Attorneys for the plaintiffs Tuesday called internet and social media analyst Clint Watts to the stand.
Watts has experience working for the U.S. government countering foreign influence, including analyzing how al-Qaida used YouTube to recruit followers.
Watts said he was asked in January by the plaintiffs to analyze Alex Jones’ network to see how it influences customers to purchase goods.
Attorneys for the families argue Jones repeatedly made false statements about the shooting, including that it was as “phony as the $3 bill” and that family members of victims were crisis actors, to make money.
“If you demonize an individual under false pretenses, for example, you say that they’re acting or that an event didn’t really occur, it makes the audience angry, and then, you strike fear in them,” Watts said. “It’s an existential threat – if this threat is not dealt with, then you as an individual will not survive.”
Watts was then shown a video of Jones speaking to his audience several hours after police were called to the Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012.
“People have got to find the clips from the last two months. I said ‘they are launching attacks, they’re getting ready,” Jones said, in a video played in court Tuesday. “I can see them warming up with Obama. They’ve got a bigger majority in the Congress now in the Senate. They are going to come after our guns. Look for mass shootings.’ And then, magically it happens.”
Watts analyzed that message at the request of...
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