WatchPeopleDie (WPD)

Key Points

• WatchPeopleDie (WPD) is a gore forum where users can post and view real images and videos of graphic violence, including murders, torture, and executions. It is by far the most popular and well-known gore site online with over 5.5 million registered users.
• A number of attacks in recent years have been linked to WPD participants. Since 2024, the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) has identified at least eight mass attackers who were active on WPD prior to carrying out their acts of violence.
• Footage from dozens of extremist mass killings is accessible on WPD, including the December 2025 Bondi Beach attack in Australia, the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, terror attacks in Israel, the May 2022 Buffalo Tops supermarket attack in New York, and the August 2019 El Paso mass shooting in Texas.
• Content depicting violence by foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) and drug cartels is extremely popular on WPD.
• WPD is part of the larger “Marsey Network,” a series of forums and websites that share owners, user bases, corporate structures, and revenue streams.
• Bigotry and toxicity pervade the Marsey subculture across the network's forums, which host a deeply troubling array of emoji normalizing antisemitism, racism, and white supremacist ideology.
• WPD's mascot, Marsey the Cat, is frequently paired with violent and extremist content elsewhere online, especially in memetic violence spaces related to the Com and the True Crime Community (TCC) on platforms like TikTok and Tumblr.

Introduction

Several WPD users have committed or plotted violent attacks in recent years. Since 2024, COE has identified at least eight mass attackers who were active on WPD prior to their attacks.

In February 2026, COE analysts located a WPD profile belonging to the 18-year-old shooter who opened fire at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia, Canada, killing at least seven people and injuring more than 25 others, with two additional victims found dead at a nearby home. The shooter died by apparent suicide. The attacker’s WPD profile contained weapons content and a history of active engagement with death and violence videos. 

Two months before the attack, the Tumbler Ridge shooter viewed the WPD profile associated with the 2024 Abundant Life Christian School shooter, who regularly consumed, engaged with, and shared white supremacist content.

In September 2025, COE analysts discovered the WPD account of a 16-year-old shooter who opened fire at Evergreen High School in Colorado, wounding two students before dying by suicide. On WPD, the shooter’s profile image included white supremacist imagery, such as SS bolts, a Sonnenrad, and a depiction of a skull mask commonly referred to as a “siege” mask. The attacker also commented on posts referencing mass shootings at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City in 2017, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, and Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in 2022. The shooter appears to have joined WPD in December 2024, shortly after the 2024 Abundant Life Christian School shooting and before the shooting attack at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee. Both perpetrators of those attacks were also active on WPD.

These attacks reflect a broader pattern of WPD users committing or plotting violent attacks. The WPD site and its owners benefit from such violence, which drives traffic to the forum.

WPD and the Marsey Network

WPD is a gore forum where users can post and view real images and videos of violence, including murders, torture, executions, explosions, beheadings, suicides, dismemberments, and accidents. In its current iteration, WPD has been live since 2022. Previously, WPD was an active Reddit community. It was banned from the site in March 2019 after a user posted clips from the livestreamed Christchurch shooting by white supremacist killer Brenton Tarrant.

Today, the forum resembles Reddit, with boards organized around specific types of violence and gore, as well as social spaces. As of August 2026, WPD had over 5.5 million registered users, though many browse without logging in or creating an account. Among gore forums, WPD is by far the most well-known and maintains the largest user base.

WPD is part of the larger “Marsey Network,” a series of forums and websites that share founders, owners, internet infrastructure, corporate structures, revenue streams, and user bases. These forum sites are owned and operated by WPD Media LLC, a limited liability company that until July 2026 was registered in Utah but has since moved to Delaware. The Marsey Network of forums operates on “MarseyWorld,” a distinctive forum software developed for the network’s sites.

The Marsey Network launched in May 2021 with the website rDrama, a forum dedicated to generating online drama that has engaged in trolling campaigns and targeted harassment. The site was founded as a less moderated refuge for users fleeing the subreddit of the same name, r/drama, banned amid scrutiny from Reddit administrators for similar behavior. The community brought with it an irony-steeped subculture, “terminally online” vernacular, pervasive casual bigotry, and its mascot, Marsey the Cat, all of which would come to define the wider network.

The network also includes WatchPeopleLive, a partner forum to WPD with shared accounts that includes much of the same social content and spaces without the gore, where users discuss topics like politics, religion, and music. The network also operates RedScarePod, a forum site dedicated to the political podcast, Red Scare, hosted by Dasha Nekrasova and Anna Khachiyan. In 2025, the podcast hosted white supremacist Nick Fuentes, during which the group espoused antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Violence and the Marsey Subculture

A Mascot for Violence

Because of WPD, Marsey the Cat has become a recognizable mascot for violent and extremist content elsewhere online. On platforms like TikTok and Tumblr, Marsey can regularly be found, particularly in memetic violence spaces related to the True Crime Community (TCC) and the Com — a loosely organized network that engages in hacking, ransomware, cyberstalking, swatting, sextortion, and the distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Notably, one of the attackers in the white supremacist accelerationist shooting in May 2026 at the San Diego Islamic Center made a reference to Marsey online. On a popular incel forum where he frequently posted, the attacker’s profile picture consisted of Marsey dressed as the 2022 Buffalo Tops supermarket shooter, depicting the gear and shotgun he wielded in his attack. While COE analysts have been unable to locate a WPD profile belonging to either shooter in the San Diego attack, this association with Marsey indicates that at least one of them may have been a WPD user.

In one extreme Com-related case in May 2026, COE analysts found a depiction of Marsey drawn in blood on a wall — a practice known as “blood signs,” where a victim is encouraged by an abuser to write with their own blood to demonstrate loyalty and submission. The depiction of Marsey was accompanied by the words “WPD” and “Marsey,” along with various symbols and phrases associated with the Com and Satanism.

Marsey the Cat is a character created in 2016 by a Ukrainian artist for the encrypted chat service Telegram as part of a sticker pack competition. Marsey has since been adopted by the Marsey Network of sites as a mascot.

Marsey and WPD also have a strong association with the TCC, an internet subculture centered on an intense fascination with violent criminals and mass killers, ranging from fandom to outright glorification, veneration, and even emulation in more extreme cases. On platforms like TikTok and Tumblr, Marsey can regularly be found in TCC-related content. In one such example, a user associated with the TCC on TikTok shared an image of their bedroom wall with various images — a common practice among TCC adherents — that includes at least five depictions of Marsey alongside symbols associated with violence and extremism, including two Totenkopf images and a reference to the Sinaloa Cartel (CDS).

In another TCC TikTok, a user posted a slideshow of images of weapons and tactical gear with depictions of Marsey overlaid. In the comments, one user wrote, “Can’t wait to see your stream on wpd,” and another wrote, “cant wait to see you on wpd.” Both comments were liked by the post’s author and reference the growing trend of livestreaming acts of mass violence among TCC followers who carry out attacks. In a similar example, a TikTok user — using TCC-related hashtags — shared an image of Marsey with text sharing their “interests,” which included “Tcc,” “Columbine,” and “Wpd.”

Violent Terrorist Propaganda on WPD

Content showing violence perpetrated by foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) and drug cartels is highly popular on WPD, with forum boards dedicated to specific cartels and the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group. High-engagement posts on these boards include footage of suicide bombings, beheadings, mass executions, mass shootings, and instances of torture and murder — many of which were filmed and released by the organizations themselves.

The most viewed IS-related post on WPD shows the December 2018 killings of a Danish woman and a Norwegian woman while camping in Morocco. The current version of this video, viewed over a million times since it was uploaded to WPD three years ago, shows the women's beheadings in slow and graphic detail. The site’s built-in navigation links directly to this footage, listed under “famous videos.” Official site banners include IS-inspired imagery like the terrorist group’s flag. The site also contains an “ISIS Marsey” character.

In October 2025, half a dozen young men were arrested across the United States after plotting to carry out IS-inspired attacks on and around Halloween. In the federal complaint against three Michigan-based plotters, the government noted that one of them had a history of visiting WPD, where he viewed videos of the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, the 2022 Buffalo shooting, and the 2019 Christchurch attack, among others.

Similarly, footage of extremely graphic acts of violence by cartels remains popular on WPD. The site’s “famous videos” include navigation to a section with a “cartel organ extraction [and] cannibalism” video, a “cartel flaying [and] torturing” video, and a clip of Northeast Cartel members “flaying [the] head” and “removing [the] heart” of a rival cartel member.

WPD also contains a “CJNG Marsey” character, dressed as a member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), and official site banners that include the logo of the cartel and others.

Many of WPD’s most popular posts also contain footage from extremist killings. The second most-popular post of all time on the site — at nearly 900,000 views — is a “massive compilation” of every “mass shooting caught on film,” and includes footage from dozens of extremist mass killings like the May 2026 San Diego Islamic Center shooting; the December 2025 Bondi Beach attack, which the post refers to as “yet another banger”; a video compilation of the Hamas-led October 7 terrorist massacre in Israel; the October 2022 Bratislava LGBTQ+ bar shooting; the May 2022 Buffalo Tops supermarket attack; the October 2019 Halle, Germany synagogue attack; the August 2019 El Paso shooting; the April 2019 Poway Chabad shooting; the March 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand massacre; the June 2016 Pulse nightclub attack; and the July 2011 Norway attacks. 

Bigotry, Toxicity, and the Marsey Subculture

The Marsey Network hosts a deeply troubling array of hateful emoji that normalize antisemitism, racism, and white supremacist ideology across the various forums. These include multiple depictions of the Marsey character as Adolf Hitler, a "Jew Hunter" Marsey, and a variety of other Hitler- and Nazi-themed emoji.

The platform also features the "Happy Merchant" character, a well-documented antisemitic caricature, alongside other "Merchant" emoji that surface when users search for "Jew." Racist content targeting Black people is equally prevalent, including a Marsey emoji using the n-word, a George Floyd Marsey character, and a Black Lives Matter fist emoji renamed "N**** Lives Matter." Together, these examples illustrate how the Marsey Network is a vehicle for embedding virulent hate into seemingly playful, cartoon-based content, making bigotry more accessible and shareable across its user base.

How WPD Benefits from Violence

WPD regularly benefits from violent attacks and mass casualty events, particularly in terms of web traffic. Google Analytics demonstrates this, with searches for “WatchPeopleDie” and “WPD” spiking when violent events take place. In September 2025, searches for these terms jumped to their highest levels in a year following the assassination of political commentator Charlie Kirk. The traffic surge led to the site crashing as users flocked to the forum to view the various violent videos and images from the killing, and users who managed to post on the site during the outage later received “Charlie Kirk Survivor” badges. Days after the assassination, a site administrator shared data showing that the site received nearly 14 million total page views in that seven-day period, and wrote, “We had a huge spike of traffic after the Trump assassination attempt and thought we had things covered. But after the Kirk assassination, we discovered that was not the case.” This administrator then used the assassination to solicit donations to the site.

More recently, Google Analytics showed that searches for the site increased in volume in June 2026, when a mass shooting took place in Montreal, Canada, and in May 2026, when the San Diego Islamic Center attack was carried out. 

Currency and Gambling

The Marsey Network of forums operates on “MarseyWorld,” a distinctive forum software developed for the network’s sites. The software includes two currencies, “Coins” and “Marseybux,” with the former earned through posting and awards (similar to Reddit) and the latter serving as a “premium currency” available to those who donate to the site. Currencies can be spent in each forum's shop or wagered in the casino, creating quasi-economies within the forums, though currency supply and exchange rates tend to be informal and somewhat arbitrary.

Gambling is a highly prevalent activity across the Marsey Network and on WPD, gamifying extreme violence. Each forum has a casino featuring slot machines, roulette, blackjack, and “Lottershe” (a lottery). User-against-user poker is also available, and the forums host regularly scheduled poker games. Forum users can gamble their Coins or Marseybux in these games of chance, and their bets are generally listed in their profile bank statement. There is no public means of cashing out winnings for real-world currency or cryptocurrency, but both currencies can be used to buy items such as profile or username effects, and functional items called awards in each forum's shop. Awards can be applied to oneself, gifted to another user or attached to a post, and can be beneficial or detrimental. Examples include “Confetti,” which overlays a confetti animation on a post; “Rehab,” which bans the recipient from gambling; “Shit,” which destroys 150 of the recipient's coins; and “Ban,” which bars the user from the platform for a day. Functional awards have generated notable donations and controversy. In March 2024, a user who later claimed to have membership in WPD Media LLC donated $1,500 to rDrama and used the resulting Marseybux to purchase dozens of Ban and Shit awards, effectively bankrupting and permanently banning another user.

WPD also hosts the “Marseypass,” which emulates season pass systems used in a variety of popular live service games, further gamifying gore and incentivizing posts on the site. Rewards are given as certain XP (experience points awarded for making posts) tiers are met, with “double XP” and exclusive rewards offered to site patrons — those who donate to the site on a monthly basis. 

Violent Attackers on WPD

Since 2024, COE has identified at least eight attackers who were active on WPD prior to their acts of targeted violence, some of whom were mass shooters:

1. February 2026, British Columbia, Canada: Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, opened fire at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia, Canada, killing at least seven people and injuring more than 25 others. Two additional individuals were found dead at a nearby home. The shooter was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. COE analysts located an account on WPD, believed to belong to the individual, containing images and videos of several weapons. Beyond posting weapons content, the shooter actively consumed death and violence videos on WPD. Two months before the attack, they viewed the WPD profile associated with the 2024 Abundant Life Christian School shooter who regularly consumed, engaged with, and posted white supremacist content.
2. November 2025, Jakarta, Indonesia: A 17-year-old student bombed a high school in Kelapa Gading, injuring at least 96 people. Authorities recovered toy guns with white supremacist inscriptions at the scene, similar to those used by the 2019 Christchurch mosque killer, the 2022 Buffalo Tops supermarket shooter, and other mass killers. An image from the scene of the attack shows the teen wearing a white T-shirt with “Natural Selection” printed on it, a reference to Columbine shooter Eric Harris's attire during his 1999 attack, indicating that the 17-year-old likely engaged with the TCC online. The student allegedly had an account on WPD, where they made a post that read, “gonna shoot up my fuckin school.”
3. September 2025, Evergreen, Colorado: Sixteen-year-old Desmond Holly attacked Evergreen High School in Colorado, critically wounding two students before killing himself. COE analysts located a WPD account belonging to Holly, where he expressed interest in the manifesto and gear used by the 2022 Tops Buffalo shooter. He also commented on posts about shootings in Parkland (2018) and at a Quebec City mosque (2017). Holly appears to have joined the gore site on December 26, 2024, during the one-month window between the school shootings at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, and Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee.
4. January 2025, Nashville, Tennessee: Solomon Henderson, 17, committed a shooting at Antioch High School, killing one and wounding another, before killing himself. On WPD, COE analysts located a mass shooter “fan edit” video shared by Henderson venerating the 2022 Buffalo Tops supermarket shooter that included clips from his livestreamed attack. In his manifesto, Henderson claimed that the Abundant Life Christian School shooter and another attacker inspired his attack.
5. December 2024, Madison, Wisconsin: Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow carried out a school shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School, resulting in two fatalities and six injuries. The 15-year-old shooter died by apparent suicide. On WPD, Rupnow followed accounts dedicated to white supremacist mass killers like Anders Breivik.
6. September 2024, Luton, United Kingdom: Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Prosper murdered his mother, 16-year-old brother, and 13-year-old sister, and planned a mass school shooting that was thwarted by authorities. On WPD, Prosper appears to have made Islamophobic and misogynistic remarks and posted a comment on the profile of another killer, writing, “1 kill.”
7. April 2024, Vantaa, Finland: A 12-year-old opened fire inside the Viertola School, killing one student and injuring two others. According to authorities, the shooter viewed a “school shooting edit” on WPD that included clips from the school shootings at Sandy Hook (2012), Columbine (1999), Suzano (2019), and Uvalde (2022).
8. January 2024, Perry, Iowa: Dylan Butler attacked Perry High School, killing two —  an 11-year-old sixth grader and the school principal — and wounding seven others. Butler, 17 at the time, died by suicide before law enforcement arrived at the scene. Butler expressed reverence for the 1999 Columbine mass killers. Prior to the attack, on WPD, Butler appears to have posted “I might be on this site soon,” and interacted with posts related to the Columbine killings. Butler also followed an account dedicated to the Sandy Hook school shooter, Adam Lanza.