Federal prosecutions of the January 6, 2021 capitol insurrectionists: The role of social media

The Capitol Insurrection on January 6, 2021 provides an important case study for examining the role of social media in documenting, investigating, and prosecuting politically motivated criminal activity in the United States. This article shows that social media platforms played a critical role in the Capitol Insurrection, radicalizing Trump supporters and right-wing extremists, spreading conspiracy theories of election fraud, and promoting President Trump's “big lie,” which was the myth that the 2020 presidential election was stolen by voter fraud. President Trump's two-month post-election campaign to “stop the steal,” culminated in the Capitol riots on January 6. This article focuses on how posts, images, photos, and videos captured on social media platforms were used as evidence to prosecute individuals who breached the Capitol on January 6. Out of the 942 individuals criminally charged at the Capitol, this article analyzes 567 individual cases. By using a mixed method approach of visual criminology and qualitative thematic analysis, the article identifies 10 themes within social media posts used as evidence by the U.S. Department of Justice to criminally prosecute the Capitol Insurrectionists. The article concludes that social media platforms should reconstruct and reinforce their guidelines pertaining to violent and terrorist content and that government intelligence agencies and law enforcement officials need to be more vigilant when monitoring domestic extremism.