http://usuncut.com/politics/bernie-facebook-groups-trolled/

Hillary Clinton Trolls Shut Down Pro-Bernie Sanders Facebook Groups

Amanda Girard | April 26, 2016

Some of the biggest pro-Bernie Sanders groups on Facebook were briefly taken down Monday evening in a targeted attack by Hillary Clinton supporters.

The groups Bernie Sanders Activists, Bernie Believers, BERNIE OR BUST, Bernie Sanders Revolutionaries, Bay Area for Bernie, Bernie Sanders 2016 — Ideas Welcome, Bernie Sanders is my HERO, and Bernie Sanders for President 2016 were all taken down in the attack. The pages in question were reported to be down for about three hours, from 9 p.m. to midnight Monday night.

Collectively, these groups are home to more than a quarter million Bernie Sanders supporters, and some have been in existence for nearly a year, having been launched shortly after the Vermont senator declared his intent to run for president in 2015.

The groups were targeted by online trolls, who posted pornographic images and reported the groups to Facebook admins. Some legitimate Bernie supporters even reported seeing images containing pedophilia, according to reporting from Heavy.com.

Erica Libenow, a Sanders supporter and member of one of the pro-Bernie groups, said, “We had what looked like a kiddie porn posted in one of our groups today. I reported that one. Seriously made me want to vomit.”

There is at least one culprit to be found in Facebook user Casey Champagne, who bragged about taking down the pages in the pro-Hillary Clinton group BROS 4 HILLARY – #GiveEmHill — the pro-Clinton page was briefly taken down, but was restored on Tuesday.

Other Hillary Clinton fans were cheering on Champagne’s trolling, encouraging him to try to take down Bernie Sanders’ official Facebook page. Facebook user Robert Olivarez told Champagne, “You know they all can see this post?” Champagne cavalierly responded, “You know I don’t care?”

Champagne, and possibly other Clinton supporters, essentially mass-reported content in these pro-Sanders Facebook groups claiming the content was graphically violent, pornographic, or abusive — including the reprehensible content posted by Clinton supporters themselves. Facebook’s automated systems take note of how many individuals report a particular post, and if the post is reported enough, it will be taken down. This same process applies to groups, pages, and individual user accounts.

Bros 4 Hillary (B4H) sent US Uncut this statement on Tuesday morning:

Last night, a former member by the name of Casey Champagne

decided to engage in harassing behavior toward Facebook groups
of Bernie Sanders and posted about it in the B4H Facebook group.
As stated above, this was not promoted or supported by the leadership of B4H, nor were we immediately aware of this conduct. We removed the offending posts and member as soon as possible. While our leadership team of administrators tries to catch every questionable post and comment, with over 7,000 members and on a 24-hour posting cycle, some fall through the cracks. We rely on members to “flag and report” harmful, offensive, or trolling behavior, and apologize to the groups that were affected. This member acted on his own authority, is not apart of our leadership team, and does not represent our ideals or our opinions.

Casey Champagne did not immediately respond to interview requests from US Uncut.

It’s still unclear if these gutter tactics are tied to Correct the Record, the pro-Hillary Clinton Super PAC that openly declared last week that it would launch a sophisticated social media campaignaimed at Bernie Sanders supporters. Correct the Record earmarked $1 million for the effort, named “Barrier Breakers 2016,” which aims to “correct” Sanders supporters who criticize Hillary Clinton on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Instagram. However, some of Casey Champagne’s recent likes are Correct the Record, Barrier Breakers, and an anti-Sanders page called “Pragmatic Progressives.”

The shutdown of pro-Sanders groups comes just one day before a crucial string of primaries in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, where 384 pledged delegates are at stake.

Amanda Girard is a US Uncut contributor covering politics, public policy, and social justice. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Email her at girardamandaaaa@gmail.com.