“Nothing can stop that,” said the report in a message that was seen by at least 185,000 people on Tuesday morning. “They can no longer hide in the shadows,” he added half an hour later. Then, 20 minutes later: “Last hours.” It went on like this. At about 10:00 am Eastern time, he posted a sinister picture of uniformed soldiers behind a fence in Washington DC with the caption “Stay at your homes.”
A spokesman for General Hyten told CNN on Tuesday morning that the bill is “an absolute scam” and added that the Pentagon is “actively working” to take it down. On Tuesday afternoon, the account was marked as “scam” with the message “Warning: many users reported this account as a scam or a fake account.” Since then, the account has lost some followers and many of the messages have been removed. A Telegram spokesman told CNN: “Telegram monitors reports and warns users about fraudulent accounts in clear cases like the one you pointed out.” Facebook and Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The conspiracy theory is rooted in the same thing that inspired the riot inside the Capitol on January 6 – the false idea that the election was stolen and American democracy under threat, and someone had to do something. Then the troublemakers took responsibility. After the rebellion, similar groups of people believed they could back off and wait because Trump and the military would act. But given the way conspiracy theories work in general and the way they proliferated after the riot, it is easy to imagine these theories emerging in new ways, once it is clear that no such action will take place.
Much of the discussion around online martial law ultimately links to QAnon, which has long had a promise and a desire for blood. But people who are enthusiastically discussing the possibility of a military takeover may not know the origins of their obsession. And the phenomenon does not appear to be confined to a niche Internet market.
In the past two weeks, CNN has seen Trump supporters embracing the idea in large numbers and on various social media platforms.
On Facebook, a video in which a man warned people to stock up on food before martial law was implemented was seen more than five million times before it was checked and marked as fake. The video is no longer on Facebook, although it is not clear who removed it. CNN contacted Facebook for comment.
On YouTube, a man who was previously best known for his claims that he had an alien mother and an alien daughter suddenly became a star. He got over 3.5 million views with a video in which he claimed that Trump had signed the Insurrection Act, a prominent feature of many martial law conspiracy theories. Another video in which he said that up to 85% of Congress could be arrested was seen almost 1.7 million times. After this article was initially published, Ivy Choi, a YouTube spokeswoman, told CNN that the company had removed the last video after being questioned about it by CNN, saying it had “violated[ed] our presidential election integrity policy. ”
On TikTok, thousands, if not tens of thousands of people have seen and reacted to dozens of videos linked to conspiracy theories. These videos vary by subject, all linked to the same false idea that Trump is about to institute martial law – in some, people enthusiastically film the movement of military vehicles, convinced that it is a sign; in others, people repeat warnings about preparing with food and water; a popular theme is that at any time Trump will use the Emergency Transmission System to announce the start of his move. There is rarely, if ever, any sign of hesitation or concern for the lives that may be lost.
– CNN’s Mallory Simon contributed reporting