in an email. “If it’s true, it’s the collapsing of all boundaries between online play and offline terror. If it’s true, it is also a logistic question: what responsibility will Facebook now have, or Twitter now have, in responding to similar kinds of rhetoric within these and other communities?

“There are other concerns too, about precedent. The social media contagion effect is real,” she continued. “How this story is reported will shape the contours of the meme. We therefore need to be very careful about how the story is reported.”

There is nothing new about young men feeling sexually frustrated or gathering to complain about their problems, said Dr. James Cantor, a clinical psychologist and sex researcher with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

But what is new in 2018 is the existence of social media and the toxic echo chamber it can sometimes create. “They can gather in larger numbers than ever before and talk themselves into crazier and crazier ideas,” he said. “Or at least, the idea stopped sounding so crazy to them because they’ve put together a community where that’s all that they hear.”