“Stop the Steal”: A Timeline Analysis
By Alison Purcell, Ava Moran & Julia Minkowitz
A conspiracy theory is “an idea that insists powerful people control the course of events and gives order and meaning to occurrences that, in their minds, defy standard or official explanations,” (Muirhead & Rosenblum, 2019). Though “classical conspiracism” has existed for centuries, new conspiracism essentially projects conspiracies without theory behind them into the universe, and has grown considerably during and after the Trump presidency (Muirhead and Rosenblum 2019). Though several new conspiracisms like Pizzagate, QAnon, and Birtherism have gained prominence over the last decade, Stop the Steal directly impacted the integrity of American democracy (Medina et al. 2022).
Those involved in the alt-right media system would likely disagree that the events of January 6, 2021 were the result of a conspiracy theory (Tan et al. 2021). However, these definitions make clear that the ideology behind the “Stop the Steal” movement has elements of new and classical conspiracism (Muirhead and Rosenblum 2019). The idea that there is a group of powerful people, such as members of the government elite, giving orders, to stop Donald Trump from winning the 2020 election is classic conspiracism logic. However, its new conspiracism aspects come from its repetition online discussing the “stolen election” along with the trivial “evidence” given on the platform (Lonsdorf et al. 2022).
The “Stop the Steal” conspiracy leading up to the insurrection at the capitol on January 6th began in 2020, but the first mention of the phrase “Stop the Steal” was made in 2016 by Roger Stone, a major Trump ally and political strategist (Kuznia et al. 2020). It was used as a characteristic Trump slogan during several elections prior to 2020, but did not gain full momentum until Trump’s defeat (Laughland and Thielman 2016, Moritz-Rabson 2018). We ventured onto right-wing social media and blogs in order to find uncensored and archived content from the months preceding and following the 2020 election. “Stop the Steal” content from most mainstream social media was fact-checked: key figures like Trump, Ali Alexander, and MAGA mainstay Michael Coudrey had their accounts permanently suspended for continuing to spread false election information that agitated the January 6 insurrectionists (Tan et al. 2021). However, after such prominent figures were banned or flagged, much of the discourse moved onto specific right-wing forums, like patriots.win, gab’s g/stopthesteal, and blogs like The Straight Shot.
It matters
Though Stop the Steal could have fizzled out into the realm of exhausted internet conspiracies, it was picked up by former President Trump and other Congressmen, including Paul Gosar and Mo Brooks (Cheney 2021). These figures have enormous platforms and social media followings, and their legitimization of this conspiracy theory allowed it to gain momentum. Tweets by President Trump on the day of the insurrection can easily be described as not only condoning the actions of insurrectionists, but even promoting it (Tan et al. 2021). While there is little doubt that Trump played a role in the January 6 insurrection, significant partisan debate still exists, and holdups in the investigation have prevented the public from understanding a complete chronology of Trump’s involvement (Cheney 2021). However, Alexander, and the Stop the Steal movement for that matter, have a complete record co-organizing protests with other far-right interest groups, marketing themselves as the “March to Save America” (ADL, 2021).
In a live video while the capital was being stormed, Alexander declared, “I do not denounce this,” in reference to the onslaught of protestors breaking into the Capitol (Palmer 2021). This is the danger of Stop the Steal. There is a direct linkage between this conspiracism and the attempted overthrow of American Democracy. While the majority of Americans would consider January 6th’s events to be a stain on our democracy, they are glamorized and romanticized by those in the “Stop the Steal Movement,” as can be seen today on their various platforms (Kuznia et al. 2020).
Although many would pretend that Stop the Steal disappeared once Biden was sworn into office, it has continued to play a prominent and pervasive role in American politics and media well into 2022. On patriots.win, the current home of the Donald Trump subreddit, there are posts made from as recently as late March 2022 with new abounding discussions (patriots.win message boards). Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife Ginni has recently come under fire for texting “stop the steal” to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on January 6 (Totenberg 2022). Many lawmakers and politicians have called for Thomas to recuse himself from the January 6 investigations due to this apparent conflict of interest (Totenberg 2022).
Tracing the media-ecosystem
Stop the Steal’s origins come from mainstream social media: Facebook groups, Reddit threads, and prominent twitter mainstays. Leading up to election night and the storming of the Capitol, most of our timeline sources come from Twitter and Facebook, though forums like Reddit were instrumental in facilitating this discourse. Following the insurrection, immense pushback against these platforms for their failure in monitoring these communities and “influencers” forced all platforms listed to restrict content and people allowed on their server. Once Twitter began fact-checking and suspending accounts for blatant violations of its misinformation policy, platforms like Parler, Gab, 4chan, patriots.win, and Rumble that promoted free speech and lack of censorship began to play a prominent role in the spread of far-right misinformation.
Facebook has long been known as a breeding ground for those of the alt-right conspiracy mindset. Currently there are no “Stop the Steal” groups or discernable posts discussing the insurrection or current thoughts on a “stolen” 2020 election that can be found via the search function on the platform. Rather, Facebook offers resources for combating misinformation and highlights posts promoting democracy upon searching for buzz phrases such as “stop the steal” or “stolen election”. Though it may seem reassuring that most well-known social media platforms have taken a stand against Stop the Steal’s dishonest rhetoric, it is concerning that this information is less publicly monitored. If an attempted coup were to be planned again, would we be able to locate this information on the dozens of micro-platforms that abound on the internet?
References
Cheney, Kyle. “‘Stop the Steal’ Founder Told Jan. 6 Committee about Contacts with GOP Lawmakers.” POLITICO, 18 Dec. 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/18/stop-the-steal-founder-jan-6-committee-gop-lawmakers-525345.
“Extremists and Mainstream Trump Supporters Plan to Protest Congressional Certification of Biden’s Victory.” Anti-Defamation League, 4 Jan. 2021, https://www.adl.org/blog/extremists-and-mainstream-trump-supporters-plan-to-protest-congressional-certification-of.
Kuznia, Rob, et al. “Stop the Steal’s Massive Disinformation Campaign Connected to Roger Stone.” CNN, Cable News Network, 14 Nov. 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/13/business/stop-the-steal-disinformation-campaign-invs/index.html.
Laughland, Oliver, and Sam Thielman. “Trump Loyalists Plan Own Exit Poll amid Claims of ‘Rigged’ Election.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 20 Oct. 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/20/citizens-for-donald-trump-exit-poll-roger-stone-rigged-election-claim.
Lonsdorf, Kat, et al. “A Timeline of How the Jan. 6 Attack Unfolded — Including Who Said What and When.” NPR, NPR, 5 Jan. 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/01/05/1069977469/a-timeline-of-how-the-jan-6-attack-unfolded-including-who-said-what-and-when.
Medina, Jennifer, et al. “Campaigning to Oversee Elections, While Denying the Last One.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 Jan. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/30/us/politics/election-deniers-secretary-of-state.html.
Moritz-Rabson, Daniel. “The Proud Boys and Laura Loomer Joined a Gathering of Far-Right Celebrity Trolls to Protest the Florida Recount.” Newsweek, Newsweek, 11 Nov. 2018, https://www.newsweek.com/conspiracy-theorists-protest-florida-recount-1210684.
Palmer, Ewan. “Video of ‘Stop the Steal’ Organizer Served with Lawsuit Viewed over 600K Times.” Newsweek, Newsweek, 10 Dec. 2021, https://www.newsweek.com/ali-alexander-served-video-deposition-stop-steal-1658087.
Tan, Shelly, et al. “How One of America’s Ugliest Days Unraveled inside and Outside the Capitol.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 9 Jan. 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2021/capitol-insurrection-visual-timeline/.
Totenberg, Nina. “Legal Ethics Experts Agree: Justice Thomas Must Recuse in Insurrection Cases.” NPR, NPR, 30 Mar. 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/03/30/1089595933/legal-ethics-experts-agree-justice-thomas-must-recuse-in-insurrection-cases.
Other Sources
Cunningham, Vinson. “The Rioters in the Senate Chamber.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2021, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-appearances/the-rioters-in-the-senate-chamber.
Dreisbach, Tom, and Eric Westervelt. “Authorities Identify Woman Killed by Police during U.S. Capitol Rioting.” NPR, NPR, 7 Jan. 2021, https://www.npr.org/sections/insurrection-at-the-capitol/2021/01/07/954446008/authorities-identify-woman-killed-by-police-during-u-s-capitol-rioting.
“File:Stop the Steal, November 28, 2020 St. Paul …” The Straight Shot, 2020, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stop_The_Steal,_November_28,_2020_St._Paul_(50839930891).jpg.
Maturen, Stephen. “A Person Holds a Sign That Says ‘Stop the Steal!” as Supporters of…” Getty Images, 2020, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/person-holds-a-sign-that-says-stop-the-steal-as-supporters-news-photo/1229620832.
Posobiec, Jack [@jackposobiec]. “#StoptheSteal2020 is coming…”. 7 September 2020. https://archive.ph/mNYyb
Reeve, Elle, et al. “Man Who Marched on U.S. Capitol Now Describes ‘Stop the Steal’ as a Cult.” CTVNews, CTV News, 10 Feb. 2022, https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/man-who-marched-on-u-s-capitol-now-describes-stop-the-steal-as-a-cult-1.5775640.
TheGreatOz. “What Happened With ‘Stop the Steal’?” Scored.Win, 2021, https://communities.win/c/Conspiracies/p/140cWrNYu2/what-happened-with-stop-the-stea/c.
“Trump Won’t Commit to Peaceful Transfer of Power.” YouTube, The Washington Post, 23 Sept. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XD2oUG5WGQ&t=1s.
