Anti-Semitic, racist fliers appeared on printers March 25 at sites across the campus, making the University of Maryland one of more than a dozen colleges in the country to receive the message on their machines.
The fliers praise global white supremacy, feature swastikas and accuse “the Jews” of destroying the country through “mass immigration and degeneracy,” then direct readers to a website called The Daily Stormer.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, wrote in 2015 that the site is the “brainchild” of supremacist Andrew Anglin. The site receives more than 10,000 visitors daily, according to the center, sometimes topping the oldest and most popular hate site on the Web, Stormfront.
The message appeared on printers in the provost’s office and other locations on campus, not including the president’s office, said university spokesman Brian Ullmann.
University Police spokeswoman Sgt. Rosanne Hoaas confirmed the fliers’ appearance on the campus in a statement Tuesday.
“We condemn the content of the racist fliers, and the University of Maryland Police Department and the Division of Information Technology have looked into the matter,” she wrote. “Security measures are being taken within our printer network to address this issue.”
Andrew Auernheimer, a hacker who goes by “Weev,” claimed responsibility for the fliers, according to a New York Times report Monday. Auernheimer said in an interview with The Times that he sent them to “every publicly accessible printer in North America” and did not target college campuses.
“My motivation is this: White cultures and only white cultures are subject to an invasion of foreigners,” he said to The Times.
In disseminating the fliers, Auernheimer said he did not hack into the printers but activated them using remote access, according to The Times’ report.
Other universities that received the message included Princeton University; the University of Maine; the University of California, Berkley; Smith College; Brown University; the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Northeastern University; DePaul University and Mount Holyoke College, according to media reports.
University President Wallace Loh condemned the message on the fliers in a statement.
“There is no place on this campus, or any other campus, for racism of any kind,” he wrote in a statement. “I urge everyone to reject this hateful message and join us in our efforts to foster an inclusive, tolerant and respectful university community.”
Staff writer Michael Brice-Saddler contributed to this report.
CORRECTION: Due to an reporting error, a previous version of this story misspelled the name of Sgt. Rosanne Hoaas. The article has been updated.
