NBC News reviewed the social media accounts of Norris’ brother, and they are part of a sea of QAnon accounts that have become increasingly divorced from reality since the Capitol riots. Most of those accounts have expressed a belief Trump will declare martial law and execute Democrats on Inauguration Day as part of the cult’s long-awaited doomsday.
Extremism researchers are calling some of these accounts “Parler refugees,” named after the conservative social media network whose users are stumbling upon increasingly militant and radical information streams on smaller, unmoderated messaging apps and online forums. Parler has been offline since early January after internet service companies cut ties with it. Twitter also banned 70,000 QAnon accounts this month.
Meili Criezis, who studies white supremacist radicalization at the Global Network on Extremism & Technology, part of a nonprofit organization that works to prevent extrimists from using online platforms, said she noticed explicit recruiting by white supremacist militias of what she called “normie,” or previously nonradical, Trump supporters on Telegram after Parler’s demise.
