Here's what to do — and what happens next — if you learn of violent extremist threats.

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• Extremist threats of anti-government violence are way up since the FBI's Mar-a-Lago raid.
• If you learn of a specific, credible threat, how to best respond can vary, experts say.
• Anonymous threats are best reported to the FBI; local law enforcement is best for handling threats by known individuals.

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Threats of anti-government violence have surged since the FBI raid on Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate — not only on extremist-friendly platforms like 4chan and Gab, but on mainstream sites like TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.

The prompt reporting of a threat — be it made anonymously online, or by a loved one in real life — can save lives.

But when and how should threats be reported, and what happens next?

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Be wary of 'shit-posting'

Experts agree that the first step is decide if what you are seeing rises to the level of an actual threat or if it is just vague, hate-filled rhetoric — known colloquially in extremism monitoring circles as "shit posting."

Law enforcement wants to hear about threats that are credible and specific, according to Elizabeth Neumann, an assistant secretary for threat prevention and security policy at the Department of Homeland Security during the Trump administration.

"It's not just 'I hate the FBI,'" explained Neumann, now chief strategy officer at Moonshot, a London-based agency that analyzes and counters online extremism.

If you know who is making the threat, call local law enforcement

If the person making the threat, or the location of a target, is known, then you should notify local police or whatever law enforcement agency has jurisdiction, the experts say.

Knowing the identity of the person making the threat is an obvious advantage, Neumann said.

"When a loved one calls local law enforcement and talks to another human being and says, 'I have concerns,' then that person can ask followup questions right away," she noted.

"They can make a determination — is this threat imminent? Do we need to get somebody out there right away? Or can this wait until the next business morning?

"These are the kind of things you can do when a human person picks up the phone and calls, rather than someone telling law enforcement about an anonymous post online."

Dropping a dime on a loved one or even on a casual Facebook friend is never easy, Warren Eller, chair of the Department of Public Safety at the John Jay School of Criminal Justice, told Insider.

"It sounds sort of Orwellian, the whole, 'Go and narc out your family members,' but the absolute best thing you can do is go to the local police station," Eller said.

Act quickly, and don't try to intervene yourself, Eller said. Trying to talk the loved one out of any plan for violence may cause them to become alienated and more secretive, he said.

If the threat is anonymous, contact the FBI

But what to do if the person making a threat is doing so anonymously online?

"The problem with most online conversations is you don't know where the user is actually based unless they self-identify," Neumann said.

"So if there is specific information in the post — like 'You know, I'm sitting in Florida right now. I think I'm just going to head over to Mar-a-Lago,' then sure, you could call Florida State Police and say, 'I saw this, and heads up,'" she said.

But these online threats tend to come from people with hidden user identities. Anonymous threats are best reported to the FBI, which has nationwide jurisdiction and the ready tools, both legal and technical, to unveil the poster's identity.

How to submit a tip to the FBI

The FBI does not have a tip line dedicated specifically to extremist threats of anti-government violence, a bureau spokesperson told Insider.

However, people can report such threats to the FBI'S online tip portal or by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI. Tips can be made anonymously.

Moderators for sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram also use these FBI tip resources to report threats they see, and in fact have a legal responsibility to do so, Neumann said.

Eller said reporting any direct threat of violence to the FBI through its tip line "is going to get a pretty quick and sharp intervention."

What happens after you report a threat?

The FBI does the best it can, given the significant volume of reported threats, and moves very quickly to assess if the threats are specific and credible, Neumann agreed.

"It's got to be an ideation of an act of violence at a specific time or at a specific location or against a specific target," Neumann told Insider.

"And then credibility would be evaluated based on looking at the user's history and the context of the conversation. It's hard to fully determine credibility from just one post. But they have analytic tools they use to help with that," she said.

If the threat indeed appears specific and credible, the FBI can ask a court to require the platform to tell them more, including the poster's IP address and geo-location.

Identifying who's behind an anonymous online threat can take days or even weeks. That's why it's so much better when an extremist threat is reported to authorities by someone who actually knows who is making the threat.

The 'knock and talk'

Once the threat-maker's identity is known, law enforcement will often conduct what's known as a 'knock and talk," Neumann said.

An officer or agent will pay the potentially violent person a visit, and tell them, "Hey, we were alerted to this post, or this behavior. Are you aware that if you were to do this, it would be a criminal act?" she said.

"You're basically trying to assess this person. Is it 'Oh, gosh, we've got a problem on our hands?' Or were they just having a bad day and mouthing off? Sometimes they just need to be told, 'You can't rattle off like that because it scares people.'"

More dramatic measures

Depending on the state, law enforcement may be able to seek a court order to quickly remove weapons from the home under a so-called 'red flag' determination.

In cases of an urgent, imminent threat, law enforcement may forego knocking and talking altogether and expeditiously seek an arrest warrant.

It's important to remember, Neumann said, that the vast majority of people spreading violent extremist ideas are not actually violent.

"Most never take action," she noted.

"They use the internet to mouth off and nothing ever happens. But then one person does."