Russians Organized Pro-Trump Rallies Using Facebook Events: Report
Russians used Facebook events to get Americans to show up to pro-Trump rallies.
The extent of Russia’s use of Facebook to interfere with the 2016 election was larger than originally thought.
Russia-linked groups worked organized over a dozen pro-Trump rallies around Florida during the 2016 elections, The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday.
The rallies are the first known instances where Russians were able to successfully organize Americans to show up in person for pro-Trump rallies.
The rallies were attended by dozens of people.
According to The Daily Beast, on August 20, 2016, as a part of an event called “Florida Goes Trump!,” a “patriotic state-wide flash mob” happened simultaneously in 17 cities across the state.
The Trump campaign’s chairwoman for Broward County tweeted about one of the rallies:
Huge, enthusiastic crowd greeted the Trump RV at Wings Plus in Coral Springs Fl pic.twitter.com/UaGAFS0XU1
— Dolly Trevino Rump (@dollytrump) September 1, 2016
As The Daily Beast notes, “Being Patriotic had 200,000 followers and the strongest activist bent of any of the suspected Russian Facebook election pages that have so far emerged. Events promoted by the page last year included a July “Down With Hillary!” protest outside Clinton’s New York campaign headquarters, a September 11 pro-Trump demonstration in Manhattan, simultaneous “Miners for Trump” demonstrations in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in October, and a pro-Trump rally outside Trump Tower last November, after his election victory.”
Facebook has since deleted the Being Patriotic account.
Read the full Daily Beast report here.
[image via Twitter @dollytrump]
