Jan. 6 arrests: A year later, we know exactly who the Capitol rioters were—and it’s not comforting.
SlateWhen I was inside the Capitol riot last Jan. 6, the crowd and the chaos looked different than any other event I had documented in the Trump era. Well, 30 percent of those arrested on Jan. 6 had prior criminal history, mostly for misdemeanors like marijuana charges, but with other right-wing extremists, it’s 64 percent have prior criminal history. That really can’t easily be characterized as just the “fringe.” We normally would think the “fringe” would be 1 percent or less. Only 20 percent of these people report that their main sources are mainstream social media like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and only 10 percent report that it’s far right social media like Gab or Telegram. That’s really important, because if we keep thinking that this is mainly a social media phenomenon, that is it’s a fringe social media phenomenon, and that it’s also affecting the fringe of militia groups, we just keep painting the picture of the Jan. 6 insurrection as more and more the fringe when it’s in fact more and more the mainstream.
History of this topic
It’s easy to forget that social media does a lot of good as well as bad
The Independent
Keir Starmer under pressure to order inquiry into social media to prevent it fuelling future riots
The Independent
As disinformation swirls around Southport stabbings and Olympic Boxer Imane Khelif, are social media companies doing enough to tackle it?
The Independent
Hostile states may have amplified social media disinformation around riots, Cooper says
The Independent
6 January: One year on, what do we know about the people who stormed the Capitol?
The Independent
Facebook: ‘Ludicrous’ to say it fuelled US Capitol riot
Al Jazeera
On social media, amateur digital sleuths try to help track violent Capitol rioters
LA Times
If those who stormed the Capitol yesterday are charged with sedition, social networks should stand alongside them
The IndependentDiscover Related
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