Politic?: Awaiting Inauguration Day

"People were automatically already looking for evidence that the protesters were Antifa, and that narrative came roaring back on these platforms."
"The people they were identifying as Antifa are actually some of the most well known QAnon believers, neo-Nazi leaders and far-Right social media personalities, and they personally have been pushing back angrily in some cases saying, 'No, this is me, stop trying to take away credit."
Cindy Otis, former CIA officer, disinformation pundit

"Trump said come to Washington, D.C., 'It's going to be wild' and people took time off work, travelled for hours across the country to what they thought would be watching him win the election."
"What I have seen mostly is confusion, disappointment and betrayal ... because until now, they were told Trump was going to win or that there may have been some big reveal of hidden votes or evidence in Trump's favour."
"There are a lot of people out there who have had their world view shattered. I wouldn't write off the possibility of one guy with a gun taking matters into his own hands."
Arish Kovler, disinformation specialist

A Capitol police officer and members of the national guard stand near a fence surrounding the Capitol. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

For months Arish Kovler monitored social media channels. What he saw and what he heard convinced him that trouble was brewing. And so, when a mob of thousands of Trump supporters descended on Washington and chaos and violence broke out as they stormed the Capitol, he was the lost person to be shocked and surprised; he had anticipated just that to happen, and it did with a vengeance, on January 6th, disrupting the proceedings meant to validate and confirm the popular vote and the Electoral Collage votes that would bring in a new president on January 20.

In the annals of 'it's not over 'till it's over', thee are now expectations that a similar crowd of Trump supporters will amass a presence in Washington to storm the proceedings on inauguration day. The signature of just such organized mayhem is to be seen online by anyone interested in perusing the urgent calls for a repeat of the earlier storming. President Trump's video in which he conceded the election released on Thursday, calling for a peaceful transition of power shocked his followers, some of whom characterized the video as having been doctored, that the president was forced to release it.

Then there was his tweet promising that "American Patriots" would "not be disrespected", certainly more like the Trump they knew and loved, representing proof he wasn't really committed to what he said in the previous video, but coerced to surrender his fight. Should a mob gather once again around the January 20 inauguration ceremony -- though experts doubt there will be a repeat, they also warn to expect greater violence if it does materialize. It's called hedging their bets.

The non-profit group Coalition for a Safer Web has been targeting the presence of extremism online appearing in free speech network Parler, private messaging group Telegram and thedonald.win forum all of which were involved in the formation and promulgation of plans resulting in the siege of the Capitol. Hundreds of references to guns and violence were found, one Parler post from last week cited reading: "To all the Patriots descending on Washington DC on #jan5 ... come armed..."

On thedonald.win posters mused over why it was that Trump had been absent from public view since his speech prior to the storming of the Capitol, where someone suggested a mob should be put together to "find him". Videos shred on social media appearing to show the Capitol police leniently interacting with protesters had the effect of "encouraging" radical Trump supporters. One of the largest online pro-Trump communities, the forum r/donaldtrump was shut down by Reddit over fears of further mayhem, for having violated policies against violence.

The Make America Great Again movement seems to have split between those celebrating Wednesday's bloodshed and others who want no part of it, while others yet blame the episode on Antifa irrespective of a a lack of evidence for a 'false flag' operation. Many Trump supporters migrated to Parler following notice of having violated Twitter's policies.

"What Donald Trump did was a betrayal of public trust and a violation of his oath of office.There’s no question that what we saw this week was incited by the rhetoric that he has been using now for weeks and that inspired and mobilized extremist right wingers and conspiracy theorists."
"On 9/11 we worried that one of the planes was going to hit the Capitol building. In this case, the Capitol building was hit. It was domestic terror, and absolutely shocking."
Michael Chertoff, former homeland security secretary