“An increasing but modest level of activity online,” calling for violence in response to the 2020 election has been detected by the Dept. of Homeland Security.
According to an Aug. 6 ABC News report, the DHS said Friday baseless claims of 2020 election fraud and a conspiracy theory that former President Donald Trump will be reinstated have been observed in the messages.
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"Some conspiracy theories associated with reinstating former President Trump have included calls for violence if desired outcomes are not realized," said DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis bulletin obtained by ABC.
A senior DHS official said the bulletin was done with civil rights and civil liberties in mind.
“We don't want to overreact, but we want to make sure that we are at the earliest stage possible providing awareness to law enforcement and other personnel who are responsible for security and are critical to mitigating risk,” they said.
In January, people opposed to the 2020 election results who supported false claims of voter fraud stormed the U.S. Capitol, leading to deadly riots. Online posts preceded in riots, according to NBC News.
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The senior official said that one of the lessons learned from the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol is “that information that may reflect a growing threat may be communicated on public forums.”
While Trump and his supporters continue to make voter fraud claims, no evidence has been found to back them up.
“Over the last few days what has occurred is there's been much more public visibility, meaning the discussions and these theories have migrated away from being contained within the conspiracy and extremist online communities, to where they're being the topic of discussion on web forums, or more public web forums, and even within the sort of media ecosystem,” the senior DHS official explained of activity this week.
Though there has been concerning activity online, the DHS said in i its bulletin they do not have specific evidence there is a plot (such as the Capitol riot) imminent.
“As public visibility of the narratives increases, we are concerned about more calls to violence. Reporting indicates that the timing for these activities may occur during August 2021, although we lack information on specific plots or planned actions,” said the bulletin.
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Going forward, DHS official said the department “does not have the luxury,” to wait for more information about attacks before addressing potential threats.
“Past circumstances have illustrated that calls for violence could expand rapidly in the public domain and may be occurring outside of publicly available channels. As such, lone offenders and small groups of individuals could mobilize to violence with little-to-no warning,” the bulletin explained.
Some conspiracy theories and false circulating online are spread by foreign governments, foreign terrorist groups, domestic extremist thought leaders and “individuals who are predisposed to engage in violence,” said the official.
Members of the Proud Boys hate group have been arrested in relation to the Capitol riots. The DHS official also pointed to the events of Jan. 6 and the attacks on synagogues in Pittsburgh, Penn., and Poway, Calif., as examples of such activity.
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