Predictions of an impending civil war and calls for violence rose early this week on social media platforms such as Truth Social, the network founded by former President Donald J. Trump, following the FBI-approved search of his Florida home on Monday.
The search, which resulted in the seizure of classified documents, sparked an immediate outburst of aggressive and threatening language, similar to the public rhetoric in the days leading up to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Truth Social users posted that the United States was born “by an uprising followed by several years of bloody violence”, and that the country “would become a communist state as long as we don’t take up arms and fight back!!” There was talk that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants,” a sentence from a letter from Thomas Jefferson, and that “cleaning up dangerous vermin sometimes requires a bit of violence, alas. ”
“Not a nice guy anymore,” wrote one user. “We are at war. Promise it won’t be polite,” wrote another. “Lock and load,” wrote a third.
An account by the name of Ricky Shiffer, the man who was killed by police in Ohio on Thursday and ended a standoff that officials say started after he tried to break into the FBI’s Cincinnati office, had posts on Truth Social posted recommending that “patriots” go to Florida and kill federal agents. On Thursday, the same account also appeared to confess to an attack on the FBI
In a series of recent posts, the account had railed against law enforcement officers and issued a “call to arms,” saying they’ve been conditioning us to accept tyranny for two years. When someone asked if he was proposing terrorism, the account replied, “I propose war.” The Times could not immediately confirm whether the Truth Social report belonged to Mr Shiffer, 42, of Columbus.
Truth Social’s Community Guidelines note that it’s “preferred that the removal of users or user-provided content be kept to the bare minimum”, but says it will take action in cases where the platform is “used as a resource for crime or any other unlawful act.” On a list of reasons to report problematic content, Truth Social includes “content that depicts violence or threats of violence”.
Sentiments on Trump’s social media network also spread to other platforms. A Proud Boys Telegram channel, used by hundreds of members of the militant group, posted in the hours after the search that “a civil war is imminent”. According to Dataminr, a tool that analyzes Twitter data, there was a tenfold increase in the number of “civil war” tweets on Twitter in the 24 hours following the raid.
But later in the week, another story gained traction, propelled without evidence by other prominent Truth Social users: that calls to violence were posts planted by federal law enforcement or Democratic agents to portray right-wing patriots as insurgents and extremists. The point, the conspiracy theory goes, is to give the Biden administration cover to disarm Trump supporters, or create a pretext for martial law.
Jack Posobiec, a far-right commentator, wrote on Truth Social on Thursday that “Anyone posting about being violent right now is a FED.” The “Conservative” news site advised people to “assume that anyone advocating ‘civil war’ or violence of any kind is a plant in the hopes of helping support the left’s story.”
Lara Logan, another right-wing commentator, posted a video Friday of an anti-FBI sign spinning in the air to show “Trump 2024 MAGA” on the other side, writing that “they’ve been trying to start a civil war for a while now.” lure time.”
In the comments to her post, one wrote, “Don’t forget to take out the FBI.”
