Using a “Hearts of Texas” Facebook group, Russia’s Internet Research Agency organizes a Blue Lives Matter counter-protest in Dallas, Texas.
The collision of Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter on the streets of Dallas received media attention.
Two months earlier, the Agency organized a protest of an Islamic center in Houston.
At least 22 of the 60 events actually took place, such as a May 2016 protest of an Islamic center in Houston planned by “Heart of Texas”, a Russia-created page that supported Texas secession and posted the “Blue Lives Matter” rally in Dallas two months later. On June 25, 2016, following the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla, “LGBT United” organized a candlelight vigil, where one of the victim’s brothers spoke. Both were covered by local media and attracted a dozen or more attendees.
It is unclear if the other 40 or so events occurred as publicized. Collectively, the eight accounts analyzed by the Journal were “liked” nearly two million times, archived websites show.
The Wall Street Journal
Sources
https://web.archive.org/web/20200926001817/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections_%28July_2016%E2%80%93election_day%29
https://web.archive.org/web/20200926001817/https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/what-russia-really-wants-divided-paralyzed-america/
https://web.archive.org/web/20200926001817/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/01/25/russians-got-tens-of-thousands-of-americans-to-rsvp-for-their-phony-political-events-on-facebook/?hpid=hp_no-name_no-name%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar
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