“Nothing can stop it,” the report said in a message seen by at least 185,000 people on Tuesday morning. “They can no longer hide in the shadows,” it adds half an hour later. Then, 20 minutes later: “Last hours.” It went on like this. Around 10 a.m., it posted an ominous picture of soldiers in uniform behind a fence in Washington DC with the caption “Stay in Your Homes.”
A spokesman for Genl. Hyten told CNN on Tuesday morning that the bill was “an absolute hoax” and added that the Pentagon was “actively working” to take it down. On Tuesday afternoon, the account was marked as a ‘scam’ with the message ‘Warning: Many users have reported this account as a scam or a fake account.’ The account has since lost a number of followers, and many of the messages have been deleted. A Telegram spokesman told CNN: ‘Telegram monitors reports and warns users about fraudulent accounts in obvious cases like the ones you pointed out. Facebook and Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The conspiracy theory has at its root the same thing that inspired the January 6 riot in the Capitol – the false idea that the election was stolen and that American democracy was threatened, and that someone had to do something. Then the rioters took it upon themselves. After the riots, similar groups of people believed they could hang back and wait because Trump and the military would take action. But given the way conspiracy theories work in general, and the way they increased after the riots, it’s easy to think that these theories are turning in new ways, once it’s clear that such a thing is not going to happen.
Many of the discussions surrounding martial law online eventually join QAnon, who has long had a promise of and a lust for blood. But the people who are excitedly talking about the possibility of a military takeover may not know the origin of their obsession. And the phenomenon does not seem to be limited to a niche corner on the internet.
Over the past two weeks, CNN has seen Trump supporters embrace the idea in large numbers and on various social media platforms.
On Facebook, a video in which a man warned people that they had to accumulate food before martial law was applied was watched more than five million times before it was actually checked and marked as fake. The video is no longer on Facebook, although it is not clear who took it. CNN commented on Facebook.
On YouTube, a man who was previously best known for his allegations that he had a strange mother and an alien daughter suddenly became a star. He has been viewed more than 3.5 million times with a video in which he claims that Trump signed the Insurrection Act, a prominent feature of many conspiracy theories of martial law. Another video in which he says as many as 85% of Congress can be arrested has been viewed nearly 1.7 million times. After this article was initially published, Ivy Choi, a YouTube spokesperson, told CNN that the company removed the latter video after being questioned by CNN, saying it was “infringing”.[ed] our integrity policy for presidential elections. ‘
On TikTok, thousands if not tens of thousands of people have already seen and responded to dozens of videos related to the conspiracy theories. These videos vary topic, all linked to the same false idea that Trump is about to introduce martial law – in some film people excited the movement of military vehicles, convinced that it is a sign; in others, people repeat warnings about food and water preparedness; a popular theme is that Trump will use the Emergency Broadcast System at any time to announce the start of his move. There is rarely, if ever, any sign of hesitation or worry about the lives that could be lost.
– CNN’s Mallory Simon reported