They’re ba-ack
Militia groups went quiet after Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 insurrection. But not for long, Tess Owen writes at Wired:
“JOIN YOUR LOCAL Militia or III% Patriot Group,” a post urged the more than 650 members of a Facebook group called the Free American Army. Accompanied by the logo for the Three Percenters militia network and an image of a man in tactical gear holding a long rifle, the post continues: “Now more than ever. Support the American militia page.”
Other content and messaging in the group is similar. And despite the fact that Facebook bans paramilitary organizing and deemed the Three Percenters an “armed militia group” on its 2021 Dangerous Individuals and Organizations List, the post and group remained up until WIRED contacted Meta for comment about its existence.
Free American Army is just one of around 200 similar Facebook groups and profiles, most of which are still live, that anti-government and far-right extremists are using to coordinate local militia activity around the country.
After lying low for several years in the aftermath of the US Capitol riot on January 6, militia extremists have been quietly reorganizing, ramping up recruitment and rhetoric on Facebook—with apparently little concern that Meta will enforce its ban against them, according to new research by the Tech Transparency Project, shared exclusively with WIRED.
Individuals across the US with long-standing ties to militia groups are creating networks of Facebook pages, urging others to recruit “active patriots” and attend meetups, and openly associating themselves with known militia-related sub-ideologies like that of the anti-government Three Percenter movement. They’re also advertising combat training and telling their followers to be “prepared” for whatever lies ahead. These groups are trying to facilitate local organizing, state by state and county by county. Their goals are vague, but many of their posts convey a general sense of urgency about the need to prepare for “war” or to “stand up” against many supposed enemies, including drag queens, immigrants, pro-Palestine college students, communists—and the US government.
These cosplayers are often dismissed at Meal Team Six or Gravy Seals, but as Jan. 6 demonstrated they can still do damage. Enough have military training and skills that make them a threat. Maybe not as much of a threat as they imagine while they’re running around with AR-15s at secluded training camps.
Wired being Wired, it focuses heavily on Meta’s failure to police its own policies against this use of its online platform. Facebook remains “a go-to hub for militia organizing.”
Polling conducted earlier this year of more than 1,000 Americans found that one in five Americans “strongly agree” that violence is the only viable solution to get the country back on track. Although the societal conditions heading into this year’s election are not the same as those in 2020, a newly emboldened militia movement could add a dangerous dimension to potentially fraught future events, such as a judge handing down a prison sentence for Trump or Trump losing another close presidential election.
So far, Trump’s calls for MAGA to rise again to show its support outside his Manhattan trial have come up all but empty. Doesn’t mean they can’t still do damage. The Department of Justice is still not done prosecuting the lot from Jan. 6.
Comedian Neal Brennan thinks we should test out militias’ “watering the tree of liberty” theories with live fire.
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