In the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 invasion of the Capitol, which has resulted in multiple convictions, and despite receiving increasing scrutiny by the press, you might be wondering what is happening with the recruiting efforts of White supremacist, neo-Nazi, and MAGA-supporting militia groups? Unfortunately, you need look no further than Facebook to see that these groups are boldly using the platform to recruit in plain sight.
According to WIRED magazine’s Tess Owen, “After lying low for several years … militia extremists have been quietly reorganizing, ramping up recruitment and rhetoric on Facebook—with apparently little concern that Meta will enforce its ban against them, according to new research by the Tech Transparency Project, shared exclusively with WIRED.”
In a WIRED piece titled “Extremist Militias Are Coordination in More Than 100 Facebook Groups” (https://www.wired.com/story/extremist-militias-are-coordinating-on-facebook/), Owen reported:
Individuals across the US with long-standing ties to militia groups are creating networks of Facebook pages, urging others to recruit ‘active patriots’ and attend meetups, and openly associating themselves with known militia-related sub-ideologies like that of the anti-government Three Percenter movement. They’re also advertising combat training and telling their followers to be ‘prepared’ for whatever lies ahead. These groups are trying to facilitate local organizing, state by state and county by county. Their goals are vague, but many of their posts convey a general sense of urgency about the need to prepare for ‘war’ or to ‘stand up’ against many supposed enemies, including drag queens, immigrants, pro-Palestine college students,
communists—and the US government.