We’ve seen pro-Trump protesters contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election in recent weeks, particularly in Washington, D.C.
And now that phenomenon has spread internationally. Over the last few days, “Stop the Steal” events have been held in Taipei, Taiwan, and Osaka, Japan.
The Taipei Times reports that the protest in Taiwan was organized by the Epoch Media Group, publisher of The Epoch Times:
A crowd yesterday marched in Taipei to rally support for US President Donald Trump and show opposition to the Chinese Communist Party.
At the parade organized by Epoch Media Group — publisher of the Epoch Times and affiliated with Falun Gong — participants carried placards with slogans such as: “Taiwan-US cooperation, we support Trump to dispose communist China” and “Taiwan, Fight for Trump.”
Some signs echoed messages used by Trump supporters who believe he won the US election last month, with phrases such as: “Stop the Steal” and “Make America Great Again.”
The Epoch Times covered the event in Taiwan (translation accessed via Google Translate). The promotion for the event can be seen here (via Twitter Translate; archived mirror here with reference both to The Epoch Times and Stop The Steal in English as well).
The Taipei march was also promoted on an affiliated YouTube page of The Epoch Times and NTD Hong Kong, which has also posted many videos (albeit with very few views) that push conspiracy theories about the results of the U.S. presidential election. (NTD, short for New Tang Dynasty, is an affiliate of The Epoch Times.)
A Twitter video of the Taipei march has been amplified over 20,000 times and has over 1 million views. The rally was also promoted by various right-wing pages on Facebook, including the official page of the American Samoa Republican Party.
The Epoch Times and NTD Japan heavily promoted the event in Osaka over the weekend as well, with hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube alone. The QAnon conspiracy theory was also promoted at the rally.
The Epoch Times Japan page on YouTube similarly has dozens of videos that push conspiracy theories about the presidential election. NTD’s Japan page has videos featuring retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, in one of which he calls for martial law; promotes the “Hammer” and “Scorecard” conspiracy theory (and brags how he told Steve Bannon about it); discusses the debunked allegation about seized vote-counting servers in Europe; and speculates that the election results may be part of a CIA conspiracy. McInerney has openly called for martial law to overturn the presidential election results during his appearances on other right-wing media platforms.
As we’ve previously noted, The Epoch Times and its affiliate NTD are some of the leading outlets spreading pro-Trump conspiracy theories about the presidential election. The Trump campaign has even used The Epoch Times’ election map in its official emails.
NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins reported in August 2019 on the practices of The Epoch Media Group and how The Epoch Times and NTD have recently flourished on social media with pro-Trump propaganda. A former writer for The Epoch Times told Zadrozny and Collins that devout members of Falun Gong, the spiritual community linked to The Epoch Times and NTD, “believe that Trump was sent by heaven to destroy the Communist Party.”
