> Begin forwarded message: > > From: Mark > > Trump’s Internet Is Celebrating > The movement behind today’s attempted coup delivered exactly what it has > promised for months on social media. > > By Kaitlyn Tiffany, > The Atlantic > JANUARY 7, 2021 02:00 PM ET > https://www.nextgov.com/ideas/2021/01/trumps-internet-celebrating/171249/ > <https://www.nextgov.com/ideas/2021/01/trumps-internet-celebrating/171249/> > > The internet is real life. > > This was the lesson of Pizzagate in 2016, which made clear that conspiracy > theorizing on message boards can lead to a man carrying a rifle into a > restaurant. This was the lesson of the deadly Charlottesville rally in 2017, > which made clear that online hate is a precursor to offline violence. > > This was the lesson of the Christchurch mosque shootings in 2019, which were > carried out by a terrorist who was radicalized on YouTube and live-streamed > the attack on Facebook. And this was the lesson after Facebook ignored > warnings of a planned militia event that led to a double shooting in Kenosha, > Wisconsin, this summer. And the lesson after armed supporters of QAnon, the > conspiracy theory that views Donald Trump as a savior waging a holy war, were > arrested outside a ballot-counting center in Pennsylvania this fall. > > Since losing his reelection bid, President Trump has been explicitly pushing > conspiracy theories about the election, including specific QAnon talking > points about failed voting machines and an individual poll worker whom the > group has accused of tampering with votes. His refusal to concede has sparked > the #StopTheSteal movement—a broad online coalition of QAnon conspiracy > theorists, Proud Boy militia members, MAGA diehards, and some Republican > politicians. It spent months amping itself up on social media, making plans > to attack its own democracy. > > [Read: The prophecies of Q] > > The movement has now done exactly what it promised. On Wednesday, a mob took > over the Capitol building to stymie the certification of the presidential > election. Members of Congress were told to take cover, and then to evacuate. > One woman was shot and killed. The New York Times reports that the mob > organized on the social-media platforms Parler and Gab, while BuzzFeed News > reports that it also used Facebook. > > The insurrection is the latest and, in some ways, the most alarming lesson in > how online extremism can translate into offline violence, but it should be > the least surprising. It was building in online spaces even before the > election, and has been escalating ever since. The conversations were public, > easily observable, and egged on by the president, who often engaged with them > directly, and whose political career has been defined by whipping up paranoia > and rage on the internet. > > Naturally, the insurrectionists and their supporters have been celebrating > all day. On the pro-Trump site TheDonald.Win—the new home of the banned > Reddit forum r/The_Donald—forum users gathered for a “watch party,” cheering > the mob on. Commenters called for those on the scene to find the “Congress > filth,” and posted all-caps approval: “DEATH TO THE WEAK AND DECADENT > REPUBLIC! HAIL TRUMP!” Some claimed to actually be at the Capitol, though > they could have been posturing for a clearly receptive audience. “I just left > … I had a pitchfork and it was heavy! It was damn amazing to see,” one wrote. > > [Read: Reddit is done pretending The Donald is fine] > > These celebrations were happening even on mainstream platforms. On YouTube, > for example, The Verge found several pro-coup live-streams tagged > #StopTheSteal, broadcasting from outside the Capitol. I watched another > titled, in part, “DC the Day Has Come!!!” that had been running ads and > collecting donations from viewers for three hours. (It was at $1,308 when it > ended.) On Twitter, new tweets with the #StopTheSteal hashtag were posted > every few seconds throughout the day. Users who had been tweeting > #HoldTheLinePatriots ever since Election Day were still doing so, but now > speaking literally. QAnon believers tweeted that what they were seeing was > just like a movie, and the greatest one they’d ever seen. As of 11 a.m. ET on > Thursday, many “Stop the Steal” Facebook groups were still online. > > Now major platforms have to sift through the mess and make decisions about > what they’re willing to tolerate and enable. Though they hesitated to > moderate or deplatform Trump for much of his presidency, he’s pushed them to > somewhat pointed action in the past several months. On Wednesday, Trump > continued to monger conspiracy theories as the mob roamed the Capitol, > tweeting that his vice president lacked the “courage” to illegally hand him > the election. Twitter prevented retweets of Trump’s post about Pence, and > added a warning label noting a “risk of violence.” It did the same when he > tweeted a video telling the mob to go home before adding, “We love you. > You’re very special.” And when he tweeted, shortly after, “These are the > things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so > unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots,” signing off, > “Remember this day forever!” > > Story Continues Below Sponsor Message > > > Twitter later hid these tweets and locked the president’s account until 12 > hours after he deletes them—meaning that he will not be posting again until > morning, and only if he takes them down now. Facebook also took its boldest > stance yet, removing the president’s video, locking him out of his account > for 24 hours, and announcing that it will remove all content that praises the > insurrection. On Thursday morning, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Trump’s > account would be suspended “indefinitely,” and at least until Joe Biden’s > inauguration. “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to > use our service during this period are simply too great,” Zuckerberg wrote, > after admitting that Facebook had been used “to incite violent insurrection > against a democratically elected government.” > > Though radicalization across the internet is an enormous set of complicated > problems, there have already been calls for a quick solve to the most obvious > one: ban Trump. Twitter has been under public pressure to do so for years. > The company declined to comment Wednesday on whether it would remove him from > the platform entirely, but shortly after the election, when I spoke with > several experts on moderation, they speculated that the company would take > that action only if Trump incited violence after leaving office. For now, he > remains president, and his account is protected by an exemption that Twitter > carved out specifically for him. The company’s argument has always been that > a president’s statements are newsworthy, and should be seen by the public, no > matter what they are. > > After this week, it will be even more difficult for Twitter to defend that > position, and for anybody to suggest that tweets are just tweets. > > This article was originally published in The Atlantic. >
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