The boogaloo movement is associated with a distinctive look and discordant politics. In April, boogaloos appeared at protests in Hawaiian shirts and light infantry attire accessorized with surfing and white-nationalist paraphernalia as well as semiautomatic rifles. Yet the boogaloos first appeared online.
Our research group studies extremism and polarization on the Internet, from the anti-vaccination movement to the Islamic State to white nationalists. We have been tracking the boogaloo movement for about a year. In that time, it has grown significantly. As the graph below shows, the number of individuals following boogaloo pages on Facebook has grown by over 50 percent in the past year, with the growth rate increasing in recent months.