‘We Want You To Be A Proud Boy’ - How Social Media Facilitates Political Intimidation and Violence

Participants in such mobs The section on Twitter (X) in this report includes a discussion of “are often further emboldened by the how antagonists on the left and right used that platform to bait one cloak of online anonymity,” according to another in the build-up to the physical violence during the August 2017 DiResta. [...] gathering place for “transgressive fun,” van and her coauthors show that Gab Both provided tools to the organizers according to Cathrine Thorleifsson, enjoyed a surge of new users in the of January 6 and the people who actu- an anthropologist at the University of wake of the August 2017 Unite the ally invaded the Capitol. [...] many election deniers were adherents to QAnon before the emergence of the Stop Stop the Steal the Steal movement and that networks of Both mainstream and alternative plat- rapid retweeters, copy-pasted messages, forms allowed domestic extremists and the participation of high profile right- and prominent figures on the right to ac- wing outlets and commentators were es- celerate the growth of movem. [...] and traced the history of far-right or- wrote for the Journal of Media and This is in contrast to the findings of the ganizing in the United States.90 Under- Information Warfare that Trump’s use committee investigators’ memo, which standing the relationship between polit- of social media challenges the news dedicated significant space to levers ical violence and long running historical media’s tra. [...] Regardless of whether Congress can muster the will to enhance the authority of the FTC, lawmakers should broaden and deepen their field of vision by passing legislation resembling the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act, a bipartisan measure introduced in the Senate, and the Digital Services Oversight and Safety Act, a similar bill backed by Democrats in the House.