Trump supporters still believe he will declare martial law

New explicit video of the attack on the US Capitol 0:32

(CNN Business) -

Sometime on Monday, some of the last convinced that President Trump will remain in office for at least the next four years received a signal.

A Telegram account that was falsely said to be headed by General John Hyten, deputy chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told them that the moment they had been waiting for, the moment when Trump would finally act and use the Army to crush his enemies, had arrived.

"Nothing can stop this," the account said in a message that had been viewed by at least 185,000 people as of Tuesday morning.

"They can no longer hide in the shadows," he added half an hour later.

Then 20 minutes later: «Last hours».

It continued like this.

Around 10 am ET, he posted an ominous picture of uniformed soldiers behind a fence in Washington with the caption "Stay home."

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By Tuesday afternoon, the account had nearly 220,000 followers, likely helped by the fact that it was being widely and actively discussed and promoted on other platforms, including Twitter and Facebook.

Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

After CNN asked about people who shared links and promoted the Telegram channel on its platform, Twitter said it was "taking action on the accounts that share it" and would prevent the link from being tweeted further.

A spokesman for General Hyten told CNN Tuesday morning that the account is "an outright forgery" and added that the Pentagon was "actively working" to remove it.

On Tuesday afternoon, the account was tagged as a "scam" with the message "Warning: Many users reported this account as a scam or fake account."

Since then, the account has lost some followers and many of the posts have been deleted.

A Telegram spokesperson told CNN: "Telegram monitors reports and warns users about fraudulent accounts in clear cases like the one you flag."

Facebook and Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The account, which largely mirrored old QAnon conspiracy theory tropes, was emblematic of a larger trend.

A sizable group of people has not been deterred from believing the lie that the election was stolen from Trump and that someone or something (the courts, state legislatures, members of Congress, Vice President Mike Pence) would stop Joe Biden took office.

of that belief.

Instead, they now think the only thing left is violence and blood.

They are convinced that Trump is about to institute martial law and they are eager.

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The conspiracy theory is rooted in the same thing that inspired the riot inside the Capitol on January 6: the false idea that the elections were stolen, that American democracy is under threat, and that someone had to do something.

Then the agitators took care of it.

After the riot, similar groups had faith that they could hunker down and wait for Trump and the military to take action.

But given the way conspiracy theories work in general, and the way they have proliferated after the riots, it's easy to imagine these theories developing in new ways once it's clear that no such action will occur.

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Much of the online discussion about martial law ultimately connects to QAnon, who has long kept a promise and a lust for blood.

But people who are enthusiastically discussing the possibility of a military takeover may not know the source of their obsession.

And the phenomenon does not appear to be confined to an Internet niche.

For the past two weeks, CNN has seen Trump supporters embracing the idea in large numbers and across multiple social media platforms.

On Facebook, a video in which a man warned people that they should stock up on food before martial law was implemented was viewed more than five million times before it was verified and flagged as fake.

The video is no longer on Facebook, although it is unclear who deleted it.

CNN has reached out to Facebook for comment.

On YouTube, a man who was previously best known for his claims that he has an alien mother and an alien daughter has suddenly become a star.

He racked up more than 3.5 million views with a video claiming that Trump had signed the Insurrection Act, a prominent feature of many martial law conspiracy theories.

Another video in which he said that up to 85% of members of Congress could be arrested has been viewed almost 1.7 million times.

After the initial publication of this article, Ivy Choi, a YouTube spokeswoman, told CNN that the company had removed the latest video after being questioned by CNN about it, saying that it had "violated our integrity policy on elections. presidential ”.

On TikTok, thousands, if not tens of thousands of people have been watching and reacting to dozens of videos linked to conspiracy theories.

Those videos vary in topic, all tied to the same misconception that Trump is about to institute martial law;

in some, people enthusiastically film the movement of military vehicles, convinced that it is a sign;

in others, people repeat warnings about being prepared with food and water;

A popular theme is that at any time Trump will use the Emergency Broadcast System to announce the start of his movement.

Rarely, if ever, is there any sign of hesitation or concern for the lives that might be lost.

- CNN's Mallory Simon contributed reporting

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