For months, Donald Trump’s supporters have been warning about violence, civil war, and "taking back the election".
On Thursday, Australian time, Trump supporters stormed Washington's Congress building - some with guns and other weapons - forcing the building into lockdown and prompting the emergency evacuation of politicians. One woman died.
The signs of an event like this have been circulating online for weeks, according to Advance Democracy, a US-based non-partisan group that conducts public interest research.
In the last few days, there have been “unprecedented” calls for violence among Trump’s biggest supporters on the web, the group said.
“The increasingly hostile online rhetoric was bound to lead to real world violence,” the group’s president Daniel J. Jones told SBS News.
“The violence on Capitol Hill today was previewed on online forums for weeks and could have been prevented.”
Advance Democracy found more than 1480 posts from QAnon-related accounts on Twitter from a week ago referencing 6 January and containing terms of violence.
In online forums like TheDonald, a subgroup previously banned by Reddit, and fringe social media sites like Parler, there were also threats of violence against politicians.
Messages such as “WE WANT BLOOD” and “murder Pelosi” - a reference to Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - were posted on TheDonald forum, according to Advance Democracy.
Others openly called for civil war in the lead up to Thursday’s events.
Pro-Trump supporters and far-right forces flooded Washington DC to protest Trump's election loss. Source: Michael Nigro/Sipa USA
“It is time for war, no more talking, no more peace #1776 #january6 #civilwar2,” said one user on Parler, on 4 January.
Advance Democracy found the moderators of some forums were ignoring and, in some cases, promoting calls for violence during Thursday’s protests.
One of the top comments on a trending post stated: “Start shooting patriots. Kill these ####ing traitors".
Timothy Graham, a senior lecturer in digital media at Queensland University, who tracks misinformation online, says the writing's been on the wall for not just the past few weeks since the presidential election, but years.
“I think some of the key things that we're seeing play out now over the last few hours, both on social media and also on the ground in the US and the Capitol, I really think that this is a logical conclusion to what we've been seeing over the last months and years,” he told SBS News on Thursday.
"We can trace a timeline of how the social media and media ecosystem fostered and provided a space in which this kind of movement could grow."
A Qanon supporter outside the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. on 7 January (AEDT) Source: STRMX
Some, including right-wing media outlets and commentators, sought to blame Antifa for the violence, claiming some of those behind the riot were actually in disguise.
One of those who was pictured breaking into the Capitol building was Trump supporter and Qanon adherent Jake Angeli, wearing a viking hat and face painted with the American flag.
His appearance as a counter-protester at a previous Black Lives Matter protest sparked chatter on social media that anti-fascists had infiltrated the protest group, a claim which was quickly debunked by Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes.
Some of those who attended the protest were identified as supporters of conspiracy movements like QAnon, while members of the Three Percenters militia group, and hard-right group The Proud Boys conducted live streams of the event.
A group of protesters were also seen making the “OK” hand gesture - which is associated with white supremacists - in a live stream of the protest provided by Reuters.
Protestors storm the Capitol building during a joint session of Congress in Washington, DC on Wednesday, January 6, 2021. Source: Chris Kleponis/Sipa USA
Photographers also captured the image of a noose near protesters on the west side of the Capitol, an apparent references to the "day of the rope", a statement which had been circulating on Twitter.
