Far-right fury over Trump’s indictment has shades of January 6

As soon as news broke on Thursday that former president Donald Trump had been indicted by a New York grand jury, right-wing activists took to social media platforms like Twitter and Truth Social to issue veiled threats about the retribution to come.

“Bad move,” wrote a QAnon-branded account, @Q, on Truth Social. “Houston – activate Anons,” one user replied. Another added: “The Citizens of the United States will not be deterred by our Military . . . God is on our side.”

On Twitter, the messaging was just as inflammatory. Alt-right personality Jack Posobiec tweeted at his two million followers: “Did you really think they would just let you take your country back?” followed by tweets that simply read, “Bring it” and “Are you ready.”

Ali Alexander, the organizer of the Stop the Steal protests that led to the January 6 riots,  tweeted: “New York has declared a civil war on the rest of us by indicting President Donald J. Trump and stoking violence. Pray!”

It’s hard not to miss the parallels between what unfolded on Thursday and the upwelling of online anger that eventually resulted in the Capitol insurrection. And if the aftermath of January 6 is any indication, online posts like these may well be of interest to officials and tech platforms as they monitor any potential plots to protest Trump’s indictment in the coming days and weeks.

In 2021, internal documents disclosed by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen showed that the social media company had failed to act on weeks of warnings as riot participants posted on its platform that they were going to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory.

Social media posts have also played a role in the prosecutions of January 6 insurrectionists. At a hearing in 2021, a federal judge read aloud social media posts by a rioter before sentencing him to prison, saying the posts made it “extraordinarily difficult” to offer him leniency.

Trump was suspended from Twitter and Facebook after the January 6 riots. Both platforms have since reinstated his accounts, though Trump has only returned to Facebook, and reserves his most incendiary commentary for Truth Social, where he’s contractually obligated to post first.

But since last week, Trump has unleashed a flood of Facebook ads, some of them increasingly menacing. In a 1 a.m. Truth Social post last Friday, Trump warned of “potential death and destruction” if he was charged, something that he said would be “catastrophic for the country.” On Facebook, his campaign ran an ad that blared: “I AM YOUR RETRIBUTION.”

When a Fast Company reporter asked Meta for comment on Trump’s recent activity, a spokesperson responded with a company blog post that noted “in the event that Mr. Trump posts further violating content, the content will be removed, and he will be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation.”

The question now is whether Thursday’s indictment will indeed lead to any broader attempt at “retribution.” After all, it’s not as if Trump intends on staying silent. Following news of the indictment, he posted on Truth Social: ““THIS IS AN ATTACK ON OUR COUNTRY THE LIKES OF WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE. . . . SO SAD!”

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