Far-right infighting in digital spaces during the Capitol Hill riot

Reports of the Capitol Hill Riot (CHR) on 6 January 2021 emphasized how far-right activists converged from all over the United States and coalesced in violent public action. And yet, the riot itself was highly contested within online far-right communities, revealing underlying infighting. This paper draws on data from three forums and image boards, 8kun, 4chan, and TheDonald.win, to explore how online users interacted on the current political situation in the run-up to and the aftermath of the CHR. We explain far-right infighting through competing conspiratorial narratives that entail different attributions of who is deemed a traitor to the movement and then result in diverging logics for and legitimacies of political action. Drawing on qualitative content analysis of approximately 3000 posts, we demonstrate how these narratives shape internal conflicts, infighting, and proposed action. One perspective supports the riot as a necessary response to save Donald Trump after an allegedly stolen election, rendering anyone not fully in support of the CHR as hybrid; the second perspective depicts Trump as a traitor and part of more fundamental, systemic problems, therefore advocating for violence that supports a fundamental renewal of society. Our analysis thus traces the roots of political infighting amongst far-right actors to two differing conspiratorial narratives and diverging logics of political action.