Hillary SuperPAC to Unleash $1 Million Internet Troll Army

Hillary SuperPAC to Unleash $1 Million Internet Troll Army
Tim Brown / April 25, 2016 / 

Trolls, they’re not just under bridges in fairy tales. They are everywhere on the internet. Now, a pro-Hillary Clinton SuperPAC is spending $1 million to attack negative comments on social media and, no doubt, sites like this one.
According to PAC Correct the Record, its main focus is “a strategic research and rapid response team designed to defend Hillary Clinton from baseless attacks.” In this case, it’s trolling.
“Anonymous online attacks, from both sides of the political spectrum, have sought to spread lies and misleading narratives about Secretary Hillary Clinton,” reads a statement from the PAC. “Hillary’s supporters are more enthusiastic than Sen. Bernie Sanders‘ supporters, yet oftentimes are discouraged from engaging online and are “often afraid to voice their thoughts” because of the fear of online harassment. Many of Hillary Clinton’s female supporters in particular have been subject to intense cyber-bullying and sexist attacks from swarms of anonymous attackers.”
“Correct The Record will invest more than $1 million into Barrier Breakers 2016 activities, including the more than tripling of its digital operation to engage in online messaging both for Secretary Clinton and to push back against attackers on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram,” the PAC added.
The “Barrier Breakers 2016 digital task force,” which is set up by Correct the Record, will seek to provide positive comments about Hillary and counter negative comments and posts about her. You can view a few of the memes that will identify their work here.
“Lessons learned from online engagement with ‘Bernie Bros’ during the Democratic Primary will be applied to the rest of the primary season and general election — responding quickly and forcefully to negative attacks and false narratives,” Correct the Record continued. “Additionally, as the general election approaches, the task force will begin to push out information to Sanders supporters online, encouraging them to support Hillary Clinton.”
Upon hearing of this news, the Bernie Sanders campaign staffer Mike Casca told The Daily Beast, “Our campaign and our vendors are not paying people to reply to anti-Bernie comments on social media.”
Right, sure they aren’t.
TDB went on to report that many on social media had pointed out that Sanders had engaged in the same activity, spending $16 million on marketing company “Revolution messaging.”
According to The Real Strategy:

Super PACs aren’t normally allowed to coordinate with candidates, but FEC loopholes mean Correct the Record can – a move discovered by the Sunlight Foundation’s Libby Watson.
“The whole reasoning behind (Supreme Court decision) Citizens United rests on (PACs) being independent, but Correct the Record claims it can coordinate,” Watson told The Daily Beast.
“It’s not totally clear what their reasoning is, but it seems to be that material posted on the Internet for free — like, blogs — doesn’t count as an ‘independent expenditure’.”

The Clinton campaign was also exposed by The Intercept for the use of “astroturfers” in the media.
It makes me wonder if some of the people attacking and shutting down Kathy Amidon’s Benghazi Tea Party Fire Ants posts are paid trolls by not only the Clinton campaign, but even by the Obama administration.
In either case, trolling has become very common, and it isn’t just among Democrats. Sadly, many have been trolling, attempting to remove the historical understanding of natural born citizen for men like Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio in their presidential bids.
http://thewashingtonstandard.com/hillary-superpac-unleash-1-million-internet-troll-army/