How likely is it that the Trump administration will attempt to deanonymize online antifascists and leftists and imprison them?

Everyone's like "it won't happen" but I remember post-9/11 a specific Linux news site got hit with claims of radicalism and some folks who frequented the site got put on watch lists. For interest in Linux.

There was a reason folks like me were against all the surveillance from the PATRIOT Act back then, and this is why.

EDIT:

Similarly, the Bush admin had the FBI spying on Quakers, the only religious group that anti-violence is such a central tenet to their religion that they by default are considered conscientious objectors and cannot be drafted into the military without violating their beliefs.

Post-9/11 the government thought peaceful Quaker anti-war activists were dangerous.

That was post-9/11 in the War on Terror years... It can happen here.

Sources:

Linuxjournal gets "extra surveillance:"

https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/nsa-linux-journal-extremist-forum-and-its-readers-get-flagged-extra-surveillance

Quakers being spied on by FBI:

https://www.wired.com/2009/09/fbi-nsac/

Personally, I would be worried if I was you. The first Trump term can’t be compared as he had some guardrails with his recommended cabinet picks from the traditional GOP. Now that those GOP members have been expelled from the party, those guardrails are no longer there. His cabinet picks are loyalists and is a stress test to weed out any non-loyalists in Congress.

His cabinet picks will have free will to do what they want as long as they do two things: 1) praise Trump for the popular things they accomplish and 2) take the fall or blame other groups if it’s not popular.

And it’s not the government coming after these groups that is most worrying. We all see the lengths regular citizens would go to right a perceived wrong. January 6 case in point.

We’ve all seen this film before. It doesn’t have a good ending.

Unless you're doing actual organizing, unlikely. The DNC isn't friendly towards Leftist orgs either, though MAGA groups themselves may become more millitant.

Likely. The federal government has SharePoint sites with information gathered about journalists and other activists who are pro immigration. To my knowledge, these individuals have not officially been disappeared.

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/source-leaked-documents-show-the-us-government-tracking-journalists-and-advocates-through-a-secret-database/3438/

Permanently Deleted

It all comes to how anonymous you are on the net. I'd say having a mainstream social media account is right now a high risk if you live in the US, specially considering that Kethamine Karen owns one one of them.

This to say that deanonymizing you might be cheaper than you think, making it more likely than we all expect. If you want to keep using tnose socials, I'd start by deleting my accounts and creating new ones using new data (such as disposable mails or aliases that forward to your real email)

Of course, a trusted vpn is a must in these cases. And there is a lot you should be doing on top of all this.

Right now, if you want to keep your anti-trump line, be prepared to be treated as an enemy, so consider the deanonymation a highly likely possibility.

I don't think it's very likely. Even if it was even remotely affordable or feasible he actually needs opposition to define himself and his base 'ruggedly independent' and as 'freedom fighters'.

If he's going to go after anyone at all I think it will be high profile people for maximum media impact.

Online? No. Online disorganized leftists aren't actually leftists, they're leftist sympathizers. You need to be in a leftist org to actually be a leftist.

You're not a threat unless you're actually doing stuff.

It's a proud fascist country now. Be prepare for ANYTHING.

Not likely. Trump doesn't even know what those words mean. Temporarily jailing them and protesters is likely a different story, though.

For people organizing protests and taking part in them, Maybe to Likely.

For people just posting things online, Very unlikely. They'll have their hands full with all the immigrants and protesters first, and there's far too many people who have said something leftist online.

Given the majority of the supreme court are constitutional literalists, I'm going to stake a claim on very unlikely. That is literally against the first amendment.

Now, let's say we live in some kind of bizaro land where you can be taken to court without the protection of the first amendment. (Difficult ti believe I know). You would still, hopefully, have a right to an attorney. If your case is high profile, or you have enough money, an organization like the aclu would help.

Woooo boy! I'll be right there in the camps with you buddy! Party time!

What would the charge be?

you don't have to be imprisoned to have your life ruined. there are many relatively subtle ways to do that

I don't think it's "Trump" thing, but the USA will probably start arresting people for the media they consume if a rapidly growing and sufficiently large portion of their citizenry spread and consume messaging they disagree with. It'll be a side-effect of losing the narrative war. I don't foresee it happening in the next 4 years.

I don't see the point in publicising it. From a PR perspective, "Posted illegal content using a platform frequented by terrorists" is less likely to meet resistance than "Commented🔻on Instagram". In fact, USA propaganda is already full of vagueties about people's online behaviour today. Usually in the form of reporting on foreign (enemy) policing as "Helpless teen (19) arrested (fined) for Tweet (Bomb-threat to head of state)".

It isn't November 2016 anymore. Trump has been president before and whatever you think of his first term, you already know (roughly) what tends to happen when he is president (if you are too young, there is a near-infinite amount of news articles, social media discussions, wiki articles where you can look it up). I somewhat understood fears like this in late 2016 when a Trump administration was an unprecedented phenomenon, but now?

Unlikely.

If you just post stuff on the Internet, you don't have to worry. At least this type of stuff.

Haha I had to double check to make sure I wasnt on Reddit.