Worried about violence during & after the election? One tech company that's facilitating violence...

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Talia Lavin
@chick_in_kiev
Worried about violence during & after the election? One tech company that’s facilitating violent right-wing organizing: the walkie-talkie app @Zello, which enables armed, far-right militias to organize on their platform. Here’s a thread with action items for you to take. 1/
12:26 PM · Oct 30, 2020

Unrolled thread here (best read at link)
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1322258656235294720.html

Worried about violence during & after the election? One tech company that’s facilitating violent right-wing organizing: the walkie-talkie app @Zello, which enables armed, far-right militias to organize on their platform. Here’s a thread with action items for you to take. 1/

As @ozm reported, it’s easy to join the platform & find militia folks preparing for civil war. Here’s a screenshot of the far right militia groups I joined in 1 day this week, all of which proudly operate on @Zello. 2/

onezero.medium.com/banished-from-…
Image

Banished From Facebook, Far-Right Militias Prepare for the Election on Zello and MeWe
Far-right groups are increasingly relying on an ecosystem of alternative apps and platforms like Zello, MeWe, Parler, Gab, and Rocket.Chat
https://onezero.medium.com/banished-from-facebook-far-right-militias-prepare-for-the-election-on-zello-and-mewe-10f9b05ff92b

If you want to help, tag @Zello and pressure them to oust militia groups. A spokesperson says @Zello is working to “update their TOS,” but working to save the election means there’s no more time and we need to ramp up the pressure. 3/

Tag the businesses @Zello follows and ask why they are working with @Zello. Make them accountable for what they’re enabling. Many more details below: 4/

.@onthemedia reports that militias use @Zello for recruitment, and then discuss potentially violent activities like “sighting in on” protesters, which a militia spokesperson denies. 5/

How Zello Became A Recruitment & Organizing Tool For The Far Right | On the Media | WNYC Studios
How violence surrounding the election might unfold and what can be done to mitigate it.
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/how-zello-became-recruitment-organizing-app-far-right
There are two @Zello apps, the free one used by militia groups like the Oath Keepers and a paid service through which the company provides services to EMTs, trucking/logistics companies, and hotels. 6/

Like any other tech company, @Zello relies on VC cash to grow and expand, and needs to recruit VCs to inject cash into their company. They also work with businesses who might want to know that their cash is being used to foment a potential second civil war. 7/

@mentions
reported about how integrated these channels have become into militia organizing, including creating channels for cross-organization discussion 8/

Zello, Operator: Militias' use of Zello
Right-wing militia groups are using popular walkie-talkie app Zello to organize around protests. Their networks and presence on the platform is expansive.
https://militia.watch/read/zello-operator/

.@Zello itself has known for months about this; according to info from inside the company they have known about many of these groups since violent anti-BLM counterprotests began in June. They have taken no significant action to curb this activity. 9/
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How does a company continue to sit on this type of information for so long, knowing full well what these groups are capable of and have been caught doing in the future? CEO Bill Moore’s response: 10/
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.@Zello has specifically been used for a long time, with some experts pointing to knowing about their use among militia groups in 2016: 11/

The Oath Keepers were formed in 2009 in direct response to Obama’s rise to the presidency, which, like the Three Percenters, they associated with “Tyranny” to be violently opposed, well-documented by the @splcenter 12/

Oath Keepers
The Oath Keepers, which claims tens of thousands of present and former law enforcement officials and military veterans as members, is one of the largest radical antigovernment groups in the U.S. today…
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/oath-keepers

Four years after their creation, they also established “Citizen Preservation” organizations set to oppose the “New World Order” and “globalists”, all included in an extensive description by the @splcenter here: 13/

Oath Keepers
The Oath Keepers, which claims tens of thousands of present and former law enforcement officials and military veterans as members, is one of the largest radical antigovernment groups in the U.S. today…
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/oath-keepers
Not all militia groups are propaganda outfits alone, and the Oath Keepers have either organized or contributed to a string of violent incidents, actualized or threatened. Many of these events have had Black Lives Matter or government officials as their targets, for example: 14/

In 2010, local Oath Keeper leader Matthew Fairfield created and stored a live napalm bomb in his home in Cleveland, Ohio 15/

Man charged with having explosives seemed paranoid, landlord says
The man accused of storing a napalm bomb, assault rifles and other explosives in two rented homes often directed people to a website that complained Americans' rights are being stripped away by the go…
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/04/man_charged_with_having_explos.html
In 2010, an Oath Keeper named Darren Huff in Dallas, GA, allegedly planned to take over a Tennessee courthouse. He made the drive with an AK-47 and a handgun. 16/

Courthouse takeover defendant is tearful
By Bill Poovey, The Associated Press
https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/news/story/2011/oct/22/courthouse-takeover-defendant-is-tearful/62092/
The group showed up in Ferguson in 2014, and they reappeared in Ferguson in 2015, too, in clear efforts at armed intimidation against Black Lives Matter protesters. This election, they are gearing up for similar shenanigans. 17/

Armed Members of Conservative Extremist Group Known as "Oath Keepers" Incite Controversy in Ferguson
The so-called "Oath Keepers" are an extremist conservative group known for their infamous "10 Orders We Will Not Obey" list.
https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2015/08/armed-white-conservative-extremist-group-causing-controversy-in-ferguson
Also in 2015, Oath Keepers posted a call to action for action at the Sugar Pine Mine in Oregon, alongside local III% movements And in Montana: https://t.co/pu7P2dYLJP ; And eventually for the Malheur, OR occupation: medium.com/militiawatch/p… 18/

PPN, the Occupation, and Security Buffers
A year ago, Bundy militia groups made headlines for occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge over disagreements over land between…
https://medium.com/militiawatch/ppn-the-occupation-and-security-buffers-fa1f082b347f

Recently, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes has been kicked off of Twitter for calling for the next civil war to begin after Patriot Prayer member Jay Danielson was shot and killed in Portland 19/

Twitter bans far-right extremist group the Oath Keepers
The group is one of the US's largest anti-government movements.
https://www.engadget.com/twitter-the-oath-keepers-211426663.html
Since getting kicked off of Twitter, Rhodes has been making a series of aggressive public statements, including this week on InfoWars where he claimed his men were going to mobilize around the election 20/

Militia leader Stewart Rhodes says that his group will be at polling locations and is ready to kill Democrats
https://www.mediamatters.org/infowars/militia-leader-stewart-rhodes-says-his-group-will-be-polling-locations-and-ready-kill
This is a further escalation of operations that Oath Keepers have done before, as they organized a gathering called the “Operation Sabot 2016” to move in on polling locations for the election between Clinton and Trump 21/

Oath Keepers Founder Says 'Undercover' Poll Watching Effort Won't Intimidate Voters
The right-wing group will be looking out for "busloads" of voters to make sure the election isn’t “stolen.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/oath-keepers-poll-watching_n_58122566e4b0990edc2f8178
Oath Keepers have been using the @Zello app for a long time; for example, @Zello was used by Oath Keepers/III% at the Oregon standoff according to @gwupoe’s @jjmacnab: 22/

In the @onthemedia piece, @MicahLoewinger and @HamptonStall sent a sample list of 200+ violent groups using @Zello, many of which included channels used explicitly for recruitment. The Oath Keepers were prominent among those they sent to Zello: 23/
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There are questions about how this may go against both the terms of service for both @Zello and the phone app stores like @AppStore and @GooglePlay 24/

As mentioned above, action items you can do: tag @Zello and pressure them to oust violent militia groups. Tag the businesses they follow and ask why they are working with @Zello. Make them accountable. You can also contact @Zello directly here: zello.com/contact/ /end

Contact Menu - Zello
https://zello.com/contact/
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