[ad_1]
The diffuse and chaotic nature of online chatter has fueled a climate of fear. Ahead of Joe Biden’s January 20 inauguration, the FBI reportedly warned law enforcement agencies across the country to be on high alert for potentially violent protests in all 50 states in the coming weeks, and gathered intelligence on an armed group planning to travel to DC to stage an uprising on inauguration day. The Pentagon, meanwhile, authorized up to 15,000 National Guardsmen from across the country to deploy to Washington to support local law enforcement before and on January 20.
Representative Conor Lamb (D-PA) said Tuesday morning that he and other lawmakers had been made aware of potential plots surrounding the inauguration. “They were talking about 4,000 ‘patriots’ armed to surround the Capitol and prevent any Democrats from entering,” he said. “They published rules of engagement, which is when you shoot and when you don’t. So it’s an organized group that has a plan. They are determined to do what they do. because I think in their minds, you know, they’re patriots and they’re talking about 1776 and so it’s now a contest of wills. “
The decentralized and chaotic nature in which it spreads complicates efforts to counter extremism. Countless posters – few of which are directly linked to high-profile extremist groups – have proliferated through extremist channels and social media, listing specific dates, times and locations where people gather to fiercely protest the elections. known as “stolen”, mainly in state capitals and federal monuments.
TikTok videos of influencers wearing the Three Percenters logo as avatar, referencing the anti-government militia movement, sparking future protests – even going so far as to post videos of them collecting ammunition and guns, while playing doctored audio suggesting that Trump wants them to target his vice president, Mike Pence.
On Gab and Telegram, two fringe networks frequented by white nationalists and other extremist groups, of mysterious origin Videos of servicemen walking around American cities have also gone viral, with social media users questioning whether such activity was part of supporting Donald Trump’s presidency or the government’s efforts to suppress people’s constitutional rights.
In this environment, several different movements have emerged: the Million Militia March, with a flag sanctifying the supporter of QAnon who died in the assault on Capitol Hill last week; Patriot Action for America, which called on tens of thousands of “patriots” to prevent Democratic lawmakers from entering Capitol Hill on the 16th and 17th; or just a generic march to take back America, with participants free to fill in the blanks as they see fit. The concern among observers of extremism is that just as the Stop the Steal rally has become a magnet for militia members and conspiracy theorist groups – even without the explicit encouragement of the event’s organizers in the MAGA professional activist class – so will these events.
The promotion of the events drew the attention of prominent media and pro-Trump conservative figures, who offered a range of responses, including skepticism that they could be false flag operations organized by the antifa and other leftist groups.
Much of the confusion online has been caused by major social networks cracking down on the most extreme content appearing on their sites. In addition to banning Donald Trump, Facebook and Twitter both kept far-right hashtags from becoming trending and removed many posts promoting potential violence ahead of the Jan.20 inauguration.
Without the largest social media networks to draw on, far-right activists first turned to Parler, the conservative app, to vent their anger and frustration and potentially plan new action. The digital platform was used to stage some of the violence associated with the January 6 Capitol riots and became a central gathering place for Trump supporters who still believed in debunked electoral fraud allegations stemming from the November election, on the basis for an online exam. messages by POLITICO.
But following last week’s violence, Google and Apple quickly banned Parler from appearing in their app stores, and Amazon – whose cloud computing business underpins the operation of many digital services – has kicked the company off its servers. Parler then filed an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon.
In this void, many fringe groups turned to TikTok.
Since the January 6 riots on Capitol Hill, pro-militia groups have flooded China’s-owned video-sharing service, promoting electoral fraud conspiracy theories and accusing Pence of betraying Trump by overseeing certification of the vote from the Electoral College, according to Ciaran O’Connor, a disinformation researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based think tank that tracks hate speech online.
Several TikTok users have posted audio clips of Trump speaking that have been tampered with to appear to be critical of the current vice president. Often the messages were labeled: “Mike Pence is a traitor.” Viral images of the recent Capitol Hill riots, including inflammatory claims that more violence was in store, quickly garnered many views online at the site.
Other TikTok users have gone even further, claiming the president is on the verge of instituting martial law. The InsurrectionAct hashtag, in reference to false claims that Trump had previously called the military, currently has more than 4.4 million views, collectively, on the social media platform.
“TikTok acts as an echo of people’s grievances,” O’Connor said. “Much of this material is being created to promote the activities of the Three Percenter or pro-militia.”
In response, TikTok said it was reviewing the posts POLITICO reported, adding that content or accounts that incite or encourage violence will be removed.
But the app is far from the only place these groups and individuals come together and post. Many, fearing to be examined by the police, have become obscure. As early as November, die-hard extremist groups retreated to invitation-only message boards and encrypted messaging apps, such as Telegram, as they began staging events to protest the loss of Trump. The growth of CB applications – named after CB radio, the informal frequencies that truckers use to communicate with each other – has made it easier for them to coordinate activities in real time.
Although fewer people outside of these networks may radicalize as a result of using invitation-only boards, extremism researchers have found it more difficult to follow these groups. They expressed hope that law enforcement – with their ability to execute warrants and superior technology – nonetheless focused on these entities.
“Most of those looking for this space are in favor of withdrawal because we don’t want to usher in the next generation of supremacists [simply] because we wanted to monitor it, ”said Joan Donovan, research director at the Harvard Shorenstein Center, which studies and monitors the spread of disinformation and extremist ideology online. “There are tradeoffs in every area of research, but it’s an issue that requires real action.”
The sudden surge in law enforcement interest may frighten and deter potential participants from participating in national and national protests. After officials from the FBI and other federal agencies were able to break in and arrest attendees at last week’s event on Capitol Hill – even going so far as to put potential suspects they found on social media to no-fly lists from Washington – it became clear to the wider world of MAGA supporters that they risked serious consequences.
Some militia groups have tried to distance themselves from their own events.
The Boogaloo Bois, an anti-government far-right militia, tried to cancel an event they had organized for the 17th. But even though they warned that the “headlines” had drawn too much attention to Their march, they noted that anyone who wished to protest that day could bring weapons if they wished: “If you can legally carry, you can carry.
In an ironic twist, right-wing media, professional MAGA influencers, and pro-Trump social media groups are now warning their members to avoid these events, albeit with their own conspiratorial spin: that it is reality of false flag operations, either created by the government in an attempt to silence the Conservatives and take away their Second Amendment rights, or by leftist anti-fa plotters hoping to paint a bad image of the MAGA movement, or even by the Chinese government in collaboration with the elites.
“Don’t go to armed capitals, don’t be part of the January 20 protests. It is run by globalists, ”Alex Jones of Infowars warned on Tuesday. “There is no secret plan to turn things around, so Trump wins. All you do is cement things as national terrorists, so Biden can cement a new Patriot Act and come after you.
Natasha Bertrand contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link