Twitter did nothing to stop Antifa planning and promoting riots in Portland and Seattle weeks in advance, according to Journalist Andy Ngo, an expert on the anarcho-communist group.
At least 150 people gathered and participated in events punctuated by violence and destruction in the two states just hours after Joe Biden took the oath of office to become the 46th president of the United States on Jan. 20.
Wednesday’s riots saw agitators in Portland smashing windows and vandalizing the offices of the state’s Democratic Party, while in Seattle, the activists marched into the iconic Pike Place Market to smash up property, spray-paint buildings with an anarchist symbol, and smash windows, including at the William Kenzo Nakamura Courthouse, a federal building, according to KOMO.
“In Seattle and Portland, there were simultaneous riots that were pre-planned and organized, and also advertised weeks ahead of time on Twitter,” Ngo said in an interview with The Epoch Times’ American Thought Leaders program, ahead of the Feb. 2 publication of his book, “Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy.”
“Twitter did nothing to take down some of these accounts that were promoting these riots,” he said.
Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times.
Ngo noted that Rose City Antifa is the largest and oldest Antifa group and has a strong presence on Twitter with thousands of followers.
The journalist said Antifa, which has a strong influence in the Northwest U.S., has a formal membership process that involves “radicalization, going to training, [and] having extremist literature to read,” which he noted is “very similar to how Islamists radicalize regular Muslims into their worldview.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Ngo said Antifa “took over the street and shut down traffic” in Portland before marching “unimpeded” to the headquarters of the Democratic Party of Oregon.
Officers have so far arrested eight people following Wednesday’s events in Oregon, according to the Portland Police Bureau, while the Seattle Police Department said it has arrested two people during the unrest, one for property damage and another for assault.
Officers made a third arrest later in the evening after the glass storefront was shattered at the Starbucks in Pike Place Market, according to KOMO.
Both Seattle and Portland have been the scene of unrest for months, with civil rights activists, anarchists, Antifa, and other far-left groups protesting a number of grievances.
The protests, which initially began last summer as part of nationwide demonstrations against racism and police brutality following the death of George Floyd, have at times become violent, with protestors clashing with police and damaging property.
Former President Donald Trump earlier this month signed a memorandum to block the entry of individuals affiliated with the Antifa movement into the United States. The White House on Jan. 5 said that the violence spurred on by the group endangers the fabric of the nation.
