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The aggregate social media metrics do not illustrate causality in the same way individual pieces of content included in the timeline do. However, the sheer amount of engagement on Stop the Steal underscores the fact that the events of January were not conspired in private or in closed corners of the internet, but mostly out in the open.

Far-right social media personality and One America News correspondent Jack Posobiec tweets #StopTheSteal 2020 is coming Posobiec has since deleted the tweet and all of his other tweets mentioning Stop the Steal.

That same day, fringe conservative activist Ali Alexander (who previously went by the name Ali Akbar) announces during a now-deleted Periscope live broadcast that he is building the digital infrastructure for a 2020 stop the steal effort. Alexander explains he plans to construct a digital database of Trump supporters he could dispatch to ballot counting locations and state officials offices if their physical presence is needed.

He continues:

In the coming days, we will launch an effort concentrating on the swing states, and we will map out where the votes are being counted and the secretary of states. We will map all of this out for everyone publicly and we will collect cell phone numbers so that way if you are within 100-mile radius of a bad secretary of state or someone whos counting votes after the deadline or if theres a federal court hearing, we will alert you of where to go.

Alexander follows through on that promise, building a website and database that would be used to mobilize Trump supporters to Stop the Steal events.

On Facebook that same day, pro-Trump pages deploy the Stop the Steal slogan. Pages President Donald Trump Fan Cluband Donald Trump is My President, which together reach millions of subscribers, post the mantra within hours of Posobiecs tweet.

Trump takes questions from reporters in the White House press briefing room. When asked whether he would commit to the peaceful transition of power if he lost the 2020 election, Trump declines to answer directly.

Well, were going to have to see what happens, Trump says. You know that Ive been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.

Trump also states that he believes the election results would wind up at the Supreme Court and argues that it was a reason to fast-track the appointment of Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

This scam that the Democrats are pulling, its a scam, the scam will be before the United States Supreme Court, Trump says, and I think having a 44 situation is not a good situation.

The Gateway Pundit, a pro-Trump blog and font of misinformation surrounding the 2020 election, publishes several articles mentioning the Stop the Steal effort beginning in September. One article offers readers advice on actions they can take to STOP THE STEAL, warning that North Carolinas acceptance of mail-in ballots up to Nov. 12 was only boot camp for whats coming.

If you are not willing to fight the Communists you will be ruled by the Communists, blog publisher Jim Hoft writes. Obviously, Democrats will win the 2020 election if they ARE ALLOWED to steal the vote in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada and North Carolina.

(Source: Gateway Pundit)

The Gateway Pundit would later be de-platformed by Twitter in February 2021.

Biden and Trump participate in a televised debate, during which moderator Chris Wallace asks Trump if he would denounce white supremacists and militia movement groups that had appeared in opposition to racial justice protests earlier that year. Trump asks for the name of a group, to which Biden interjects with the name of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys. The Southern Poverty Law Center identifies the Proud Boys as a hate group.

Proud Boys, stand back and stand by, Trump says. But Ill tell you what, Ill tell you what, somebodys got to do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem.

Trumps remark about the Proud Boys reportedly results in a surge of new followers to the group. That night, members of the Proud Boys respond with jubilation. The group also goes on to sell shirts with Trumps words printed on them. Joe Biggs, a prominent Proud Boys figure who was later arrested for his role in the Capitol attack, posts on Parler: Trump basically said to go fuck them up! this makes me so happy.

Notably, Trumps mention of Antifa was neither his first nor his last. The president and his allies spent years painting opponents of far-right groups as violent threats to the nation, and specifically mounted a sustained effort throughout the racial justice protests over the summer to characterize Antifa as a highly organized and violent terrorist group.

The Department of Justice announces indictments against a group of men who were allegedly planning to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The orchestrators of the would-be plot were part of a self-styled militia group called the Wolverine Watchmen, the indictment alleges, and met at anti-lockdown protests.

Earlier that year, Trump and his allies had repeatedly singled out Whitmer and the state of Michigan. In April, armed protesters had stormed the state capitol, earning the praise of Trump.

The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire, Trump tweeted on May 1. These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal.

Many unlawful militia groups involved in anti-COVID lockdown and pro-gun rallies that included shows of force at various state capitols participated in the Jan. 6 attack. The kidnapping attempt against Whitmer was an early warning of the potential consequences of misinformation campaigns on a national level.

In a televised town hall in Miami, Trump refuses to disavow QAnon. I know nothing about QAnon What I do hear about it, they are very strongly against pedophilia, and I agree with that. When the moderator Savannah Guthrie says, theres not a satanic cult, Trump responds, No, I dont know that and neither do you know that.

Online, QAnon communities celebrate this statement as a tacit endorsement. The Washington Post reports that members of anonymous image boards where QAnon is promoted praised Trumps answer, with one user writing, This was the biggest pitch for QANON Ive ever seen.

Prominent conservatives circulate misleading information suggesting that Trump voters are being targeted for violence, animating extremist groups. The DFRLab found that the sourcing for the claims, which were spread by leading Republican figureheads like Matt Schlapp, failed to withstand basic scrutiny and that QAnon conspiracy-theory-adjacent accounts were the first to post the material on social media.

(Source: Twitter)

Users in a chatroom for dues-paying members of the Oath Keepers question what their course of action will be if Biden is elected and authoritarian rule is implemented, responding to a video uploaded online by the conspiracy theory outlet Infowars. One user replies, Choose a side and fight, looking down the sights of a rifle at our fellow Americans. Youd think we would have learned our lesson the last time.

(Source: OathKeepers)

See the rest here:
#StopTheSteal: Timeline of Social Media and Extremist Activities Leading to 1/6 Insurrection - Just Security