Since the January 6th attack on the US Capitol building, one question has been looming on public minds: how didn’t anyone see this coming? One of the answers to that question lies in alternative social networks. Driven by heavy moderation on mainstream social networks, alternative networks have grown from niche platforms serving only the extreme far right too highly popular, effective means of spreading extremist messaging. Users who have been blocked or banned from popular social networks often turn to there.
Here, we dive into these alternative networks to understand the narratives spreading leading up to the US Capitol riots.