The FBI didn’t orchestrate Jan. 6, but poll shows the false belief has staying power
By Madison Czopek
Three years of investigations and hundreds of arrests have not surfaced evidence that the FBI orchestrated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
But ahead of the insurrection’s third anniversary, one poll of more than 1,000 respondents found that 25% of U.S. adults said it was “probably” or “definitely” true that “FBI operatives organized and encouraged” the 2021 Capitol attack...
“Over the past few years, we have seen various conspiracies take hold — including Jan. 6 — because some of our politicians have pushed this lie, then some media outlets have amplified these lies, and then social media further amplifies, creating a vicious feedback cycle,” said Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Information...
Hany Farid is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences and the School of Information at UC Berkeley and a senior advisor to the Counter Extremism Project.
