Far-right extremists in the US have the potential to mount a coordinated, low-intensity campaign of political violence. It wouldn’t be the country’s first experience with domestic terror.
From a global perspective, there was nothing unique about the recent raid on the U.S. Capitol. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have backed military coups around the world for decades.
It’s concerning that tech executives can exercise so much power over who can use their platforms. But the alternative – government intervention – could be much worse.
A leaked database shows at least 10% of the far-right Oath Keepers militia is active police or military – people professionally trained in using weapons and conducting sophisticated operations.
Looming threats of more possible violence signal broader opposition to the Biden administration in what could become a loose campaign of domestic terrorism.
We have unwittingly volunteered our faces in social media posts and photos stored in the cloud. But we’ve yet to determine who owns the data associated with the contours of our faces.
In claiming the election was “stolen” from him and using the office of the president to the benefit of his family, Trump dips into the authoritarian playbook to convert power into property.
Paul R. Carr, Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO) and Gina Thésée, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
The U.S. illustrates this week that changing a nation’s leader without rethinking the system he or she is upholding is no longer acceptable for citizens. We need an improved form of democracy.
Banning extremists from social media platforms can reduce hate speech, but the deplatforming process has to be handled with care – and it can have unintended consequences.