Russian Trolls Organized Both Sides of an Islam Protest in Texas

Russians, why are you so mean? ;_; I remember this protest. It happened 20 minutes from my apartment in Houston

Other urls found in this thread:

sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2017/11/01/russian-trolls-organized-both-sides-of-an-islam-protest-in-texas
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

It appears some Texans have quite literally become the puppets of Russia.

On May 21, two agitated groups of protesters met in from of the Islamic Da'wah Center in Houston. One group, wearing "White Lives Matter" shirts, came to oppose the opening of a new library in the religious center (falsely led to believe it was publicly funded). The other group, waving signs reading "Muslims are welcome here," showed up to support the center and the community it served. The energized clash of protesters was not physically violent, but Houston police showed up to make sure it stayed that way.

Unbeknownst to everyone involved, both rallies were organized by a group of distant internet trolls located in St. Petersburg, Russia.


sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2017/11/01/russian-trolls-organized-both-sides-of-an-islam-protest-in-texas

Was it eventful? Haven't heard of either protest.

The coordinators of these two Facebook events were two seemingly polarized Facebook groups — one called the "Heart of Texas" with 250,000 likes, and the other titled “United Muslims of America" with 320,000 likes. But a federal investigation into Russia's influence on the 2016 election has linked both accounts to the same St. Petersburg troll hub.

"What neither side could have known was that Russian trolls were encouraging both sides to battle in the streets and create division between real Americans,"said U.S. Senator Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, in a Wednesday hearing on Capitol Hill.

Burr said the Russian government spent a grand total of $200 to advertise these dueling events on Facebook. Then, it seems, they let social media do the rest. News stories about the May protest noted that the "Heart of Texas" organizers never showed up — and that local Islamic groups weren't involved in the counter-protest. Now we know why.

"It’s hard to attend an event in Houston, Texas, when you’re trolling from a site in St. Pete, Russia," Burr said.

It was a few months ago. I saw a few articles on the local media, Houston Chronicle, and that Katy conservative newspaper, blogs

Total

whoops,
*Total protest population was about 100-150 people in downtown, I would guess

lol. all this is is a russian bot-farm that gets paid by it's (us) customers to spam twitter posts.
naturally all sides of the political sphere will hire their services.
at my company, we hired them to spam twitter for our iOS game.
think it cost like 50 bucks in bitcoin.

ome Houstonians object to Burr’s allegations, claiming that the main counter-protest was organized by actual Houston residents concerned about the anti-Islam rally. “We had a legitimate counter protest and civil rights concern,” wrote protester Chris Martin in an email to the Current. “The counter-protest was in no way shape or form initiated, promoted, or controlled by Russian operatives…I personally know many of the counter-protest organizers.”

Martin never saw the event posted by United Muslims of America — he said he was drawn to the protest after a friend shared a different event invite with him, one made by an actual Houstonian (that had the same name as UMA’s event and took place in the same location at the same time).


Both the UMA and Heart of Texas Facebook groups have been shut down by Facebook.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have already verified that Russian government-funded groups spent at least $100,000 on political Facebook ads preceding the presidential election. If $200 can buy you a orchestrated clash on the streets of a city thousands of miles away, imagine what they could have done with the rest.

RUSSIA HACKED THE PROTEST!!!

why do people believe this?
russia is a shit country, but this is cold war levels of propaganda.

Why is it hard to believe? The protests weren't set up by real Texan clubs, or the Texan clubs that set them up have now disappeared

is it really hard to believe? Which country benefits the most from a destabilized America and Europe?

Is not likie they have used cyber attacks before or anything

hello ivan

China?

come on swede, it ain't that hard to believe
considering the amount of shilling, shitposting, and false flagging that's done here just for shits and giggles, whats stopping russia from having a bit of fun?

imagine being a billionaire and pissing a tiny bit of your money on offices full of people shilling your shit on various parts of the internet while paying them a shit wage
it's completely feasible, and influence is power

I shit in your toilet, while you are sleeping.

>we need commies to subvert us in self destruction
all shit you got comes exactly from ideas of personal property and personal freedoms(multiply on concurrence)
you can remove any "source of evil" but you'll find yourself suffering from the same problems

>imagine being a billionaire
why can't they afford media coverage even in damn ukraine?

Those trolls get paid? How can I join?

>+15

>imagine being a billionaire and pissing a tiny bit of your money on offices full of people shilling your shit on various parts of the internet while paying them a shit wage
>it's completely feasible, and influence is power
soros paying for muttposting/10