On 23 November 2023, a 16-year-old student entered his school in Sapopemba, in the eastern zone of São Paulo, and shot four classmates with a .38 caliber revolver. Three were injured, and 17-year-old Giovanna Bezerra da Silva died instantly. The crime, known as the “Sapopemba Massacre,” was orchestrated from across the Atlantic, according to an investigation by the Portuguese Public Prosecutor’s Office. Although Brazil has managed to halt the rise in school attacks, it still struggles to address online threats and content that glorifies the perpetrators of such crimes.
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Who Planned It
The investigation, led by prosecutor Felismina Carvalho Franco, accuses a now 18-year-old teenager using the codename “Mikazz” on social media of inciting the attack. According to the report, Mikazz headed a digital organization called The Kiss, where members shared pro-Nazi videos and child pornography, and streamed scenes of self-mutilation, animal torture, and school shootings. The Sapopemba massacre was broadcast live to group members on the Discord platform. Mikazz, a resident of Santa Maria da Feira in the Porto metropolitan area, was arrested.
More Than One Massacre
Authorities say Mikazz encouraged several violent attacks, including the Sapopemba massacre and three other attempted school massacres in Brazil that were foiled by police. In these cases, teenagers from Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, and another girl from Sapopemba were found armed with knives. The indictment claims that Mikazz incited all four attacks to raise the profile of his extremist group. He gave detailed instructions to the Sapopemba shooter, including how to position the camera to maximize the visual impact for viewers.
Drop in Attacks
Although Brazil has curbed the rise in physical attacks, it continues to face challenges in dealing with digital threats and content glorifying school attackers. A new study by the Brazilian Public Security Forum, in partnership with data firm Timelens, reveals a 360% increase in social media posts threatening schools between 2021 and 2025. The number of current attacks dropped to five in 2024, compared to 12 in 2023 and 10 in 2022. In all cases, the aggressor was male.
Social Media
The survey confirms an existing concern among experts: hate speech that was once limited to the deep web is now increasingly surfacing on mainstream social media platforms. In 2023, 90% of posts with this type of content were on the deep web. So far in 2025, this share has dropped to 78%, indicating greater public visibility for such extremist content.
Increase in Praise
The study also warns that 2025 may reach a record high in hateful posts targeting students, teachers, and schools. In 2024, there were 105,000 such posts, and by 21 May of this year, 88,000 had already been recorded. The glorification of school attackers is also on the rise: in 2021, during the Realengo massacre, just 0.2% of online comments praised the perpetrator. In 2025, that figure soared to 21%. In Brazil’s most recent school attack, a 14-year-old girl was killed by a classmate in Minas Gerais. Following the incident, 27.1% of social media comments were favorable toward the attacker.
Analysis:
The Sapopemba school shooting and its digital orchestration from abroad expose a growing threat in Brazil: the fusion of real-world violence with online radicalization networks. While the drop in physical school attacks suggests some success in prevention, the explosive growth of online threats and the normalization of hate speech among youth point to a shifting and deeply rooted problem.
What is most concerning is how extremist groups are evolving into digital communities that provide social reinforcement, instructions, and even live broadcasts of violent acts. The case of “Mikazz” and its influence over multiple foiled attacks in Brazil shows how quickly these ideologies spread and how effectively they recruit and manipulate vulnerable adolescents.
