Online supporters of President Donald Trump are spreading to smaller social media platforms, fleeing what they say is unfair treatment by Facebook, Twitter and other major technology companies seeking to suppress misinformation and threats of violence.
Those mainstream platforms’ efforts, prompted by the deadly January 6 disaster at the Capitol, are likely to succeed, according to social media and disinformation experts. But the crackdown could allow some of Trump’s fiercest supporters to retreat to dark and secret spaces on the Internet where conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric reign supreme.
“We will see fewer opportunities to radicalize new people” on mainstream platforms, Kate Starbird, a leading disinformation expert at the University of Washington, said Wednesday. “But for those who have already radicalized, or are already down the rabbit hole with conspiracy theories, this may not make a difference if the places they go to become echo chambers.”
For years, mainstream tech companies have been the target of conservative outrage, with complaints that Facebook and Twitter are enforcing their policies with a political bias. The platforms have also been criticized for allowing harmful conspiracy theories and hate speech to thrive on their sites.
Then came an unprecedented reaction from the tech companies to the Capitol uprising, fueled in part by false and misleading social media posts that undermined belief in the US election. Twitter banned Trump’s account, as well as 70,000 accounts related to the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory. Facebook and Instagram suspended Trump until the end of his term, removing messages fraudulently claiming the US election had been stolen. Snapchat also banned Trump, and on Wednesday, YouTube suspended its channel for at least a week.
Some conservative users had briefly taken refuge on Parler, but saw the conservative alternative to Facebook go dark on Monday when Amazon stopped offering hosting services. Parler sued Amazon for the ban; Amazon responded by arguing that the platform’s “unwillingness” to delete messages endangers public safety.
The crackdown prompted many conservative posters to consider more obscure alternative platforms, such as Gab, which has marketed itself to Trump supporters. Gab CEO Andrew Torba, who describes himself as a “Christian entrepreneur and American populist,” reported on Wednesday that 1.7 million users have signed up in the past four days.
“This is where we take our final stand for our sacred birthright, bestowed by God and affirmed by our Founding Fathers,” read a commentary shared by Torba.
Other platforms attracting Trump supporters include Signal and Telegram, messaging services already used by individuals and groups with different ideologies around the world, as well as a growing list of lesser-known platforms, such as Rumble, MeWe, and CloutHub.
Telegram announced on Wednesday that it has more than 500 million users, with more than 25 million signups since Sunday.
Several Trump social media stars banned from mainstream platforms have launched their own channels on the service and gained thousands of followers in just days. A channel that claims to be headed by conservative attorney L. Lin Wood Jr., who has littered Twitter with false allegations about the election and called on Parler to assassinate Vice President Mike Pence, has gained more than 100,000 subscribers since the initial message. was released. posted Monday. QAnon and far-right channels have also seen their membership increase by thousands this week.
Many of these smaller sites were already havens for extremists and conspiracy theorists kicked off Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, said Jared Holt, a disinformation investigator at Washington-based think tank Atlantic Council.
“At worst, I would imagine there is a potential for mass radicalization here as throngs of people emerge on the platforms that are the ground for extremist movements,” said Holt.
These platforms still only have a fraction of the audience that Facebook or Twitter have, which means it will be more difficult for conspiracy theorists and extremists to get their message across.
“There are tradeoffs,” Starbird said of the platform’s crackdown: less disinformation spreading to the general public, but also concentrating the risk of misinformation on much smaller sites with few rules and little to no content moderation.
It’s also possible that some on the far right are taking more advantage of more secure, encrypted messaging services offered by Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp, for example, making it more difficult for researchers, journalists and government officials to monitor for signs of threats. to James Ludes, a former conference analyst and disinformation expert who heads the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy at Salve Regina University.
“They’re still here,” said Ludes. “If we throw all these people into the dark shadows of the Internet, they will continue to communicate, but the authorities will have a harder time tracking it.”
Meanwhile, fringe websites linked to the anti-government movement Boogaloo are making plans for armed protests in capitals. Chatter around such protests is on some social media, Holt said, and an internal FBI bulletin this week warned of extremist threats at such events.
The organizers “still plan to continue,” said Holt. “It remains unclear what to expect in terms of turnout.”