Opinion

Social Media: A Challenge to Democracy?

By Katherine G. '22

There was “no intelligence that there would be a breach,” stated Washington D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department chief Robert Contee on January 7th, just a day after the Capitol riots that left four rioters and one police officer dead. What began as a pro-Trump rally spiraled horrifically into a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C. Rioters pushed their way past Capitol Police where they quickly dispersed throughout the building and casually waltzed through government chambers and private offices. Eventually, reinforcements arrived and the building was cleared of rioters, though the blatant disregard for Congress and the democratic process continued to weigh heavy on the minds of so many Americans. A concerned population began asking questions. How could this happen? Who is responsible? Could we have foreseen and prevented this?

Since Contee’s assertion, swift investigation by journalists and civil rights organizations have revealed the much larger role social media played in the riots than Contee initially indicated. “Everyone who was a law enforcement officer or a reporter knew exactly what these hate groups were planning,” said Attorney General Karl A. Racine to MSNBC. “They were planning to descend on Washington D.C. … to do combat justice at the Capitol.” Media outlets would soon confirm Racine’s statement.

The Network Contagion Research Institute noted a surge of insurrectionist hashtags such as “1776” and “Occupy” on mainstream and extremist sites alike just days before the riots. The Washington Post cited conversations from Parler that discussed plans to smuggle weapons into the D.C. area. Proud Boys members unleashed violent threats online to “burn down” the Capitol following the arrest of their leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio. Numerous reputable research organizations and newspapers were quick to publicize this information, effectively debunking the notion that no one saw the Capitol Riots coming.

Perpetrators who had been active on large social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook were among the easiest to spot online, but these people comprised only a fraction of the population that contributed to the actual planning. A great deal of conspiracy occurred on encrypted channels.

Encrypted channels like Telegram and Signal have existed for quite some time, mainly used by journalists and human rights workers in order to communicate safely while masking their identities, but recently, they were overtaken by users plotting violence. Sheera Frenkel, a cybersecurity reporter for The New York Times, explained how, usually, plans regarding insider information from these networks would trickle down to larger social media networks where the broader public could then have access. The future of such platforms remains uncertain.

On one hand, encrypted channels are imperative to certain lines of work, but on the other, they are being abused by the public. Not only this, but following the social-media crackdown on President Trump and far-right wing users post-Capitol storming, users flocked in even greater numbers to these anonymous channels. Without the trickling of information from discrete networks to mainstream social media, law enforcement is finding it even more difficult to monitor dangerous groups. As Facebook and Twitter shut down potential threats, groups like Stop the Steal, Proud Boys, and QAnon fractured, scattering thousands to separate online locations, each with their own unique plans. Dispersed communication and planning understandably translated into dispersed activities: increasingly widespread protests broke out across the country. Disorganization and disunity grew both online and in the streets.

The role of social media in modern society has been long debated. There are opportunities to congregate as a community, for good or for bad, but that leaves society vulnerable to secret online conspiracy and potential violence. Even when there were signs, the government seemed to ignore them entirely until there was blood running down the steps of the Capitol Building. Facebook and Twitter’s self-censorship may have been a step in the right direction, but little is certain regarding the abused encrypted channels of the web, the users of which remain continuously active and plotting.