![]() Two hours after the Guardian published this report, Zello announced it had deleted more than 2,000 “channels associated with militias and other militarized social movements”. “Looking ahead, we are concerned that Zello could be misused by groups who have threatened to organize additional potentially violent protests and disrupt the US presidential inauguration festivities on January 20th.” “It is with deep sadness and anger that we have discovered evidence of Zello being misused by some individuals while storming the United States Capitol building last week,” the company wrote in a blogpost. The Zello user who described breaking into the Capitol building appears to be Jessica Watkins, a 38-year-old bartender from Ohio, who admitted to participating in the insurrection. Watkins told the Ohio Capital Journal she was the leader of a local militia called the Ohio State Regular and a member of the national Oath Keepers militia. The username of the Zello profile in question, “OhioRegularsActual – Oathkeeper”, matches Watkins’s militia affiliations, referencing the Ohio State Regulars, Oath Keepers, and her role as a militia leader through the inclusion of “Actual” in her virtual “radio callsign”.Īccording to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Oath Keepers are “one of the largest radical anti-government groups in the US today”, claiming to have tens of thousands of current and former law enforcement and military personnel in its ranks. The user’s Zello messages also bear strong resemblance to posts on Watkins’s Parler profile, according to our research: “Yeah. ![]() ![]() Teargassed, the whole, 9,” she wrote on Parler. ![]()
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