Baseless claims about Democrat-led coup on Facebook and Twitter are riling up Trump supporters and raising concerns about election-day violence
Baseless claims are circulating online about a Democrat-led coup, inflaming tensions in an already turbulent election season. Tweets: @meanprogress , @ronrosenbaum1 , @puiwingtam , @daveyalba , @daveyalba , @jason_kint , @m_millsey , @nytimesbusiness , and @nytmedia Tweets: @meanprogress : The right wing echo chamber is being inundated with “the left are getting ready to attack!” You read this like “Wait. What? I've heard nothing about that ... and we're not dicks.” They're inciting the rabid cult to violence. Vote early. Be safe. Fuck trump. (not literally 🤢) https://twitter.com/... Ron Rosenbaum / @ronrosenbaum1 : Dan Bongino is truly one of the stupidest and most malign right wing shills. Whether he believes his blatant lies or not he is obviously anxious to provoke violence, even a civil war. And his brainwashed followers are stupid enough to believe him. https://www.nytimes.com/... Pui-Wing Tam / @puiwingtam : False rumors of a Democratic coup on Election Day are among the election-related lies circulating on social media, adding to a tinderbox environment. It's causing some people to say they need to answer with violence. @daveyalba https://www.nytimes.com/... Davey Alba / @daveyalba : The path of the leftist coup falsehood, as @ISDglobal helped frame: conspiracy communities (Infowars) → conservative think tanks (Claremont Institute) → right-wing influencers with millions of followers (Dan Bongino, et al) → to you and me. The voters. https://www.nytimes.com/... Davey Alba / @daveyalba : NEW: Election-related falsehoods are swirling on Facebook, riling up many of Trump's supporters just as the president has publicly stoked the idea of election chaos. Just some more stuff for the dystopia beat ahead of Nov. 3 https://www.nytimes.com/... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : “In a text message, Mr. Bongino said the idea of a Democratic coup was ‘not a rumor’” @dbongino on brand spreading toxic sludge to mess with democracy. https://twitter.com/... Mike Chills / @m_millsey : Social media are the worst thing to ever happen to American political discourse. Left or right (mostly right), they are a nutrition-and fact-free echo chamber for the worst or American thought, or what passes now for such. https://twitter.com/... @nytimesbusiness : “This is extremely concerning,” said a computer science professor at Elon University. Combined with President Trump's comments, the false rumors are “giving violent vigilantes an excuse” that acting out in real life would be “in defense of democracy.” https://www.nytimes.com/... @nytmedia : Online rumors appear to be riling up President Trump's base, just as he has stoked the idea of election chaos. In comment after comment about the falsehoods, respondents said the only way to stop violence from the left was to respond in kind with force. https://www.nytimes.com/...