social media
February 3, 2021 -
Right-wing extremists who believe the fall of American society has begun and should be hastened through racial polarization and violence played a key role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Documents filed as part of recent criminal prosecutions of accelerationists, many active in the South, reveal disturbing trends, including ties to foreign intelligence services and penetration of the U.S. military.
November 2, 2018 -
GOP state Sen. Dan Bishop is facing criticism for supporting Gab, the alt-right social media platform used by the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter. Bishop's 2017 investment was a response to social media platforms banning the organizers of the violent "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville — a group Bishop compared to the Black Lives Matter movement.
October 19, 2018 -
A new ad from Republican Justice Barbara Jackson raises ethical questions due to its partisan tone and stoking of conservative voters' fears about immigrants. Jackson has also shared alt-right followers' tweets and raised First Amendment concerns by blocking a Twitter follower for pointing out that she was retweeting a racist account.
April 25, 2018 -
The first peer-reviewed study of ads bought on Facebook to influence the 2016 election is renewing calls for Congress to pass the Honest Ads Act, which would close disclosure loopholes for political ads on social media. The stalled bill is opposed by groups including Americans for Prosperity and an anti-regulatory think tank with a connection to Senate leader Mitch McConnell.
July 24, 2015 -
Since a white supremacist who waved the Confederate flag gunned down nine African Americans in a Charleston church last month, battles have raged across the South over the future of Confederate monuments. Some Confederate apologists are claiming that a 1958 law gives Confederate veterans, and thus the monuments to them, equal status to U.S. veterans and their memorials. They're wrong.
August 7, 2014 -
A national coalition of young racial justice organizers has launched a public education campaign to change how young people think about voting and boost turnout for this year's election. The #KnowYourPower campaign will use social media to reach millennials, the demographic cohort whose starting birth year is usually identified as 1982.
