Photo credit: kreatikar from Pixabay

Two weeks ago, January 6th, marked a year since the Capitol Insurrection. On January 6th, 2021, the United States Capitol building was raided and vandalized by 2,000-2,500 supporters of President Trump, who sought to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. Rallying to Trump’s claims of a fraudulent or “rigged” election, the violent mob resulted in the deaths of four of the rioters and one police officer, and over 140 officer injuries. An architect of the Capitol building estimated 30 million dollars in damages due to the insurrection. 

In an interview with CNN, DC Metropolitan police commander Ramey Kyle recounted his memory of the insurrection: “You could hear all the screaming and you could smell the pepper spray… it was like I was walking into a war-zone.”

Prior to the January 6th Capitol insurrection, social media had played a prominent role in aiding the instigation and organization of the insurrection. Far-right social media platforms such as Parlor or Telegram had echoed calls for Trump supporters to storm the Capitol building and to bring guns in case of facing resistance, while other platforms such as Discord, 4chan, and Reddit had spread conspiracy theories of a fraudulent election.

According to HuffPost, Trump himself claimed that the election had been fraudulent over 100 times, both in speech and through social media. Though some platforms such as Twitter and Facebook labeled some of his posts as factually disputed by other sources, no effort was made to formally ban or suspend his reach through social media. Trump’s claims coupled with the surge of anti-Democratic sentiment on other platforms was enough to instigate the insurrection.

And on January 6th, social media was hugely prominent as a news source to Americans across the country, as videos of mobbers breaking windows streamed live, and trending politicized tweets sky-rocketed.

In the aftermath of the January 6th Capitol insurrection, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives on January 13th, 2021, for “incitement of insurrection”. This marked his second impeachment, making him the only U.S. president ever to have been impeached twice. The Senate voted 57-43 to impeach Trump, less than the 67 senator majority that was needed. Trump was acquitted a month after his charge of impeachment, on February 13th, 2021. 

But in a twist of fate, if due justice was not served through the legislative branch, some form of accountability was served through some of the very platforms that had spread Trump’s insightful claims of a fraudulent election. Trump was suspended indefinitely from YouTube, while also permanently banned from Snapchat and Twitter. He was also banned from Facebook for the remainder of his term in office.

In a CNN quote, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg said: “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great, therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”

A year later on January 6th, Americans across the country took to social media to share their reflections on the insurrection.

In an Instagram post, writer and Boston University professor Ibram X. Kendi wrote “Never let it be forgotten that there were two insurrections on Jan. 6. The first was the violent breaching of the Capitol that left five people dead and injured about 140 police officers. The second came hours later, also in the same hallowed space, when 147 Republicans voted to overturn the election. That, too, was an attempted breach of democracy and the peaceful transfer of power.” Kendi makes clear that the attack was not only in the physical insurrection itself but in the complacency and even allyship that people in power have found with the insurrectionists when they do not push for adequate consequences. 

UC Berkeley professor and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich tweeted: “There have been no consequences for Trump or his co-conspirators in Congress. 71% of Republicans think Biden’s win was illegitimate. Voter suppression laws are sweeping the US, as are laws giving state legislatures control over election machinery. Trump’s coup is still ongoing.” As we remember the attacks, it is important to note that we have not yet left behind the conspiracy theories and election fraud claims. There continues to be a flood of extremist content across social media, revealing that companies’ efforts to curtail such information have not been enough. 

Mary McCord, a former national security official and executive director of Georgetown University’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection told POLITICO, “One of the most alarming developments of 2021 since the insurrection has been an effort, especially among influencers and politicians, to normalize conspiracy theories around election denial.”

The prominence of social media in almost every aspect of the January 6th Capitol Insurrection—from its organization, documentation, to the spread of misinformation—continues to shape an extremist rabbit hole. The Capitol Insurrection should be enough to warn us of how online platforms that allow the inciting of violence can lead to detrimental outcomes.