TY - JOUR
T1 - Angry Enough to Riot
T2 - An Analysis of In-Group Membership, Misinformation, and Violent Rhetoric on TheDonald.win Between Election Day and Inauguration
AU - Riley, Jeffrey K.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
PY - 2022/4
Y1 - 2022/4
N2 - This study was a mixed-method quantitative and qualitative analysis that analyzed content posted to TheDonald.win, a web forum popular with extreme supporters of Donald Trump. The purpose of this study was to expand knowledge of the dynamics of radicalized online spaces, especially the role that shifting In-Group and Out-Group membership plays in fomenting increased levels of observably radicalized language. The study examined the top-20 posts on the website every day between when the 2020 US presidential election was called and the presidential inauguration in January 2021. The study found that In-Group membership was maintained only by expressing open, public support of Trump’s claims of election fraud, that misinformation was rampant on the site but was often vague in its linguistic form, and that posters to TheDonald.win saw their own In-Group as the victims of violence more often than they used violent rhetoric against members of the Out-Group.
AB - This study was a mixed-method quantitative and qualitative analysis that analyzed content posted to TheDonald.win, a web forum popular with extreme supporters of Donald Trump. The purpose of this study was to expand knowledge of the dynamics of radicalized online spaces, especially the role that shifting In-Group and Out-Group membership plays in fomenting increased levels of observably radicalized language. The study examined the top-20 posts on the website every day between when the 2020 US presidential election was called and the presidential inauguration in January 2021. The study found that In-Group membership was maintained only by expressing open, public support of Trump’s claims of election fraud, that misinformation was rampant on the site but was often vague in its linguistic form, and that posters to TheDonald.win saw their own In-Group as the victims of violence more often than they used violent rhetoric against members of the Out-Group.
KW - In-Group Out-Group dynamics
KW - Reddit
KW - online misinformation
KW - online radicalization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85133212605&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/20563051221109189
DO - 10.1177/20563051221109189
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85133212605
SN - 2056-3051
VL - 8
JO - Social Media and Society
JF - Social Media and Society
IS - 2
ER -