Right Wing Calls to Celebrate January 6th Gives a Quiet Response


Last month, former President Donald J. Trump’s one-time campaign aide posted on Facebook, Twitter, Gab and other social media sites. for the first anniversary January 6 riot in the US CapitalHe wrote that there will be candlelight vigils in 20 cities to honor those who raided the building on Thursday.

“January 6 was America’s Tiananmen Square,” said Matt Braynard, Trump’s former campaign aide and founder of the right-wing organization Look Ahead America, in a post in Gab. “From coast to coast, join us in flagging this lie with #J6vigils.”

Responses were sparse. Seventy-eight people liked the message and 21 people shared it.

The post was an example of what right-wing groups and supporters of Mr. Trump were discussing to commemorate the January 6 anniversary: ​​scattered, local, and likely small gatherings. According to a review by The New York Times of recent posts by right-wing groups on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Gab, and Gettr, online chatter about anniversary celebrations and rallies has increased in recent weeks, but the posts haven’t garnered much buzz and turned into sizable real-world efforts on Thursday. it doesn’t seem very likely.

Most online chats have instead focused on meetings of specific groups in places like Dallas and Phoenix. A local chapter of the far-right Proud Boys in Miami said it plans to hold a protest Thursday to honor those arrested after raiding the Capitol, according to a post on the Telegram messaging app. In Beverly Hills, a group dedicated to protesting the mask requirement said on Telegram that it is planning a rally for January 6 to be renamed after January 6. Ashli ​​BabbittHe was killed by federal officers while raiding the Capitol building.

Violence and weapons were rarely mentioned in the posts. The groups mostly focused on positioning the January 6 rebels as heroes and martyrs, encouraging people to push local political leaders towards the far-right agenda. The language in the posts is also silenced, urging supporters to consider long-term goals like stopping the mask and vaccine requirements.

Efforts to hold an anniversary protest in Washington on Thursday also received little attention online, according to The Times review.

“Stay out of Washington, this is nothing but a trap,” the Proud Boys’ Ohio member wrote on Telegram on Monday. “Federal agents will be there in disguise to arrest anyone who shows up.”

Another member said, “What’s the point of DC? Better stay local, make a difference in your hometown”.

The lifeless and scattered conversations underscore how far-right groups have been largely divided on the internet since then. President Biden takes office last January. While the groups were once united under the banner of Mr Trump’s White House and have significant presence on mainstream platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, most have since been launched from sites and more active locally not national.

“There’s a wide shift happening right now and we can see it in how all these different groups are discussing and promoting events online around January 6,” said Heidi Beirich, founder of the nonprofit Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. “Different platforms, with different messages.”

All this is a far cry from a year ago when right-wing groups and Mr Trump’s supporters fomented the Stop Stealing movement, which falsely claimed that the Presidential election was stolen from Mr Trump. On Facebook and other mainstream social media sites. Tens of thousands of Mr Trump’s supporters arrived in Washington last January 6 and more than 700 He was later arrested in connection with the riot.

Proud Children and Mr Braynard did not respond to requests for comment. Telegram did not respond to a request for comment.

Yet while right-wing activity on mainstream social media now seems quieter, it hasn’t stopped.

On Tuesday, the Tech Transparency Project, an industry watchdog group funded by philanthropic organizations of billionaires including Pierre Omidyar and George Soros, published a report It shows that Facebook’s recommendation algorithms continue to push pages about militia organizations and the Three Percent Center, an anti-government movement. The activity took place even after Facebook crashed In 2020, in groups related to the far-reaching conspiracy theory, QAnon, and in the pages of the US-based militia.

Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, said that in July, following the events of January 6, she created a Facebook account that only follows militia group pages to monitor how the social network is recommending content to certain users.

A page that appeared on the test account featured a banner image of a snake wrapped around a semi-automatic rifle overlaid with the Three Percenter logo. On other occasions, he said, his account encountered Facebook ads trying to recruit him for local militias.

“Are you ready to prepare and prepare for whatever may come our way in 2022?” Read a December ad that has been seen less than 1,000 times by Facebook users, according to the social network’s metrics. “The 6th Battalion of the 1st Missouri Volunteer Infantry is actively seeking new recruits in your area.”

Since the report was published, Facebook has removed some militia pages. The company made Renamed MetaIt said it was “taking steps to address harmful content.”

“We have strong policies that we continue to enforce, including banning hate organizations and removing content that praises or supports them,” said Meta spokesperson Kevin McAlister.

He added that for the January 6 anniversary, the company is in contact with law enforcement and “continues to actively monitor threats on our platform and will respond accordingly.”

Twitter also added that it plans to monitor its service for calls for violence on Thursday, adding that an internal group is on hand to enforce its rules if violent content escalates.

Social media companies may have an easier time on Thursday than they did a year ago, given that conversations about the January 6 anniversary were muted on Facebook, Telegram, and other channels. In some posts reviewed by The Times, commenters said they were unable to attend the anniversary rallies, but wished others well.

“Honor our brothers, honor our friends,” wrote an Ohio member of the Proud Boys in a Telegram group. “Keep fighting for them.”

Another member said, “I can’t keep track of what’s going on, where… can we get a group calendar?” he wrote.

Kate Conger contributing reporting.



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