Thread by @ByChipBrownlee

Thread: The insurrection was seeded on social media platforms, then planned and broadcast on far-right sites.

thetrace.org/newsletter/eit…

For days leading up to yesterday’s electoral college certification, posters used social media sites like Gab and Parler, encrypted messaging platforms like Telegram, and the pro-Trump forum The Donald to organize and share information.

Some messages on the pro-Trump forum The Donald urged the murders of Democratic leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

As the mob prowled the capitol complex, some used livestreaming sites like DLive to boast of occupying lawmakers’ offices. Some even streamed from Nancy Pelosi's office.

While fringe sites aided and amplified yesterday’s mayhem, some of the biggest names in tech have abetted the coalescing of the violent far-right, online extremism researcher @MeganSquire0 told me.

“The mainstream platforms have turned a blind eye to groups and individuals inciting violence and harassing users for years,” she told me.

“After some half-hearted attempts to ban the accounts or tamp down on the violent rhetoric around the election, some of the extremists ended up relocating their audiences to newer, smaller, niche platforms," Squire told me.

Twitter suspended Trump last night, and Facebook did the same, now saying his page is indefinitely suspended. But there's still a ton of this stuff on both sites.

BTW — People like Baked Alaska, while they've been banned from places like YouTube, STILL have Instagram accounts where they're boasting of occupying Pelosi's office.

On DLive — the live-streaming site dominated by far-right voices like "Baked Alaska" (Tim “Treadstone” Gionet) and Nick Fuentes and his far-right/white nationalist "Groypers" — streamers get thousands in donations, and DLive takes a 20% cut.

These people, including the Proud Boys, are extremely active in 1-to-many channels on Telegram, and as @MeganSquire0 has pointed out, Telegram is about to start monetizing channels like that.

The Donald forum was originally on Reddit before being kicked off, and now it's on its own site (not sharing the domain) and apparently, their current host is giving them less than a day to ameliorate all the filth and threats and violence on the platform.

But they're already making backup domains, and I doubt this forum is going anywhere anytime soon.