The Intersectionality of Conspiracy Theories, Domestic Terrorism, Fake News, and Social Media.

January 6th, 2021; a day America will remember for generations. The 2020 election had recently concluded, and the results were on their way to being certified. The bitterly cold January wind nipped the air in Washington D.C. as those who worked on the Hill prepared for another day immersed in U.S. politics. A massive crowd of Trump supporters had gathered around the steps of the Capitol after leaving a rally led by the former president himself. Trump had motivated them with a speech, saying, “We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore, so we are going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue – I love Pennsylvania Avenue – and we are going to the Capitol.” (Petras 1). Motivated by this call to action, rioters stormed the Capitol, tearing down the fences, rushing the thinly spread lines of Capitol police officers in riot gear, and streaming through the building’s rotunda. Property was damaged; government computers were stolen; gunshots rang out; and five people died. Chief among those casualties was U.S. Capitol policeman Brian Sicknick, whose death reportedly at the hands of the political side who supports law enforcement shocked the nation. America’s highly valued democratic process had just been threatened unlike anything the nation had seen before. The country recoiled at the shock of seeing an institution always regarded as reliable as death or taxes had become threatened by a politically motivated mob. The day was marked by stark realization and violence, with multiple people perishing during those tense moments.  For several hours, the crowd controlled the center of American democracy until finally being dispersed as police took back control and the election results were allowed to be certified. 

The aftermath of the day reverberated throughout the country. One event which particularly stirred the nation was Twitter’s banning of former President Trump’s account. Throughout the day, he had been tweeting messages of encouragement to his supporters. Twitter, acting quickly, banned the business mogul’s account. Many were outraged over what they conceived as a violation of free speech. However, Twitter justified its actions, explaining that Trump’s tweets constituted a threat because they inspired the riot and thus indirectly caused violence. Voices from all across the internet rose up for and against this policy. Traditionally right-wing websites such as 4chan, InfoWars, and Gab, where the conspiracies about the election being stolen began in the first place, obviously rose in favor of Trump and the cause of “free speech.” More popular, left-leaning sites such as Twitter itself, Reddit, or Tumblr, were in support of Twitter’s decision, citing the ban was for the safety of all and against what they called “white supremacist terrorism.” This event and its consequences leads to a puzzling question: Do social media contribute to conspiracies and domestic terrorism?

We all use social media, whether it be one form or another. Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram; we’re all connected digitally. A byproduct of this connection shared by the world is the ease of accessing information. Before the Age of Technology, if one wanted information on obscure history facts, s/he might find themselves in the library or deep within the recesses of an encyclopedia. Now, even the slightest hint of curiosity can be quenched by a quick search on Google. This newfound freedom does not come without its dangers, however. Lurking within the bowels of the internet lie certain websites that take advantage of a passing strangers’ curiosity, spitting at them hate filled messages designed to infuriate and divide them. Take for example Dylann Roof, the perpetrator of a terrible mass shooting of a church congregation in Charleston, South Carolina. Reports described Roof’s childhood as quiet, insignificant, if anything. However, having the ability to access in Internet allowed him to voice these deep, disturbing thoughts of murder, sexism, and racism in an environment that openly welcomed and embraced that kind of talk (Ghansah 4). Unaware of the discomfort such topics might have brought with them if discussed in-person, Roof became desensitized, and soon after, would commit one of the worst acts of racial violence in modern history when he entered a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and gunned down nine innocent churchgoers in cold blood (Ghansah 1).

Depending on how active one is on social media, users may have seen some of this “radicalization” firsthand. What may start as small, insignificant memes that poke fun at one side of the political spectrum can quickly turn into ideas that stray further from opinionated facts to downright conspiracy. While these opinions and conspiracies have always existed, they’ve done so as outliers, far from becoming a threat to the majority. However, as the rise of information technology has revolutionized the way we communicate, it has also given a platform on which these ideas can be heard. It seems today that every mass shooter who appears on the news has a manifesto in which they detail how they were radicalized online through various websites online. Multiple lawsuits have been raised against companies like YouTube, who target videos to individuals particularly vulnerable to hate messages or radical content (Barker 1).

There is a flip-side to this coin. That being the question of: are social media actually the problem? Terrorism and wild conspiracy theories have always existed, albeit in various forms throughout the decades The means by which they are communicated have changed as well, from correspondence, newspapers, all the way to actual meetings. For example, the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group who has operated in the American South since the Reconstruction period following the Civil War, existed long before the advent of social media. They communicated through bulletins, announcements, letters, and even over the radio, and yet they still managed to be one of the most horrifyingly successful American terror groups in recent memory. The concept of conspiracy theories is a little more difficult to find historical context for. Misinformation has always existed, ever since humans began to communicate. Because the term “conspiracy theory” did not come about until recently, it merely took over the definition of what used to be referred to as misinformation. In ancient Rome, rumors permeated throughout all classes of citizenry. In the echelons of the Roman Senate, purposeful misinformation was spread about senators for the purpose of increasing one’s power. While deep within the streets with the lower classes, rumors swirled simply because the lowly plebeians either got the information incorrectly, or just had nothing better to do than to make up lies. What is important to draw from these two examples is that rumors, misinformation, and conspiracy theories have always been a facet of human society, and they have always found ways to embed themselves and cause trouble. 

The question remains: do social media contribute to conspiracy theories and domestic terrorism? The answer is yes, but a highly complex yes. Social media do not directly contribute to these things for instance, Instagram does not openly sponsor Atomwaffen, a domestic terrorist organization. What social media do is provide a conduit for these things to be transferred across a large audience all over the world with rapidity. While this communication technology does make things like conspiracies and terroristic ideals easier to spread, it does the same with a large wealth of information that is not related to either of those things. That is the tradeoff with something that has revolutionized communication the way that the Internet has. One can think of it almost like a modern day printing press. Similar to Gutenberg’s invention, the Internet has made the spread of different systems of ideals much, much easier. On one hand, this has made humanity’s collective knowledge available to almost everyone, which has led to so many amazing new ideas and progress. On the other, it has also facilitated the spread of bad ideas, which has been demonstrated before to cause violence and hatred within society. 

This argument is in no way an attempt to justify terrorism or conspiracy theories. Rather, this argument seeks to explain why that is one of the tradeoffs that come with the uber-connected world that is today. Social media facilitate the flow of ideas, and these can be both good and bad. That is the drawback to living in a society where this information is so freely available. There are ways to curb the transfer of “bad” ideas, such as stricter laws detailing what can and cannot be shared on social media, or a solution without government involvement at all, which would be the social media companies taking charge of their platforms and holding themselves accountable for what is posted. These will help to lessen the spread of these ideas, but will not stop them entirely. Social media does not directly contribute to conspiracy theories and domestic terrorism, it does however, allow those ideas to flow through their sites. The only way for us to combat this present issue is for the implementation of stricter laws that hold social media conglomerates accountable. 

 

Works Cited

 

Byman, Daniel L. “The Assault on the US Capitol Opens a New Chapter in Domestic Terrorism.” Brookings, Brookings, 8 Feb. 2021, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2021/01/19/the-assault-on-the-u-s-capitol-opens-a-new-chapter-in-domestic-terrorism/. 

George, Robert P. West, Cornel. “Sign the Statement: Truth-Seeking, Democracy, and Freedom of Thought and Expression.” James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, 14 March. 2017, https://jmp.princeton.edu/statement 

Ghansah, Rachel Kaadzi. “A Most American Terrorist: The Making of Dylann Roof.” GQ, 21 Aug. 2017, https://www.gq.com/story/dylann-roof-making-of-an-american-terrorist. 

Merchant, Nomaan. “US to Ramp up Tracking of Domestic Extremism on Social Media.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, 20 May 2021, https://apnews.com/article/media-social-media-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-government-and-politics-d4c8d4cc7bc7789ffa77071458ade3fa. 

Petras, George, et al. “Timeline: How the Storming of the U.S. Capitol Unfolded on Jan. 6.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 9 Feb. 2021, https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2021/01/06/dc-protests-capitol-riot-trump-supporters-electoral-college-stolen-election/6568305002/. 

Use of Social Media by US Extremists – Start.umd.edu. https://www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_PIRUS_UseOfSocialMediaByUSExtremists_ResearchBrief_July2018.pdf. 

Barker, Holly. “YouTube Sued for Race Discrimination, Profiting from Hate Speech.” News.bloomberglaw.com, Bloomberg Law, https://news.bloomberglaw.com/class-action/youtube-sued-for-race-discrimination-profiting-from-hate-speech.