Normal text size Very large text size On November 7 Philadelphia time, at the exact moment the US election was called for Joe Biden, President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani was giving a press conference at the Four Seasons – the landscaping store, not the luxury hotel. He had his own version of history too: Trump had won, not Biden. And, on fringe corners of the internet, this alternative reality has been playing out ever since, fuelled by baseless and now thoroughly debunked claims of voter fraud as well as Trump's own false claims of victory. Then, on January 6, the online mob broke out into real-world violence, storming the Capitol building to stop lawmakers from certifying Biden's win in a historic occupation that lasted four hours and left five people dead. Whipped up by Trump and Giuliani at a rally in Washington, rioters live-streamed and narrated their rampage on the very platforms on which they had organised, including alt-right favourites Parler, DLive and Gab.