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The Texas blogger is sounding the alarm and directing the FBI toward far-right extremist videos threatening violence on TikTok.
For years there has been a rise in right-wing extremism in the United States, but since the Department of Justice obtained and executed a search warrant at former president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago retirement residence, violent extremists have taken to TikTok to post alarming videos and one Texas activist is sounding the alarm.
Michelle Davis, a progressive blogger in Texas, began noticing right-wing extremism when writing about the Black Lives Matter movement and issues surrounding Confederate statues in 2020.
In any given week, Davis tracks several thousand extremist TikTok accounts. She agrees that, in a way, she's the antidote to the right-wing Twitter troll Chaya Raichik, who tweets under the Libs of TikTok pseudonym.
She saw hundreds of new, threatening TikTok posts each day in the wake of the FBI's August 8 raid of Donald Trump's compound, she said, and still more on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
She says she sees the same kind of rhetoric that she noticed online ahead of the January 6, 2021, violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Only, she says, the temperature has been elevated to an unprecedented level this time. Davis tweets out the extremist videos she finds from her account @LivingBlueTX.
On August 9, one day after the FBI searched for and discovered stacks of documents ranging from confidential to the highest levels of classification, Davis began a tweet thread documenting videos of far-right extremists -- many armed -- calling for civil war and other acts of violence.
\u201cThe right is prepping for civil war. I\u2019d report them all to the @FBI, but I literally don\u2019t have time to sit report the hundreds of videos like this I\u2019m seeing on my alt tiktok. (And they didn\u2019t check Twitter.) so here\u2019s a \ud83e\uddf5/1\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1660085648
Davis says that a confluence of conspiracies and conservative grievance contribute to the level of vitriol she encounters in these online videos.
One of the newer conspiracies revolves around the false belief being pushed by right-wing trolls and media figures that the Internal Revenue Service is hiring 87,000 armed agents the Biden administration will unleash on the American people.
\u201cJohnny is auditioning for the Men of the Civil War Calendar /239\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1661477960
"They really believe it," Davis said. "Like truly they believe it. It's insane!"
She says she noticed right-wing paramilitary fascists and "not good guys" targeting people protesting the statues and began blogging about what she was seeing.
On October 28, 2020, days before the election, Davis warned that right-wing extremists would perpetrate acts of violence if Donald Trump lost.
"Biden wins. Protests continue because they were never about Trump," she wrote. "White supremacists and militias will be furious, likely far-right media will say Democrats stole the election by cheating, causing these far-righters to inflict violence on peaceful protesters."
Davis explained during an interview with The Advocate that her goal is to sound the alarm and get the attention of law enforcement authorities to avoid an eventual clash.
At publication time, @LivingBlueTx had posted 330 videos of right-wing radicals.
\u201cDo you kiss your mom with that mouth? /330\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1661886456
"People called me an alarmist a lot," she says, explaining that before the 2020 election, she also warned that it looked like violence was coming and "was called alarmist then too."
She says that if it weren't so complicated to submit a tip to the FBI, she would report each video she sees, but that the agency's submission process is time prohibitive.
Instead, she wants people to know that more than just a few fringe people are out there plotting acts of violence, organizing into armed groups and speaking of civil war, and targeting FBI and IRS agents and others, including the LGBTQ+ community.
"At this point, the FBI has been tagged on that threat at least a thousand times," Davis said. "They say they don't check their Twitter account, but I'm pretty sure they're watching that thread."
An FBI spokesperson would not confirm or deny whether the agency was monitoring Davis's tweet thread.
"While we have no comment on specific social media post or sites, the FBI takes all threats seriously, including threats to law enforcement," the FBI spokesperson told The Advocate in an email. "We work closely with our local law enforcement partners to assess and respond to threats to keep our community safe. As always, we would like to remind members of the public that if they observe anything suspicious to report it to law enforcement immediately."
The FBI requests that anyone concerned about threats of violence submit an e-tip using Tips.FBI.gov, call the national FBI line at (800) CALL-FBI, or contact their local FBI field office.
"If this is an immediate threat, then members of the public should call 911," the spokesperson added.
