Perception and Mobilization of “Truth”: January 6, 2021, Stop the Steal, and Social Media

In 2021, the “Stop the Steal” movement was intensely popular among conservative and far-right groups in the United States. It was largely predicated on the belief that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from President Trump. While there was no concrete evidence to support that notion, an intense mobilization effort occurred, which eventually led to a deadly riot at the United States Capitol Building on January 6, 2021. Proponents of the “Stop the Steal” movement often utilized social media to promote unfounded claims of electoral fraud and irregularities in the 2020 presidential election. The present study is a content analysis of nearly 1500 tweets that appeared on political and opinion leaders’ feeds from the 2020 election through January 6, 2021. Results demonstrated that there was a high level of association between tweets on X (formerly known as Twitter) that mentioned the election and those containing electoral misinformation. There was also a moderate correlation between tweets containing calls to action and violent rhetoric regarding the election. Further, tweets that contained electoral misinformation and those that mentioned the election received significant engagement. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.