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- Alistair Coleman (Alistair Coleman), Shayan Sardarizadeh (Shayan Sardarizadeh)
- BBC International Media Watch
Image source,fake images
Some far-right Trump supporters originally called for a full-scale armed protest before the day of the president’s inauguration, but this has not happened so far because some related groups appear to have changed their minds.
A flyer circulated on Gab, a similar Twitter platform popular with far-right groups, called for armed protests to take place in Washington and 50 state capitals prior to Joe Biden’s inauguration. These plans prompted the FBI to issue a warning.
However, until recently, these appeals have started to change, and new statements have started to appear on some avant-garde platforms: that the plans for these armed protests are actually the FBI or the left-wing organizations “Antifa (Operation Antifascist) “and” Black Lives Matter “. It is also a “trap” set by supporters of “.
Some of this type of discussion has already appeared on open and relatively less popular online platforms. Many Trump supporters in right-wing and conspiracy theory groups were kicked out of Facebook and Twitter after the congressional riots on January 6 and later relocated to these locations.
After the relevant warnings were issued, most of the armed rallies that were originally promoted have not occurred until now.
On Sunday (January 17), despite the previous violent panic, a small number of armed protesters appeared outside state capitals in several states, including Michigan and Ohio.
Those who have appeared are not people who wholeheartedly support Trump, but mainly members of the extreme liberal movement “Boogaloo Bois” (Boogaloo Bois), whose supporters advocate the armed overthrow of the government.
Although there are still people who believe in baseless allegations of voter fraud, many Trump supporters seem to have accepted the reality that Biden will be president on Wednesday. Although some people claim that they will never recognize Biden as their president.
In addition to new information online warning people not to hold armed protests in Washington, DC, and elsewhere, there are still some posts from fanatical supporters of the current president calling for a “guerrilla war.”
Alex Newhouse, head of the research team at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism (Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism), said that the reason why there are no armed protests may be the people. “After January 6, I still feared plus the repression by the forces of order. “
He also warned of another type of threat in the congressional riots: “The degree of desensitization to concepts like race wars, civil wars and political violence in these chat rooms means that even a small group of 1% of followers who take this in Serious can also indicate the possibility of more individual extreme violent actions. “
Image source,fake images
Some influential members of “Anonymous Q” were among the crowd attacking the Capitol.
So what about the unfounded “QAnon” conspiracy theory, what about this group that has been instructed by so many people to go radical and some people are involved in the attack on Congress?
Supporters of “Anonymous Q” are still convinced that with the help of the military, Trump will have some way to successfully nullify the election results on inauguration day.
They believe Trump can use the Insurrection Act, a very rarely used bill enacted in 1807 to allow the president to send troops to the United States.
However, there is no evidence that this can happen.
Believers of the conspiracy theory have also been sharing some fake or modified photos and videos, claiming that the fence around the Capitol – the purpose is to ensure the safety of those attending the inauguration ceremony and prevent a repeat of the riots of the January 6 – in fact It is a military prison, used to trap Biden and members of the so-called “deep government.”
The paranoid thoughts are getting stronger. Some groups on alternative platforms that publicly advocated for violence on January 6 are now voicing their concerns out loud. Government agents or left-wing activists have already infiltrated them.
The owners and administrators of the right-wing social media platforms have posted messages asking members not to post to promote violence.
Image source,fake images
After mainstream social apps banned supporters of the new Trump, they found a place on alternative online platforms.
Threats of violence against the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi and Republican Vice President Mike Pence, whose groups expected him to revoke the election results, remain widespread.
Mina al-Lami, a jihadism expert at BBC Monitoring, said moving the meetings from the main platforms represents a risk. He saw similarities with Islamic armed groups, which had also suffered similar repression.
“Members of far-right fringe groups can now go beyond the radar and enter a closed space, using peer-to-peer encryption technology,” he said. This is a very secure method of exchanging information. “Your ideas of radicalization will not be available. Suppress and watch.”
After the violence in Washington, the social media giants took steps to remove the “Anonymous Q” group, but they soon rebuilt elsewhere.
In Gab, the group “Anonymous Q” now has more than 500,000 members. A similar new channel on Telegram has more than 100,000 subscribers.
At the same time, stories appeared in some unexpected places about the spread of conspiracy theories and possibly incitement to violence. TikTok, a short video platform that is extremely popular with young people, has also seen a large number of short videos of pro-Trump armed groups.
Ciaran O’Connor, a fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, an think tank that focuses on extremism and hate groups, said the videos of armed groups on TikTok are concerning.
Users have been sharing images of these group members preparing firearms and spreading false information that President Trump has used counterinsurgency laws.
O’Connor said extremist supporters have been using the TikTok platform’s slower tuning mechanism, which means these videos can stay online for a long time before they are removed due to violation of the TikTok service agreement. platform.
After the cleanup of the main platforms, some new Trump groups with more violent and conspiracy theories may have disappeared on the Internet, but this does not mean they have disappeared.
They realize that they are already under the close surveillance of the American authorities, but they prepare to dig a meter into the ground and fight for a long time.
