Violent threats and Calls for improvisation on social media platforms targeting U.S. judges have grown 327% since last year, according to new research from the Global Anti-Hate and Extremism Project (GPAHE).
Many posts are violent and politically accused. A user posted on Tiktok in March referring to Judge James Boasberg, who discovered possible reasons after he refused to reverse his deportation flight on March 15.
A user named Old School Cowboy wrote on GAB: “This bitch committed treason, incitement and rebellion; locked her bitch and sent her to Gitmo.
Although threats of this nature were previously limited to the edge of the internet, GPAHE researchers found that they are now publicly shared on mainstream platforms such as Tiktok. The researchers worked with Tiktok to compile examples of violent threats and called on Donald Trump’s truth-truth social platform, the Anonymous Information Commission 4chan to impeach judges, comments on video posts on video sharing site Rumble, and on GAB, GAB (an extreme social network).
This position was promoted because of Trump, Elon Musk and other major figures on the right who had inflammatory remarks on the judiciary, especially when the judge ruled against the incumbent administration. In a truth-fact social post in March, Trump called Boasberg a “radical left madman” and “should be impeached each!!!” Musk called the court’s ruling hindered his so-called Ministry of Government Efficiency (DOGE) a “judicial coup” and added an article to X: “Judge Impotence each”.
White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Attorney General Pam Bondi have expressed similar views in recent months. Republican Congressman Andy Ogles from Tennessee introduced the article by Judge John Bates after Bates ruled against the Trump administration’s cancellation of the government’s public health website. Ogles posted on X without evidence Ogles is the judge who is a “predator” and a “radical LGBTQ activist”.
“These anti-Trump eyebrows have zero credibility and remain silent as the former president is armed with political opponents against his radical agenda, Catholics, parents and doctors against weapons of political opponents, Catholics, parents and doctors. President Trump will always represent law and order, the U.S. Constitution,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields told Racing.
These posts have real-world implications. Judge John Coughenour was threatened and violently attacked in January after ruling against the Trump administration. Boasberg’s brother is a former principal, and the allegations against him by far-right activist Laura Loomer was unfounded and secured in March.
“There is no doubt that we see normalization of paranoid, violence and other harmful speeches on mainstream platforms,” Wendy Via, CEO and president of Gpahe, told Wired. “The threatening and mean posts and public comments by Trump and other extreme influencers made it once incredible, and in our community and our political discourse, there was no real danger of regularly demonizing those who opposed you.”
