The road to extremism is riddled with likes.
In the wake of last week’s Capitol siege we’re left with a number of disturbing questions. Will we identify all those responsible? Will there be real accountability? Will something like this happen again before Donald Trump leaves office? |
But there’s a more fundamental question casting a dark shadow over last week: How did we end up here? A hard truth of the moment is that the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol was a mix of everyday Americans: small business owners, suburb dwellers, rural militia types, you name it. |
How were they radicalized? |
It’s a question with many answers. But last week’s insurrection has its dark roots in Facebook, where conservatives exchanged conspiracy theories and organized protest meet-ups. The key players were often right-wing influencers who amassed thousands of followers and created private groups that helped those conspiracy theories fester. |
That led us to Dominick McGee. The 26-year-old from Augusta, Ga., created one of the larger private groups in the #StopTheSteal movement. We watched as he spread increasingly unusual theories and half-truths about the Democrats’ supposed efforts to unlawfully elect Joe Biden. |
Then we scrolled through his timeline. Go back just a few months and there was hardly any mention of the president or his divisive politics. |
His journey from average Facebook user to right-wing organizer is a remarkable one. And it demonstrates the ways Facebook rewards partisanship with benefits that might seem trivial: more likes, more followers, some attention and maybe a few T-shirt sales. Meanwhile, our democracy crumbles. |
We ran that same exercise for dozens of other Facebook influencers, scrolling back in time to a more innocuous age of selfies and status updates. They, too, found a new way to receive the engagement they wanted. |
All they needed to do was to tap into the rich vein of hyper-partisanship and conspiracy theorizing, and ride the wave of attention. |
Here’s what we’re focusing on today: |
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