Attempted assassination of Donald Trump spurred a huge spike in calls for violence and civil war online
CBSN
The day after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the internet saw a huge spike in calls for violence, and in particular an increase in calls for a modern-day civil war — a chilling reflection of a small group of users who create and amplify messages glorifying mass shooters and perpetrators of targeted violence.
The spike was documented by Moonshot, a company that monitors domestic violent extremism, or DVE, spaces online. A team of six researchers documented 1,599 calls for civil war — a 633% increase from a normal day — across a range of online platforms including 4Chan and Reddit, more mainstream platforms like YouTube, and new sites for far-right discussions geared towards angry and disillusioned young men.
"The uptick in online calls is fairly typical of online discourse in spaces that glorify violence," Elizabeth Neumann, chief strategy officer for Moonshot, told CBS News. "The fact is, there is an online ecosystem out there working day in, day out to encourage violence of all kinds, from political civil war to mindless school shootings," she said.
