Right-wing groups, which use the MAGAt shithole, Telegram, to organize real-world actions, are urging followers to watch the polls and stand up for their rights, in a harbinger of potential chaos.
“The day is fast approaching when fence sitting will no longer be possible,” read one post from an Ohio chapter of the Proud Boys, the far-right organization that was instrumental in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. “You will either stand with the resistance or take a knee and willingly accept the yoke of tyranny and oppression.”
Groups backing former President Donald J. Trump recently sent messages to organize poll watchers to be ready to dispute votes in Democratic areas. Some posted images of armed men standing up for their rights to recruit for their cause. Others spread conspiracy theories that anything less than a Trump victory on Tuesday would be a miscarriage of justice worthy of revolt.
A New York Times analysis of more than one million messages across nearly 50 Telegram channels with over 500,000 members found a sprawling and interconnected movement intended to question the credibility of the presidential election, interfere with the voting process and potentially dispute the outcome. Nearly every channel reviewed by The Times was created after the 2020 election, highlighting the growth and increased sophistication of the election denialism movement.
“Telegram is very often central to actually organizing people to engage in offline activity,” said Ms. Keneally, who now works for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a research firm that monitors Telegram. She recalled attending a meeting of election skeptics in Montana, where participants taught one another how to use Telegram. Among more extreme movements, she said, Telegram is used “very strategically to radicalize and recruit.”
‘If Harris wins, you’re going to see armed protesters’
Nick Quested spent months with the far-Right Proud Boys for his new documentary – and now gives his predictions for the upcoming election
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***I have used MSN as a source since The Wall Street Journal has a paywall.
mobilizing in support of Donald Trump—and in some cases, making threats about the presidential election.
While it isn’t clear what the far-right group is planning or how coordinated its plans are, many chapters are amplifying election-cheating claims made by Trump or his allies and discussing potential responses, according to a review by The Wall Street Journal of dozens of accounts on Telegram, the messaging app, and Trump’s Truth Social platform. Chapters have gathered across state lines, talked about watching polls and have been boasting about attending Trump rallies to protect the former president.
The online chatter comes as law-enforcement officials confront an unprecedented array of aggressors this election season: foreign operatives, homegrown extremists and lone wolves such as those accused of trying to assassinate Trump.
The federal government is planning dramatically increased security for this Jan. 6 when Congress meets to certify election results. Law-enforcement officials say they don’t expect an attack of similar scale, in part because more than 1,500 rioters were charged.
