Digital intelligence firm CounterAction working on behalf of Reuters monitored Facebook groups for violent rhetoric during September and October, ahead of the election.
The results are a reflection of how deep Trump’s violent, racist, anti-democracy rhetoric has sunk in with his supporters.
Variations of twenty phrases that could be associated with calls for violence, such as “lock and load” and “we need a civil war,” appeared along with references to election outcomes in about 41,000 instances in U.S.-based public Facebook Groups over the two month period.
Other phrases, like “shoot them” and “kill them all,” were used within public groups at least 7,345 times and 1,415 times respectively, according to CounterAction. “Hang him” appeared 8,132 times. “Time to start shooting, folks,” read one comment.
Reuters
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Photo: Kyle Johnson
