Online threats and hate speech against pro-Palestinian protesters have accelerated since Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas encouraged those affected by mass protests to “take matters into their own hands,” report says obtained by CBS News.
Advance Democracy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that conducts public interest research, said it saw a surge in calls for violence against pro-Palestinian protesters on social media platforms this week after comments from Cotton, with users threatening to kill or harm protesters. .
The report found that many of the threats were a direct response to Cotton’s post, as well as right-wing accounts and figures who shared the post online, including Fox News commentator Sean Hannity.
“CRUSH THEM!” one user wrote on Truth Social, the social media platform owned by Trump Media, majority owned by former President Donald Trump. “They are terrorists and they should be shot,” wrote another. Others have suggested assaulting, hanging, executing, tying up protesters or throwing them from the bridges they occupy.
To counter protesters who sometimes stick their hands on the roads, a user on the far-right social network Gettr suggested that their arms be torn off or their hands cut off.
“I encourage those stuck behind pro-Hamas gangs blocking traffic to take matters into their own hands. It’s time to put an end to this nonsense.” Cotton posted the Cotton accused the demonstrators of being pro-Hamas, although he did not provide proof.
Earlier in the day, before Cotton’s comments, protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza had closed major roads and bridges in several cities, including San Francisco, Oakland, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. Dozens of protesters were arrested, but no violence was reported.
Cotton continued to encourage a vigilante approach in interviews with Fox News and NBC News, telling Fox News that “if something like that happened in Arkansas on a bridge there, let’s just say I think that there would be a lot of very wet criminals thrown overboard – not by law enforcement, but by the people whose path they are blocking. » He told NBC News that if people are blocked by protesters, “they should go out and get these people off the streets.”
This isn’t the first time Cotton has used loaded language to describe how nationwide protests should be handled.
In a 2020 op-ed in The New York Times, Cotton advocated sending National Guard troops to stop nationwide protests following the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis. After monuments across the country were vandalized by protesters, Cotton called those who defaced or destroyed statues during the Floyd protests “mob vigilantes” who “can come for you, your home and your family “.
“The senator’s comments encouraging violence against protesters are irresponsible and dangerous. Not only do they make the work of local law enforcement more difficult, they have also directly led to a surge in calls for violence against protesters online.” , Daniel Jones told CBS News. “The failure of other elected officials and political leaders to immediately condemn these comments – regardless of political party – only further normalizes violent and divisive rhetoric, which is directly linked to real-world violence.”
CBS News reached out to Cotton’s office by phone and email Friday evening for comment.
Advance Democracy, founded by Daniel Jones, a former US Senate investigator and member of the Intelligence Committee, conducts weekly monitoring of far-right media, foreign state media and certain social media platforms.
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