14 Theses Concerning Online Political Violence

The old world of content safety practices is dead, and the new one is struggling to be born; now is the time of monsters.

Source

Recent news coverage of political violence might lead one to believe that it is primarily a function of individual or substate actors — lone wolves, would-be assassins, and terrorist networks, with a disproportionate focus on online factors that contribute to such actions. But that’s just half the story.

Allow me to nail to the wall 14 theses on the current state of political violence in the United States and its facilitation by media, social media and generative AI companies.

1. Definitions of political violence universally agree that the category includes state violence. Any credible discussion of rising political violence in the United States must include the context of increasingly widespread state violence.[1]

2. The current U.S. administration and its factional supporters are unapologetically using social media and generative AI to justify and glorify political violence, disseminate dangerous false information, promote extremist ideologies, and suppress the free speech of political opponents.[2]

3. While state sponsorship of online harms is hardly new, the U.S. government in this case also wields legal and regulatory power over the biggest and most important platforms, which are based in the United States.

4. Since 2024, the U.S. government has used its position to interfere in the media sector in unprecedented ways, exercising extraordinary leverage over global markets, including social platforms and generative AI. These efforts have encountered friction, but in most cases no robust obstacles.[3]

5. Most major social media and generative AI companies are tolerating or actively enabling the U.S. government’s political violence and other online harms. Some companies are clearly politically or ideologically aligned with the program, while others may be hostage to legal, financial, and regulatory threats of a scale never before imagined in American democracy.[4]

6. The U.S. government is actively interfering with good faith international efforts to mitigate political violence and other online harms by regulating social platforms and generative AI, most notably in the European Union.[5]

7. The U.S. government is exerting its leverage to integrate politically favored social platforms and generative AI companies into public infrastructure.[6]

8. This political and legal landscape has sweeping consequences for public policy, public safety, and the dignity of human lives.

9. Despite strong pragmatic and ideological incentives to align with this administration, social platforms and generative AI companies are not entirely immune to market pressures and consumer discontent.[7]

10. But the owners of media companies and platforms have deep pockets and ideological commitments that sharply limit the effectiveness of grassroots and organized pressure campaigns.[8]

11. Policies and enforcement practices that suppress “violent” speech by one political faction while permitting and amplifying equivalent or worse speech by a second political faction cannot reasonably be categorized as countering political violence.

12. It is more accurate to say that such policies and enforcement practices are picking sides, i.e., determining whose political violence to support by endorsing and enabling the second faction’s political violence against the first.

13. Companies and their leaders who implement such policies and selective enforcement practices are complicit in and accountable for political violence.

14. The issues raised above are far more consequential and dangerous to human life at scale than virtually any speech produced by individuals or nonstate networks.

The last few years have brought dramatic changes in the fields of extremism and political violence, online and offline, and while it’s understandably hard to keep up, we can’t keep talking about these topics as if it’s 2016. Eventually, the pendulum may swing, and those old paradigms may return, but I would argue that is very unlikely. While the current status quo may not persist, what follows will be new and different.

In the short term, our field must adapt to the here and now. During times of political and democratic stability, it was easy to believe that lone wolves self-radicalizing online were the most urgent threat to public safety, democratic freedoms and the American way of life. While we should not ignore such individual and loosely networked actors, we must acknowledge that they are now secondary, perhaps even tertiary concerns.

For those countering political violence online, the highest priority today must be the U.S. government’s espousal of right-wing extremism and its unambiguous intention to export its far-right extremist views to other countries.[9] This includes the online dissemination of rhetoric and misinformation to justify killing American citizens, promoting ethnic cleansing and concentration camps, and justifying and inciting both lawful and unlawful attacks on legal and illegal immigrants, nonwhite people, transgender people, and women.

This mass radicalization project certainly includes individuals and nonstate actors, but the most important node in the network is the U.S. government, and the radicalizers’ most powerful weapon by far is the surrender, compliance, and collaboration of technology and media powerhouses to suppress dissenting speech.

Given this complicity, the old trust and safety model can no longer be considered the primary tool for countering political violence online. While some are still fighting the good fight, the extremists have appropriated the tool of content moderation. As noted in thesis 12, the selective enforcement of content moderation can not be meaningfully described as countering extremism or violence. The biggest platforms have picked a side and it’s not your side, not the side of the millions of Americans protesting the cruelty and violence of this administration and its factional supporters.

Those of us who took part in the last generation of research into “trust and safety” policy and “countering violent extremism” must acknowledge the new status quo and adapt to a threat landscape in which the infrastructure of the entire online ecosystem has been weaponized against human rights and human dignity.

Let this be a wake-up call, and an invitation to start thinking in new ways.

To be continued…

The receipts

[1] Definitions:

Sousa, C. A. (2013). Political violence, collective functioning and health: A review of the literature. Medicine, conflict and survival, 29(3), 169-197. DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/13623699.2013.813109.

World Health Organization. (2002). World report on violence and health: Summary. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9241545615

Kalyvas, S. N. (2019). The landscape of political violence (pp. 11-33). Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Oxford_Handbook_of_Terrorism/PxiMDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=political%20violence%20defined&pg=PA11&printsec=frontcover

[2] Examples of the U.S. administration and supporters promoting political violence and misinformation:

Gais, H. “DHS, White House shared white nationalist song in ICE recruitment posts.” January 14, 2026. Southern Poverty Law Center. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/white-nationalist-song-ice-recruitment-posts/

Joffe-Block, J., Jingnan, H., Nguyen A. “DHS keeps making false claims about people. It's part of a broader pattern.” NPR. January 31, 2026. https://www.npr.org/2026/01/31/nx-s1-5690124/ice-alex-pretti-immigration-unproven-claims-dhs-enforcement-arrests

Serwer, A. “First the shooting. Then the lies.” The Atlantic. January 8, 2026. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/ice-defense-minnesota-killing/685549/

“Alex Jones blames Alex Pretti for his own death.” Media Matters. January 26, 2026. https://www.mediamatters.org/alex-jones/alex-jones-blames-alex-pretti-his-own-death-he-came-gun-and-stuck-himself-middle-riot

Ingram, D. “Toxic rhetoric, including calls for ‘civil war’ and retribution, surges after Charlie Kirk killing.” NBC News. September 12, 2025. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/toxic-rhetoric-including-calls-civil-222243151.html

Martinez, L. “Unraveling the Giant Ball of Lies, Myths, and Disinformation about Immigration.” Center for Immigration Policy and Research. October 2024. https://operations.du.edu/cipr/content/unraveling-giant-ball-lies-myths-and-disinformation-about-immigration

Mazzarino, A. “Donald Trump’s theater of hate: MAGA’s governing principle is cruelty.” Salon.com. August 31, 2025. https://www.salon.com/2025/08/31/donald-trumps-theater-of-hate-magas-governing-principle-is-cruelty_partner/

Gilson, G. “Homeland Security hires social media manager whose posts raised alarm for promoting ‘white-nationalist rhetoric’.” The Forward. February 13, 2026. https://forward.com/fast-forward/804937/homeland-security-hires-social-media-manager-whose-posts-raised-alarm-for-promoting-white-nationalist-rhetoric/

Johnson, D. “Kristi Noem, DHS Under Fire For Sharing Doctored Video Portraying Black Teens As ICE Threats.” MSN.com. October 19, 2025. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/kristi-noem-dhs-under-fire-for-sharing-doctored-video-portraying-black-teens-as-ice-threats/ar-AA1OM9bF

“Why is the manosphere on the rise? UN Women sounds the alarm over online misogyny.” United Nations. June 21, 2025. https://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media/news/2025/06/107626/why-manosphere-rise-un-women-sounds-alarm-over-online-misogyny

Francois, L. “The Human Toll of Trump's Anti-Trans Crusade.” ACLU. April 3, 2025. https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/the-human-toll-of-trumps-anti-trans-crusade

Song, L. “The Trump Administration Is Promoting Its Anti-Trans Agenda Globally at the United Nations.” ProPublica. August 5, 2025. https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-un-anti-trans-agenda

Harmon, A. “How Trump Uses Language to Attack the Idea of Transgender Identity.” New York Times. February 11, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/us/transgender-trump-executive-orders.html

Gilbert, D. “Far-Right Extremists Call for Violence and War After Trump Shooting.” Wired. June 14, 2024. https://www.wired.com/story/trump-shooting-far-right-calling-for-violence-war/

Williams, Z. “Racism, misogyny, lies: how did X become so full of hatred? And is it ethical to keep using it?” The Guardian. September 5, 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/sep/05/racism-misogyny-lies-how-did-x-become-so-full-of-hatred-and-is-it-ethical-to-keep-using-it

[3] U.S. government market involvement:

Jignan, H. and Hagen, L. “A White House order claims to end 'censorship.' What does that mean?” NPR. January 24, 2025. https://www.npr.org/2025/01/24/nx-s1-5270071/eo-weaponization

Swenson, A. “Trump orders government not to infringe on Americans’ speech, calls for censorship investigation.” Associated Press. January 20, 2025. https://apnews.com/article/trump-executive-order-censorship-misinformation-social-media-b344d8c75463990ff6e782bc836bb337

Duffy, C. “TikTok’s algorithm will be overseen by Oracle in the US after the sale is completed.” CNN. September 22, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/22/tech/tiktok-sale-oracle-algorithm

Allyn, B. and Folkenflik, D. “Trump's TikTok deal payment criticized as 'shakedown scheme' by experts.” NPR. September 26, 2025. https://www.npr.org/2025/09/26/g-s1-90598/tiktok-deal-trump-oracle

Prager, S. “Trump Brokering Deal to Hand TikTok Over to Right-Wing Billionaires Andreessen and Ellison.” Common Dreams. September 17, 2025. https://www.commondreams.org/news/tiktok-andreesen-ellison

Davies, C. “YouTube, Disney and Meta have all settled. Inside President Trump’s $90-million payday.” LA Times. October 1, 2025. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2025-10-01/youtube-latest-company-to-settle-with-trump-disney-paramount-meta-90-million

“YouTube to pay $22 million for White House ballroom to settle lawsuit from Trump.” CBS News. September 29, 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/youtube-settles-trump-lawsuit-white-house-ballroom/

Valinsky, J. “Pentagon strikes deals with 7 Big Tech companies after shunning Anthropic.” CNN. May 1, 2026. https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/01/tech/pentagon-ai-anthropic

Bordelon, B. and Cheney, K. “Anthropic sues Trump admin over supply-chain risk label.” Politico. March 9, 2026. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/09/anthropic-sues-trump-admin-over-supply-chain-risk-label-00818716

Ruwitch, J. “The U.S. government is taking a stake in Intel. It's rare — and it has some risks.” NPR. September 6, 2025. https://www.npr.org/2025/09/06/nx-s1-5530190/government-stake-intel-ai-competition-china

Bennett, G., et. al. “Trump's executive order limits state regulations of artificial intelligence.” PBS News Hour. December 12, 2025. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trumps-executive-order-limits-state-regulations-of-artificial-intelligence

Kang, C. “Trump Signs Executive Order to Neuter State A.I. Laws.” New York Times. December 11, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/technology/ai-trump-executive-order.html

[4] Ideological alignment:

Barrett, P. “Tech’s Love Affair with Trump Grows Stronger By the Day.” Tech Policy Press. October 23, 2025. https://www.techpolicy.press/techs-love-affair-with-trump-grows-stronger-by-the-day/

Smith, D. “Meet all 33 Silicon Valley power players at Trump’s high-profile tech dinner—and here’s Elon Musk’s explanation for why he wasn’t there.” Fortune. September 5, 2025. https://fortune.com/2025/09/05/trump-tech-dinner-full-attendee-list/

Nerozzi, D. and Wendler, J. “Tech, crypto, tobacco, other companies fund Trump’s White House ballroom.” Politico. October 23. 2025. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/23/trump-ballroom-donors-list-00620230

Hughes, W. “A new report shows X is amplifying far-right accounts.” The AV Club. November 7, 2025. https://www.avclub.com/twitter-x-amplifying-right-wing-accounts

Claypool, R. “Big Tech CEOs Cozy Up to Trump.” Public Citizen. April 23, 2026. https://www.citizen.org/news/big-tech-ceos-cozy-up-to-trump/

Claypool, R. “Don’t Trust Trump? Don’t Trust Big Tech.” April 23, 2026. https://www.techpolicy.press/dont-trust-trump-dont-trust-big-tech/

Gold, A. “Most Americans are skeptical of Trump's Big Tech ties.” January 12, 2026. http://axios.com/2026/01/12/most-americans-skeptical-trump-big-tech-ties

McNicholas, C. and Zipperer, B. “Trump is enabling Musk and DOGE to flout conflicts of interest.” Economic Policy Institute. May 7, 2025. https://www.epi.org/publication/trump-is-enabling-musk-and-doge-to-flout-conflicts-of-interest-what-is-the-potential-cost-to-u-s-families/

Reid, T. et. al. “Musk's DOGE cuts based more on political ideology than real cost savings so far.” Reuters. February 12, 2025. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-cuts-based-more-political-ideology-than-real-cost-savings-so-far-2025-02-12/

Schaffer, M. “How Donald Trump Revealed Jeff Bezos’ True Self.” Politico. April 24, 2025. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/24/jeff-bezos-washington-post-dc-amazon-hq2-00301644

Rosenblatt, L. “Once dubbed a ‘woke’ billionaire, Jeff Bezos changes his tune on Donald Trump.” Seattle Times. January 17, 2025. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/once-dubbed-a-woke-billionaire-jeff-bezos-changes-his-tune-on-trump/

Lafuente, J. “Steven Levitsky: "Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos Are With Trump, But On Their Knees. The Power is Trump.” El Pais. January 23, 2025. https://elpais.com/internacional/2025-01-24/steven-levitsky-musk-zuckerberg-y-bezos-estan-con-trump-pero-arrodillados-el-poder-es-trump.html

“The MAGA-ification of Mark Zuckerberg.” Big Take, a Bloomberg News podcast. May 27, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZWHzTZLZc0

Alder, M. “Trump taps Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison for science, tech advisory panel.” FedScoop. March 25, 2026. https://fedscoop.com/trump-taps-mark-zuckerberg-larry-ellison-for-science-tech-advisory-panel/

Falconer, R. “Big Tech elite lavish praise on Trump at White House dinner.” Axios. September 4, 2025. https://www.axios.com/2025/09/05/trump-tech-dinner-ceo-zuckerberg-musk

Isaac, M., Frenkel, S. and Conger, K. “Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Sprint to Remake Meta for the Trump Era.” New York Times. January 10, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/technology/meta-mark-zuckerberg-trump.html

Rogelberg, S. “2 years after Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a cage match, they were texting about DOGE and a joint OpenAI bid, court records reveal.” Fortune. March 31, 2026. https://fortune.com/2026/03/31/elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-doge-openai-takeover-court-documents/

Vaidhyanathan, S. “Mark Zuckerberg has gone full Maga.” The Guardian. January 8, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/08/mark-zuckerberg-supporting-trump-maga

[5] Interfering with E.U. regulations:

Newton, C. “Everything Mark Zuckerberg has gotten from Donald Trump so far.” Platformer. August 28, 2025. https://www.platformer.news/trump-zuckerberg-meta-partnership-eu-dsa-ai-dma/

Schneid, R. “Elon Musk and Trump Officials Go to War With E.U. Over $140M Fine for X.” Time. December 7, 2025. https://time.com/7339192/elon-musk-eu-x-fine-trump/

Walde, M. “‘Fatal decision’: EU slammed for caving to US pressure on digital rules.” Politico. April 1, 2026. https://www.politico.eu/article/fatal-decision-eu-slammed-for-caving-to-us-pressure-on-digital-rules/

Nguyen, D.M.N. and Luck, P. “The New Containment Doctrine: How the United States Is Using Trade to Stop Digital Regulation.” Center for Strategic & International Studies. March 9, 2026. https://www.csis.org/analysis/new-containment-doctrine-how-united-states-using-trade-stop-digital-regulation

“Inside the far-right network targeting Europe’s digital rules.” Corporate Europe Observatory (translation of Observatoire des Multinationales article.) March 23, 2026. https://corporateeurope.org/en/2026/03/inside-far-right-network-targeting-europes-digital-rules

Shivaram, D. “Vance scorches European allies in Munich speech, lecturing them about democracy.” NPR. February 14, 2025. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/13/nx-s1-5290258/vance-munich-security-conference-trump-putin-zelenskyy-russia-ukraine

[6] Infrastructure:

Valinsky, J. “Pentagon strikes deals with 7 Big Tech companies after shunning Anthropic.” CNN. May 1, 2026. https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/01/tech/pentagon-ai-anthropic

Gabbatt, A. “Doge reportedly using AI tool to create ‘delete list’ of federal regulations.” The Guardian. July 26, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/26/doge-ai-tool-delete-list-federal-regulations

Klonick, K. “The State Department’s X Directive and the End of Platform Independence.” Lawfare. April 1, 2026. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-state-department-s-x-directive-and-the-end-of-platform-independence

Johnson, D. “Social Security Administration Sparks Outrage Over Plans To Use X To Communicate With Public.” Black Enterprise. April 12, 2025. https://www.blackenterprise.com/social-security-administration-x-communicate-public/

[7] Not immune to pressure:

Koblin, J. and Grynbaum, M. “Jimmy Kimmel, Somber but Defiant, Defends Free Speech in Return to ABC.” New York Times. September 23, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/business/media/jimmy-kimmel-return-monologue.html

Jeyaretnam, M. “These U.S. Companies Are Not Ditching DEI Amid Trump’s Crackdown.” Time. February 26, 2025. https://time.com/7261857/us-companies-keep-dei-initiatives-list-trump-diversity-order-crackdown/

Reich, R. “Why Standing Up Against Trump is Good for Business.” Robert Reich newsletter. June 16, 2025. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/why-standing-up-to-trump-is-good

Hornik, C. and Perry, K.E.G. “Jimmy Kimmel backlash intensifies as FCC orders ABC to renew broadcast licenses early.” The Independent. April 29, 2026.

[8] Sharply limit:

Godoy, J. and Scarcella, M. “FTC probes Media Matters over Musk's X boycott claims, document shows.” Reuters. May 22, 2025. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/ftc-probes-media-matters-over-musks-x-boycott-claims-document-shows-2025-05-22/

Brfodkin, J. “Ad firms settle with Trump FTC over claims they boycotted conservative media.” Ars Technica. April 16, 2026. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/04/ad-firms-settle-with-trump-ftc-over-claims-they-boycotted-conservative-media/

Hodder, C. “Elon Musk Sues Advertisers Who Boycott X Under Antitrust Laws.” FindLaw. February 6, 2025. https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/courtside/elon-musk-sues-advertisers-who-boycott-x-under-anti-trust-laws/

Cress, L. “Elon Musk's X advertising boycott lawsuit dismissed by US judge.” BBC. March 26, 2026. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c05dlm0l0jgo

Ingram, D. “Judge throws out Elon Musk's X lawsuit against nonprofit.” NBC News. March 25, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/elon-musk-x-twitter-ccdh-lawsuit-rcna144960

[9] Exporting far-right extremism:

Ellis, N. “Authoritarian Alliances: Analysing the Trump Administration’s Recent Far-Right Controversies.” The Atlas Institute for International Affairs. February 28, 2025. https://atlasinstitute.org/authoritarian-alliances-analysing-the-trump-administrations-recent-far-right-controversies/

“How the International Far Right is Getting on Board With Trump’s Antifa Terrorist Designation.” Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. October 8, 2025. https://globalextremism.org/post/far-right-is-getting-on-board-with-trumps-antifa-terrorist-designation/

Rodríguez-Pina, G. and Lorca, J. “From Hungary’s Orbán to Chile’s Kast: How Trump helps turbo charge the far right.” El Pais. December 26, 2025. https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-27/from-hungarys-orban-to-chiles-kast-how-trump-helps-turbo-charge-the-far-right.html

Spike, J. “On Hungary visit, Vance urges voters to support Orbán days before pivotal election.” Associated Press. April 7, 2026. https://apnews.com/article/jd-vance-hungary-orban-election-campaign-08e0929e9c8b3ae4302ae4e8c0393d5e

Croft, A. “Trump demands France free far-right leader Marine Le Pen and claims she is facing ‘witch hunt.’” The Independent. April 4, 2025. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/trump-marine-le-pen-france-trial-court-eu-b2727311.html

Gomez, H. “Trump administration emerges as a staunch defender of Germany's far-right AfD.” NBC News. May 28, 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-administration-german-politics-defense-afd-rcna209177