Jake Angeli, AKA the "QAnon Shaman"
Credit: AFP
Just before 2pm in Washington DC on Wednesday, the words “HAPPENING NOW” flashed up on supporters’ phone screens. The text, sent by the Trump campaign, reminded subscribers that Congress was voting to certify or object to the election results adding that “President Trump needs YOU to STAND WITH HIM! 1000% IMPACT!”
Minutes later, tear gas filled the air outside the US Capitol as an angry mob began pushing against a police barrier. Inside, politicians and reporters were told to evacuate. Once the siege had come to an end, supporters were waiting for another sign.
Trump had been locked out of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and had not posted on alternative social network Gab.The silence was deafening. Those who were exhilarated by the chaotic scenes or even those who had played a physical role in them believed wholeheartedly in the QAnon conspiracy that “the storm” was coming on January 6, a false prophecy of civil war peddled by anonymous "Q".
But the conspiracy and the prediction that the results would be rejected never came to fruition. What followed was an outburst of anger from betrayed Trump supporters, and promises of more violence.
Prolific alt-right figureheads on Twitter and Facebook urged users to move over to Gab and another right-wing network, Parler, with the hashtag #Twexit trending on the latter. Gab founder Andrew Torba claimed one million people viewed the website and it had 40,000 signups on Wednesday evening.
Anger over takedowns regarding Wednesday’s riots across the mainstream social networks also engulfed thedonald.win, a pro-Trump forum that was used to help organise the storming. There, supporters claimed the scenes had not been violent enough.
“It took less than an hour for a group of unarmed Trump patriots to take the capital,” said one user. “Go ahead and try and impeach Trump or jail him. 75m Trumplicans who own 75pc of all guns in America. Let’s see what will really happen."
About | QAnon
Despite the horrific videos of Ashli Babbit, 35, dying on the stairs of the Congressional Building after being shot, there were hints that a second night of violence may be possible.
Trump’s cease and desist video that warmly told rioters “we love you” and signalled his encouragement by describing them as “nice people” seemed to have emboldened the mob.
Thursday evening’s concession video, in which Trump slammed the bloodshed in a delayed U-Turn, was met with fury on forums by those who felt they had been "screwed over" by a man they risked jail, and their lives for. But it wasn’t enough to quell the "movement" which still does not want to see Biden step into office.
“They are already setting their sights on January 20th [inauguration day]” says QAnon expert Alex Newhouse and researcher at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlesbury institute. “I think there’s probably less of a chance that they will get together like yesterday but if they do go there we now know that there’s a high probability of both fighting and violence.”
The volume of first person videos and live streamed videos that could be found online, appearing to show how easy it was for people to gain access to the heart of the US government has “encouraged” supporters, Cindy Otis, former CIA officer and disinformation pundit says.
“I watched live streams of people exiting the building saying ‘we’re coming back and next time we are not going to be peaceful’, as if what they had done was particularly peaceful”.
On Facebook, users are already discussing whether action would be possible in their own cities. “We’re in for a difficult couple of weeks,” she says.
But even amid the fringes of the internet, fractures are forming. The Make American Great Again mob had split into groups: the white supremacists who revelled in the day’s bloodshed, and those who wanted to support fellow Trump loyalists while decrying violence, resulting in the conspiracy that the siege was actually the work of Antifa.
In pictures: Donald Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol Building
Arguments over calls to arms broke out on Parler, with users accusing each other of making Trump fans look bad or of being a secret lefty or a “glowie”, a derogatory term for secret service agents whom many Trump supporters believe are infiltrating their messaging channels. A verified account, claiming to belong to a veteran, was quickly torn apart by users after suggesting there would be more violence in DC the night before the inauguration. "This is all over Twitter. Folks asking the FBI to look into it," one wrote. "Dumba**** like you have set the MAGA movement back 10 years. Please back the f*** down" wrote another.
“People were automatically already looking for evidence that the protestors were Antifa and that narrative came roaring back on these platforms,” says Otis. “The people they were identifying as Antifa are actually some of the most well known QAnon believers, neo-Nazi leaders and far right social media personalities and they personally have been pushing back angrily in some cases saying ‘no, this is me stop trying to take away credit’”.
Before Facebook and Twitter existed, similarly conflicting theories swept across the internet. After 9/11 there were videos and claims that the US was responsible for 9/11.
Arieh Kovler, a disinformation specialist who correctly predicted yesterday’s violence after monitoring social media channels in recent months, says the most striking response to Wednesday was one of utter confusion felt by people who believed they were going to be a part of something bigger, a conspiracy that Trump has failed repeatedly to publicly dismiss.
Antifa | The rise America’s shadowy far-left
“Trump said come to Washington DC ‘it’s going to be wild’ and people took time off work, travelled for hours across the country to what they thought would be watching him win the election,” he says.
“Some of them are there because they think they are supposed to be, on the whole when they get in they take selfies and steal envelopes and leave because they don’t know what they are there for because there isn’t a plan, this was not supposed to be the main event, which was Trump winning.
“What I have seen mostly is confusion, disappointment and betrayal of these people because until now they were told Trump was going to win or that there may have been some big reveal of hidden votes or evidence in Trump’s favour.”
Many are now feeling a sense of defeat and woke up on Thursday as it were the day after November’s Election Day all over again.
"There are a lot of people out there who have had their world view shattered," says Kovlev. "I wouldn’t write off the possibility of one guy with a gun taking matters into his own hands.”
Свежие комментарии