On 12 August 2021, a man in Keyham, Plymouth, UK, killed his mother and four other people (including a three-year-old child) with a shotgun, before killing himself. His gun had been removed and his licence revoked in 2020 after a report of threatening behaviour. Both had then been returned in July 2021. It is claimed that the killer had been inspired by online InCel (involuntary celibate) forums, where marginalized men rant about women who reject them. Keyham is also one of the poorest neighbourhoods in England and is situated next to a large military base. Indeed, many factors will have contributed to the killer's choices. ‘Mass shootings’ are rare in the UK (one occurring every decade or so). Countries with higher incidents of ‘mass shootings’ have similar internet access to other countries not experiencing mass shootings, but do have higher levels of social inequality and poverty, and greater access to guns. Explaining rare events is complicated. Most visitors to InCel forums do not become killers. Most socially excluded people do not turn to crime. Perhaps the internet ‘contributed’ to this person's actions; however, if the killer's online rants had been identified, his licence might not have been returned. Yet, mass shootings happened before the internet. They certainly have not stopped because of it. However, checking a person's online profile for ‘hate speech’ might in future make it easier to identify people who should not have access to guns. As such, if digital networks can promote hate, they might also be used to reduce violence. Simply blaming the internet may blind us to possible solutions to problems, solutions to which digital networks might also contribute.

In 2016, a man dressed as a ‘killer clown’ robbed a post office in Middleton on Teesdale in County Durham, England; this was the first ‘case’ of ‘killer clown’ crime in the United Kingdom that year, allegedly following on from an internet publicized spate of ‘killer clown attacks’ that had begun earlier that year, originating in the United States. Can the internet make you go bad? Perhaps the person concerned chose a ‘killer clown’ outfit in which to commit the robbery because such disguises were ‘trending’ at the time, but it is less likely that the perpetrator chose to rob a post office due to online influence.