Carlson’s claims drive violent threats on online platforms
Jessica Guynn and Will Carless
Tucker Carlson’s portrayal of the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack as a largely peaceful event on his prime-time Fox News show set off a dangerous new wave of social media chatter that includes death threats against Capitol police officers and Democratic leaders, according to experts who monitor extremism and a report from Advance Democracy shared exclusively with USA TODAY.
The segment that aired last week downplayed the violence at the Capitol two years ago, recasting the Washington mob that breached the Capitol as an “orderly and meek” gathering of “sightseers.”
Carlson’s claims, which accompanied clips of Capitol security footage, drew an angry reaction from right-wing users who fired off threats on Twitter and in pro-Trump forums directed at politicians who have made public inquiries into the violence, especially the congressional Jan. 6 committee.
Those threats came in far greater numbers than before the broadcast, according to the Advance Democracy report.
On Twitter, posts relating to Jan. 6 using violent rhetoric increased fivefold from the previous week, the report shows.
The outpouring of violence concerns extremism experts, who said Carlson and Fox News are playing with fire by spreading disinformation that could inspire violence against the targets of their coverage.
“If there were an attack right now on one of the groups or individuals that was mentioned in Tucker’s report – one of the dumping grounds for his ire – I would not be surprised at all,” said Megan Squire, deputy director for data analytics at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “I mean, that’s basically what we’re expecting right now.”
On pro-Trump forum Patriots.win, users called for violence, with one commenting: “SOLUTION HAS NEVER CHANGED.” He added, “GALLOWS. FOR ALL OF THEM.”
Incendiary comments spread on other social media platforms such as Gab, Gettr, 4chan and Trump’s own Truth Social, according to the Advance Democracy report. Violent threats included calls to lynch Jan. 6 Committee members and Democratic lawmakers such as “hang them high” and “hang ’em all.”
“God does not sleep,” a Gettr user wrote. “Every one of them in the January 6 committee will have to pay for what they did.”
Streaming platforms Rumble and TikTok were also rife with incendiary talk including claims that Jan. 6 was a so-called false flag operation. (In such a case, conspiracy theorists allege, a destructive event is actually faked to pin blame on the opposite side.)
Users called for mass arrests and charges of treason against Jan. 6 Committee members, Advance Democracy found.
“Nuremberg 2.0 for the Commies and their propagandists,” one Rumble user wrote. “If not a single person is arrested for the immense corruption then there are no more peaceful solutions,” another wrote.
One TikTok commenter threatened mainstream media outlets: “It’s time to burn these media outlets to the ground.”
Squire said Advance Democracy’s findings mirror what she and her team at SPLC are seeing on social media in the wake of Carlson’s reports.
Jared Holt, a senior researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and an expert on domestic extremism, said he also noted a significant uptick in violent and hateful rhetoric online after the Carlson piece aired.
Holt said a quick analysis showed Carlson’s name, and references to the Jan. 6 riot increased 15-fold in the days after the segment.
“Disagreements are at the heart of politics,” Holt said. “The political process is about resolving those disagreements. But if one party of that conversation is attempting to erase what, objectively, was an attack on the democratic process itself – it’s just appalling.”
Fox News did not respond to a request for comment.