![]() ![]() Watkins told the Ohio Capital Journal she was the leader of a local militia called the Ohio State Regular and a member of the national Oath Keepers militia. The Zello user who described breaking into the Capitol building appears to be Jessica Watkins, a 38-year-old bartender from Ohio, who admitted to participating in the insurrection. In addition to locking some public features that would help researchers uncover more extremist content, Zello had begun purging some far-right groups as of Wednesday. ![]() The company also said it was working on a more elaborate response. Responding to a list of over 800 far-right channels, Zello said it was “prepared to take action on those”. ![]() However, the app is also home to hundreds of far-right channels, which appear to violate its policy prohibiting groups that espouse “violent ideologies”. Most coverage about Zello, which claims to have 150 million users on its free and premium platforms, has focused on its use by the Cajun Navy groups that send boats to save flood victims and grassroots organizing in Venezuela. Dynamic group conversations like this exemplify why Zello, a smartphone and PC app, has become popular among militias, which have long fetishized military-like communication on analog radio.Īfter years of public pressure, Facebook, Twitter, and Discord have begun to crack down on inciting speech from far-right groups, but Zello has avoided proactive content moderation thus far. The frenzied exchange took place at 2.44pm in a public Zello channel called “STOP THE STEAL J6”, where Trump supporters at home and in Washington DC discussed the riot as it unfolded. Keep going,” said a male voice from a quiet environment. ![]() They’re throwing grenades, they’re frickin’ shooting people with paintballs, but we’re in here.” “We are in the main dome right now,” said a female militia member, speaking on Zello, her voice competing with the cacophony of a clash with Capitol police. We're sticking together and sticking to the plan," the female voice is heard saying on Zello as they were walking toward the Capitol.Ī pattern of neglectThe revelation of Zello's potential role in the Capitol riots comes just three months after a joint investigation from On the Media and MilitiaWatch revealed that the company's leadership resisted calls to enforce its terms of service, which prohibit "Violent extremist ideologies", and remove far-right groups and users from the app.Audio and chat logs reveal that at least two insurrectionists who broke into the Capitol on 6 January used Zello, a social media walkie-talkie app that critics say has largely ignored a growing far-right user base. The woman's profile was one of thousands uploaded to the Wayback Machine, an internet archive, by a group of hackers following the violence in Washington DC."We have a good group: 30 to 40 of us. Teargassed, the whole, 9," she wrote on Parler. The user's Zello messages also bear strong resemblance to posts on Watkin's Parler profile, according to our research: "Yeah. This is the best tl dr I could make, original reduced by 91%. ![]()
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