129 After the election, some Stanford Internet Observatory researchers examined platform moderation of content that we had tracked via the Election Integrity Partnership’s Jira ticketing system. See Samantha Bradshaw, Shelby Grossman, and Miles McCain, “An Investigation of Social Media Labeling Decisions Preceding the 2020 U.S. Election,” PloS One 18, no. 11 (2023): 1–18, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289683.
130 “Summary of Investigative Findings,” Tech Policy Press, n.d., accessed September 3, 2023, https://techpolicy.press/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/J6-Committee-Draft-Social-Media-Report-TPP.pdf.
131 “Far-Right Influencer Known as ‘Baked Alaska’ Sentenced over Capitol Attack,” The Guardian, January 10, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/10/baked-alaska-anthime-gionet-sentenced-capitol-attack.
132 Craig Timberg, “Gallows or Guillotines? The Chilling Debate on TheDonald.win Before the Capitol Siege,” Washington Post, April 15, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/04/15/thedonald-capitol-attack-advance-democracy.
133 Jonathan A. Greenblatt, “No One Is Born an Extremist. Jan. 6 Shows Virtually Anyone Can Be Swept Up by Hate Groups,” USA Today, January 6, 2022, https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2022/01/06/january-6-hate-groups-adl-research/8995472002.
134 Cass Sunstein, Going to Extremes: How Like Minds Unite and Divide (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
135 Zicheng Cheng, Hugo Marcos-Marne, and Homero Gil de Zúñiga, “Birds of a Feather Get Angrier Together: Social Media News Use and Social Media Political Homophily as Antecedents of Political Anger,” Political Behavior, March 6, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-023-09864-z.
136 Lyn Van Swol, Sangwon Lee, and Rachel Hutchins, “The Banality of Extremism: The Role of Group Dynamics and Communication of Norms in Polarization on January 6,” Group Dynamics: Theory, Research and Practice 26, no. 3 (2022): 239–251, https://doi.org/10.1037/gdn0000180.
137 As Van Swol, Lee, and Hutchins put it, “The fact that participants posted themselves on social media participating in the attack, without consideration of the consequences, suggests just how embedded they were in the norms of their network and isolated from dissent” (ibid.).
138 See P. B. Paulus and J. B. Kenworthy, “The Crowd Dynamics and Collective Stupidity of the January 6 Riot: Theoretical Analyses and Prescriptions for a Collectively Wiser Future,” Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice 26, no. 3 (2022): 199–219, https://doi.org/10.1037/gdn0000184: “Even with a limited security force, the crowd did not surge through the police lines until some crowd members (apparently instigated by certain crowd elements such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers) were able to breach the police lines with little consequence. The restriction of movement of crowd members on the Capitol grounds was thus disinhibited due to the lack of serious consequences. Contagion and imitation followed.” Paulus and Kenworthy examined the multifaceted psychological dynamics of mobilization in depth: “The crowd members were mobilized for action by both the social media process and the rally speakers to go to the Capitol to protest the election and demand a reassessment of the outcome. At that point, social control factors become the key elements that determine the outcome of the collective movement or action. Respected leaders inside and outside of the collective, the press, and clear messages from security elements or officials about the appropriate and inappropriate collective actions and consequences for violations can help minimize the potential for violent and destructive actions. An important factor in the occurrence of a hostile outburst is leadership. The leadership may be unintentional when the individual behaviors of some group members lead others to follow. In the case of the breaching of the police lines, the simple act of some in the crowd breaking through the lines may have led others to follow.”
139 Maria Polletta and Andrew Oxford, “Arizona GOP Asks Followers If They’re Willing to Die in Effort to Overturn Election Results,” AZ Central, December 8, 2020, https://www.azcentral.com /story/news/politics/elections/2020/12/08/arizona-republican-party-asks-if-followers-die-election-president-donald-trump/6488952002/.
140 Zachary Petrizzo, “‘Stop the Steal’ Leader Threatens ‘Something Bad’ Might Happen to D.C. Hotel After It Closes Doors to MAGA March,” Daily Dot, December 29, 2020, https://www.dailydot.com/debug/stop-the-steal-something-bad-hotel-harrington.
141 Daniel Lippman, “Facebook Bans Stop the Steal Organizer Ali Alexander,” Politico. January 12, 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/12/facebook-bans-stop-the-steal-organizer-ali-alexander-458267.
142 Will Sommer, “‘Stop the Steal’ Organizer in Hiding After Denying Blame for Riot,” Daily Beast, January 10, 2021, https://www.thedailybeast.com/stop-the-steal-organizer-in-hiding-after-denying-blame-for-riot.
