XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, rec.arts.tv, talk.politics.misc   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.atheism   
   From: nowomr@protonmail.com   
      
    Right-wing extremist chatter spreads on new platforms as threat of   
   political violence ramps up   
      
   The online conversation is becoming harder to track. And it’s alarming the   
   feds.   
   Rioters supporting Donald Trump gather at the Capitol.   
      
   Rioters supporting President Donald Trump gather near the east front door   
   of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C. | Win   
   McNamee/Getty Images   
      
   By Tina Nguyen and Mark Scott   
      
   01/12/2021 08:00 PM EST   
      
   With the threat of future political violence looming, a surge in online   
   extremist chatter is increasingly taking place in private groups and   
   encrypted messaging apps with little, if any, rules about what is posted.   
      
   Law enforcement nationwide is on high alert after last week’s riot at the   
   Capitol, with reports suggesting that several extremist groups have   
   planned armed demonstrations across the country to protest the end of   
   Donald Trump’s presidency.   
      
   But the severity of the threat is increasingly hard to ascertain, in part   
   because of the crackdown that authorities have already put in place on   
   message boards. That crackdown has driven would-be insurrectionists   
   further underground and scattered their activity across innumerable   
   platforms, including one — TikTok — that’s best known as a hub for teens   
   to share videos.   
      
   The diffuse, chaotic nature of the online chatter has fed into a climate   
   of fear. Ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, the FBI   
   hasreportedly warned law enforcement agencies across the country to be on   
   high alert for potentially violent protests in all 50 states over the next   
   few weeks, and has gathered intelligence about an armed group planning to   
   travel to D.C. to stage an uprising on the day of the inauguration. The   
   Pentagon, meanwhile, has authorized up to 15,000 National Guardsmen from   
   around the country to deploy to D.C. to support local law enforcement   
   ahead of and on January 20.   
      
   Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA) said on Tuesday morning that he and other lawmakers   
   have been briefed about potential plots surrounding the inauguration.   
   “They were talking about 4,000 armed ‘patriots’ to surround the Capitol   
   and prevent any Democrat from going in,” he said. “They have published   
   rules of engagement, meaning when you shoot and when you don’t. So this is   
   an organized group that has a plan. They are committed to doing what   
   they’re doing because I think in their minds, you know, they are patriots   
   and they’re talking about 1776 and so this is now a contest of wills.”   
      
   Complicating efforts to tamp down on the extremism is the decentralized   
   and chaotic nature in which it is spreading. Countless posters — few of   
   which are directly linked to publicly-known extremist groups — have   
   proliferated through extremist channels and social media, listing dates,   
   times, and specific locations for people to gather in violent protest   
   against the so-called “stolen” election, primarily at state capitols and   
   federal landmarks.   
      
   TikTok videos from influencers bearing the Three Percenters logo as their   
   avatar, referring to the anti-government militia movement, are hyping up   
   future protests — even going so far as to publish videos of them   
   collecting ammunition and guns, while playing doctored audio suggesting   
   that Trump wants them to target his vice president, Mike Pence.   
      
   On Gab and Telegram, two fringe networks frequented by white nationalist   
   and other extremist groups, mysteriously-originated videos of military   
   personnel walking around American cities have also gone viral, with social   
   media users either questioning if such activity was part of support for   
   Donald Trump’s presidency or efforts by the government to clamp down on   
   people’s constitutional rights.   
      
   In this milieu several different movements have emerged: the Million   
   Militia March, with a flag sanctifying the QAnon supporter who died while   
   storming the Capitol last week; Patriot Action for America, which called   
   for tens of thousands of “patriots” to stop Democrat lawmakers from   
   entering the Capitol on the 16th and 17th; or just simply a generic march   
   to take back America, with attendees free to fill in the blanks as they   
   wish. The concern among extremism monitors is that much like the Stop the   
   Steal rally became a magnet for militia members and conspiracy theorist   
   groups — even without the explicit encouragement of the event’s organizers   
   in the professional MAGA activist class — so too will these events.   
      
   The promotion of the events has come to the attention of prominent, pro-   
   Trump conservative outlets and figures, who have offered a range of   
   responses, including skepticism that they might be false flag operations   
   organized by antifa and other leftists groups.   
   POLITICO Dispatch: January 13   
      
   Impeachment. Inauguration. The transfer of power. The next seven days will   
   be critical, and intelligence officials are already warning of possible   
   "armed protests" across the country.   
   Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Subscribe on Google Podcasts   
      
   Much of the online confusion has been driven by large social networks   
   clamping down on the most extreme of material appearing on their sites.   
   Along with banning Donald Trump, Facebook and Twitter have both stopped   
   far-right hashtags from trending and have removed scores of posts   
   promoting potential violence ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration.   
      
   Without the largest social media networks to rely on, far-right   
   campaigners initially turned to Parler, the conservative app, to vent   
   their anger and frustration and potentially plan for further action. The   
   digital platform was used to organize some of the violence associated with   
   the Capitol Hill riots on Jan. 6 and became a central rallying place for   
   Trump supporters who still believed in debunked voter fraud claims   
   stemming from the November election, based on a review of online posts by   
   POLITICO.   
      
   But in the wake of last week’s violence, Google and Apple quickly banned   
   Parler from appearing in their app stores, and Amazon — whose cloud   
   computing business underpins how many digital services work — kicked the   
   company from its servers. Parler subsequently filed an antitrust lawsuit   
   against Amazon.   
   MOST READ   
   election-2024-trump-california-24012.jpg   
      
       Trump’s attack on Milley fuels special counsel’s push for a gag order   
       Feinstein’s Demise is a Warning for Biden and Trump   
       Gaetz’s takedown mission: ‘He wants Kevin’   
       Trump floats plan to attend New York trial on business fraud   
       Proud Boy who disappeared ahead of his Jan. 6 sentencing was found   
   unconscious by agents at his home   
      
   In this void, many fringe groups have turned to TikTok.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)