All posts tagged: spread of extremist content

Are Social-Media Companies Ready for Another January 6?

Are Social-Media Companies Ready for Another January 6?

In January, Donald Trump laid out in stark terms what consequences await America if charges against him for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election wind up interfering with his presidential victory in 2024. “It’ll be bedlam in the country,” he told reporters after an appeals-court hearing. Just before a reporter began asking if he would rule out violence from his supporters, Trump walked away. This would be a shocking display from a presidential candidate—except the presidential candidate was Donald Trump. In the three years since the January 6 insurrection, when Trump supporters went to the U.S. Capitol armed with zip ties, tasers, and guns, echoing his false claims that the 2020 election had been stolen, Trump has repeatedly hinted at the possibility of further political violence. He has also come to embrace the rioters. In tandem, there has been a rise in threats against public officials. In August, Reuters reported that political violence in the United States is seeing its biggest and most sustained rise since the 1970s. And a January report from the nonpartisan …