The American judiciary accused the “Oath Guards” group of plotting with the aim of rebellion, for its involvement in the storming of the Capitol building on January 6 last year, while the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee summoned social networks to testify about the incident.
The US Department of Justice announced the indictment of conspiracy to rebellion charges against the founder of the far-right “Oath Guard” group and 10 other members of the group, for their role in the storming of the Capitol.
The group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes, was arrested in Texas, and he also faces other charges of crimes related to the storming of the Capitol building.
The Justice Department said in a statement that the accusation of conspiracy with the aim of rebellion against Rhodes indicates that he conspired with the other defendants to use force to refuse to implement the laws regulating the transfer of presidential power on January 20 of last year.
In the same context, the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the congressional storming announced that it had summoned 4 social media networks on Thursday to testify before it.
The companies summoned to appear before the committee are Alphabet, the parent company of YouTube, Meta (formerly Facebook), Reddit and Twitter.
The House committee is tasked with looking into whether former President Donald Trump or those around him were involved in the attack launched by a mob of Republican billionaire supporters on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021.
The committee said that it decided to summon the officials of these four social networks to testify before it under oath, after it became clear that the requests it had previously addressed to them to cooperate with them had met with “insufficient responses.”
Two questions are of particular interest to the members of the committee: How did the spread of disinformation contribute to this attack? Have these social networks taken measures to prevent their platforms from becoming a breeding ground for extremism? And what are these measures?
disappointing
“It is disappointing that, after months of work, we still lack the documentation and information needed to answer these basic questions,” Democratic Representative Benny Thompson said.
The committee wants Twitter – the site that used to be Trump’s preferred communication platform – to provide it with information about supposed conversations “related to the planning and execution of the attack on Capitol Hill.”
Committee members assert that Twitter knew, prior to January 6, 2021, that there was a risk of violence on that day.
As for YouTube’s summons to testify before the committee, it was caused by the videos that the demonstrators were broadcasting live on the platform during the attack.
“We cannot allow any further delay in our important work,” Thompson stressed, urging social networks to cooperate with the committee.
Indeed, the committee is racing against time as it wants to release its findings before the midterm elections in November 2022, in which Democrats risk losing their majority in the House of Representatives.
If the Democrats lose that majority, the new Republican majority will likely dissolve this committee.