Did Social Media Cause Donald Trump’s Capitol Riots?

On Jan 6th, the U.S witnessed one of the largest public domestic terror attacks seen in the last decade. A rally in support of former President Donald J. Trump turned deadly when thousands of attendees stormed the U.S. Capitol building. This chaos began when social media followers of Trump and Trump himself incited supporters to march to Capitol Hill and disrupt congress who was meeting to certify President-elect Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States.

One of democracy’s fundamental principles is majoritarianism: the will of the majority goes. Although the U.S is not a direct democracy, the way that we elect representatives is. Democracy’s existence is pretty contingent on upholding what the people want. The point is, this was an undemocratic thing to do. 

Many factors worked to contribute towards that growing political unrest that exploded into this act. Still, the one who really exacerbated the strength of this extremist movement is pretty clear: social media. 

Trump and his supporters explicitly used their online platforms to spread calls to action about the election and openly condoned action towards Capitol Hill’s decision. In fact, campaigns like “Stop The Steal” used Twitter rhetoric that promoted kamikaze mindsets towards the decision, piggybacking off misinformation to build a cult following who wanted to use violence as a tool for protest.

Trump’s own Twitter page posted a string of messages seemingly condoning the acts of protest (many of which led to violence and featured white supremacist partakers) and encouraging it. 

“Washington is being inundated with people who don’t want to see an election victory stolen by emboldened Radical Left Democrats. Our Country has had enough, they won’t take it anymore! We hear you (and love you) from the Oval Office. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

“I hope the Democrats, and even more importantly, the weak and ineffective RINO section of the Republican Party, are looking at the thousands of people pouring into D.C. They won’t stand for a landslide election victory to be stolen. @senatemajldr @JohnCornyn @SenJohnThune”

The direct demonization of ongoing democratic processes coupled with the support of many who were “willing to die” for the cause was a recipe for disaster. Social media put a megaphone towards these ideas, allowing them to spread like wildfire. 

Even Beyond those tweets, however, Social media allowed quick and easy access to plan the attack. Rioters on various social media platforms discussed and debated plans of action for weeks leading up to Jan 6th, with online forums playing a significant role in the networking/organization of the events. 

The media that we consume has a significant impact on the way that we act. Because of that, it’s crucial to make sure that our news sources are unbiased, not construing data, and telling the whole truth. 

It’s essential to start a dialogue now, mainly because Social media is becoming an increasingly large part of the US population’s news diet. Americans aged 18-29 are more likely to get their news from social media than anywhere else. 

The surge in social media platform usage over COVID-19 induced pandemics led to an increasing dependency, which saw many using the apps as sources of news. Coupled with a natural shift towards social media platforms becoming more prominent in everyday life, it was anything but surprising to see an uptick in the user bases of popular apps like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.