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Online supporters of President Donald Trump are scattering across smaller social media platforms, fleeing what they see as unfair treatment from Facebook, Twitter and other big tech companies looking to quash disinformation and threats of violence.
The efforts of these mainstream platforms, prompted by the murderous rampage on the U.S. Capitol on Jan.6, are likely to be successful, according to social media and disinformation experts. But the crackdown could send some of Trump’s fiercest supporters to retreat into dark, secret spaces on the internet where conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric run rampant.
“We’re going to see fewer opportunities to radicalize new people” on mainstream platforms, said Kate Starbird, a leading disinformation expert at the University of Washington on Wednesday. “But for those who are already radicalized, or who are already in the rabbit hole with conspiracy theories, it might not make a difference if the places they go to become echo chambers.
For years, traditional tech companies had been the targets of Conservative wrath, with complaints that Facebook and Twitter were carrying out their policies with political bias. The platforms have also been criticized for allowing harmful conspiracy theories and hate speech to flourish on their sites.
Then came an unprecedented response from tech companies to the Capitol Riot, fueled in part by bogus and misleading social media posts that undermined confidence in the U.S. election. Twitter banned Trump’s account, along with 70,000 accounts associated with the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory. Facebook and Instagram have suspended Trump until the end of his term and deleted messages fraudulently claiming the US election was stolen. Snapchat also banned Trump, and YouTube suspended its channel for at least a week on Wednesday.
Some conservative users had briefly taken refuge on Speak, only to see the conservative alternative to Facebook turn grim on Monday when Amazon ceased providing hosting services. Speak sued Amazon for the ban; Amazon responded by arguing that the platform’s “reluctance” to remove posts threatens public safety.
The crackdown prompted many conservative posters to consider more obscure alternative platforms such as Gab, which sold out to Trump supporters. Gab CEO Andrew Torba, who describes himself as an “American Christian and populist entrepreneur,” announced Wednesday that 1.7 million users have signed up in the past four days.
“This is where we take a final stand for our sacred birthright granted by God and affirmed by our founding fathers,” reads a comment shared by Torba.
Other platforms attracting Trump supporters include Signal and Telegram, messaging services already used by individuals and groups with different ideologies around the world, as well as a growing list of lesser-known platforms, such as Rumble, MeWe and CloutHub.
Telegram said on Wednesday it has more than 500 million users, with more than 25 million subscribers since Sunday.
Several Trump’s social media stars banned from mainstream platforms launched their own channels on the service, gaining thousands of subscribers within days. A channel that claims to be run by conservative attorney L. Lin Wood Jr., which littered Twitter with false statements about the election and called for Talk to have Vice President Mike Pence killed, has gained more than 100,000 followers since his first message. posted Monday. QAnon and the far-right channels also saw their membership increase by the thousands this week.
Many of these little sites were already havens for extremists and conspiracy theorists who were kicked out of Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, said Jared Holt, a disinformation researcher with Washington’s think tank, the Atlantic Council.
“In the worst-case scenario, I could imagine that there is potential here for mass radicalization if crowds of people show up on the platforms that have been the playground of extremist movements,” Holt said.
These platforms still only have a fraction of Facebook or Twitter’s audience, which means that it will be more difficult for conspiracy theorists and extremists to get their message out.
“There are trade-offs,” Starbird said of the platform’s crackdown: less disinformation spreading to the general public, but also the risk of concentrating disinformation on much smaller sites with few rules. and little or no moderation of the content.
It’s also possible that some on the far right will take more advantage of the more secure encrypted messaging services offered by Signal, Telegram, and WhatsApp, making it more difficult for researchers, journalists and government officials to watch for signs of threats. , according to James Ludes, a former congressional defense analyst and disinformation expert who heads the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy at Salve Regina University.
“They are still there,” Ludes said. “If we throw all these people into the dark shadow of the internet, they’ll continue to communicate, but the authorities will have a harder time following it.”
Meanwhile, on fringe websites associated with the anti-government movement Boogaloo, planning continues for armed protests in state capitals. Discussions around such protests are present on some social media, Holt said, and in an internal FBI newsletter this week. warned against extremist threats during such events.
The organizers “still intend to move forward,” said Holt. “We still don’t know what to expect in terms of the turnout.”
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