January 21, 2021 QAnon is a nebulous and wide-ranging conspiracy theory that encompasses a host of other conspiracy theories. It has spread from the backwaters of the internet onto mainstream platforms where it has built a substantial following among mainstream Republicans and other supporters of former President Trump. Since the inauguration of President Biden, adherents have been scrambling for purpose and direction.
It can be challenging to keep track of a conspiracy theory as…
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January 18, 2021 Photo credit: Stephanie Keith / Reuters
One year before the January 6, 2021 siege on the U.S. Capitol building, more than 20,000 mostly armed people gathered 97 miles away outside the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond for the Virginia Citizen Defense League’s (VCDL) Lobby Day. The event, held on January 20, 2020, allowed protesters to express their anger over newly elected Virginia Democrats’ reported plans to pursue stricter gun control legislation…
January 15, 2021 Ashli Babbitt, the Trump supporter and QAnon follower killed during the Capitol siege, has quickly become a celebrated martyr for many on the far right. The symbolic weight of her death in the seat of the national government was immediately evident, and right-wing accounts on platforms such as MeWe, Minds, Rumble, and Telegram moved quickly to memorialize Babbitt in posts calling for “justice,” and demonizing the government and law enforcement.
While some posts…
January 15, 2021 We live more and more in digital spaces, so we have to work harder to distinguish protected online speech from unprotected online conduct. In the wake of the attack at the U.S. Capitol on January 6—an attack that was planned, mobilized and livestreamed online—this work has gained an even greater sense of urgency, especially when it comes to doxing.
Many people define doxing as posting someone’s personal information online. But doxing as a blanket…
January 15, 2021 A livestream video shot by a newly-elected West Virginia lawmaker shows a disturbing gap between what a mob of Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol thought about the events of January 6 and what the rest of the world actually saw.
Derrick Evans, a freshman member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, viewed fellow rioters swarming around him and forcing entry into the Capitol as a celebration. He was visibly giddy. But for horror-struck viewers, it was a violent…
January 15, 2021 On January 10, 2021, Nation of Islam (NOI) Student Minister Dr. Wesley Muhammad provided the latest example in the group’s long history of virulent antisemitism. Muhammad delivered a two-hour sermon, broadcast live from NOI’s national headquarters in Chicago, in which he explicitly and repeatedly blamed Jews and Israel for the coronavirus pandemic. As of January 14, his sermon, titled “Beyond Tuskegee: Why Black People Must Not Take the Experimental COVID-19…
January 13, 2021 Source: Telegram
In the immediate aftermath of the November 2020 presidential election, pro-Trump and other extremists announced their initial plans to protest President-Elect Joe Biden’s inauguration in Washington D.C. Those calls for largescale protests on or around January 20 attracted renewed interest following the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, with threats of additional extremist violence circulating on numerous online platforms.
While it is…
January 13, 2021 As images of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol have been shared across social media, activists in the broader anti-Israel movement used photos that showed the appearance of an incongruous Israeli flag among pro-Trump protestors at the rally and outside the Capitol to falsely link Zionism and Israel with the extremism of January 6.
According to photos and reports, other national…
January 10, 2021 Screenshot of Parler logo as the site struggles to load during Sunday’s heavy traffic
Parler, the social media site frequented and promoted by a range of conservatives and right-wing extremists, is expected to be taken offline Sunday night, after Amazon Web Services announced the platform had violated its terms of service. This follows news that Apple app store and Google Play had suspended Parler.
Ahead of the shutdown, Trump surrogates and a range of…
January 08, 2021 Photo credit: Associated Press
Since the violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, some technology companies have taken additional steps to crack down on the dissemination of hate and violent conspiracy theories. This includes indefinite bans of many of Donald Trump’s social media accounts and Shopify ceasing its sale of merchandise from the Trump Organization.
However, many tech companies continue to play a significant role in spreading the hate and…
January 08, 2021 On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, pro-Trump extremists, including some identified right-wing extremists, stormed the U.S. Capitol building, interrupting the Congressional session affirming the election results and forcing a partial evacuation. The nation and the world watched the chaos unfold, including scenes of the mob on the Senate floor, in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, and swarming the Capitol steps. By the time the siege ended, four people were dead: three from…
January 07, 2021
Manifestantes dentro del Capitolio de EE.UU, uno de ellos con una camisa que dice “Campamento Auschwitz” — Fuente: ITV news
A pocas horas de que extremistas pro-Trump irrumpieron en el edificio del Capitolio de los EE.UU., ideólogos, activistas y adeptos a las teorías de conspiración antisemitas intentaron implicar a los judíos y a los sionistas en la violencia. Aunque estos antisemitas tienen una variedad de…
January 07, 2021
Protestors—one wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt—inside the U.S. Capitol building. Photo credit: ITV news
In the hours since pro-Trump extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol building, antisemitic ideologues, activists and conspiracy theorists have attempted to implicate Jews and Zionists in the violence. Although these antisemites have a range of opinions about President Trump, many were united in their belief that the events of Wednesday,…
January 07, 2021 The invasion of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 by pro-Trump extremists forced a suspension of the Joint Session of Congress certifying the results of the 2020 election and necessitated the evacuation of elected officials and staff.
Security preparations for the certification were likely developed and implemented with the knowledge that state capitols have been a frequent target of extremists throughout 2020. Why these preparations failed so dramatically…
January 06, 2021 On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, pro-Trump extremists, including a broad coalition of right-wing extremists, descended on Washington, D.C. and a number of state capitals. Ostensibly gathered to hear President Trump and his family speak, and to dispute the result of the 2020 presidential election, which is scheduled to be certified in Congress on Wednesday, protesters stoked violence against law enforcement officers before storming the U.S. Capitol in an extraordinary display of…
January 04, 2021 By David Andrew Weinberg
On New Year’s Day, Iranian officials acting with the support of Supreme Leader Khamenei released the full results of Iran’s third major collection of political cartoons aimed at promoting Holocaust denial. Past contests on this horrendous topic were notoriously held with Iranian state support in 2006 and 2016.
Yet again, Iran’s effort came in response to a European publication promoting offensive caricatures of the…
January 04, 2021 Por David Andrew Weinberg
El 1ero de enero del 2021 funcionarios iraníes —actuando con el apoyo del Líder Supremo Jameneí— publicaron los resultados del tercer concurso iraní de caricaturas políticas destinadas a promover la negación del Holocausto. Los concursos anteriores sobre este horrendo tema se celebraron con el apoyo del Estado iraní en 2006 y 2016.
Una vez más, el esfuerzo de Irán…
January 04, 2021 Several pro-Trump protests are being organized on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C. to express rejection of the November 2020 election results and to pressure Congress to not certify President-Elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory. These events—which are being timed to coincide with a joint session of Congress where Electoral College votes will be formally counted—have been encouraged by President Trump in multiple inflammatory tweets urging his…
December 29, 2020 Since first emerging in the spring of 2020, “The Great Reset” conspiracy has gained traction with the ongoing spread of COVID-19 in both mainstream and fringe circles alike. In its most common form, adherents warn that “global elites” will use the pandemic to advance their interests and push forward a globalist plot to destroy American sovereignty and prosperity. However, there are more outlandish and pernicious strains of the conspiracy, and the…
December 24, 2020 In mid-December an image started circulating on social media. The image was taken in Washington, D.C. and featured a man standing alongside a group of Proud Boys and wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the cryptic text “6MWE.” This code for “6 Million Wasn’t Enough” is a not-so-veiled reference to the Holocaust.
The man, who has not yet been identified, also wore a Proud Boys baseball hat and the skull face mask popular among -- but not…