"If you support President Donald Trump or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) even a little, you cannot enter this forum."
This was a post uploaded on the 24th (local time) to a forum on Reddit, the United States' giant internet community. Since its launch in 2020, the forum with 860,000 members has handled only cat videos, but on this day, a rare political post appeared and sparked a strong reaction. As of the 28th, the post had about 48,000 upvotes. There were a whopping 3,300 comments.
Earlier, after Border Patrol agents fatally shot 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretty in Minneapolis, Minnesota, various online spaces have emerged as a new battleground for an anti-Trump movement. Communities and influencers unrelated to politics—golf, gaming, fashion—are expressing anger at the hard-line immigration crackdown, prompting analysis that the digital landscape of American society is rapidly shifting.
On the 28th, the Washington Post (WP) highlighted that movements by citizens opposing President Trump's immigration crackdown are spreading across social media (SNS) such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Reddit. In fan communities for adventure viking, baseball and the movie "The Lord of the Rings," posts criticizing ICE and the Border Patrol are being rapidly shared, and related discussions are said to be active on Meta's text app Threads as well.
Influencers are also raising their voices. Gaming YouTuber Charlie White, who has 17.7 million subscribers, posted an 18-minute video about the shooting the day after it happened, racking up more than 3.7 million views in a day. Fitness influencer Scotty Flynn uploaded a TikTok video defending shooting victim Pretty; the video has been viewed more than 14 million times and shared over 170,000 times.
Public opinion appears to be moving against the Trump administration. According to a YouGov poll, 48% responded that "Pretty's death cannot be justified," more than double those who said it was justified (20%). Even before this shooting, many citizens expressed antipathy toward ICE's immigration crackdowns, saying President Trump should focus more on economic issues.
Rifts are appearing within the Trump camp as well. Trey Gowdy, a former Republican congressman and Fox News host, said there was no basis to label Pretty a terrorist, publicly criticizing the move. Conservative commentator Erick Erickson labeled Pretty an "agitator" immediately after the incident, then quickly reversed course, saying he had demonized him too hastily.
Social media has previously served as a bridgehead to spread political incidents into nationwide movements. In May 2020, during the first Trump administration, after Black man George Floyd died due to excessive policing, the Black Lives Matter protests were sparked by hashtag posts, serving as a representative example.
Experts say the influence of the digital media environment on political issues is steadily growing. Jessica Maddox, a media studies professor at the University of Georgia, said, "The occurrence of a shocking incident can instantly erase the dividing line between social media and reality," adding, "People witness these incidents and leap over the barriers they have set for themselves."