Russian operatives used Facebook to organize armed anti-Islamist protest and targeted military vets in 2016.

Courtesy of Think Progress: 

Last May, nearly 100 demonstrators gathered around the Islamic Da’wah Center in downtown Houston, squaring off against one another in competing camps. 

The “Stop Islamization of Texas” protest was, on its face, largely similar to any number of other tense, vitriolic demonstrations that percolated through 2016. On the one end: a crew carrying Confederate flags, #WhiteLivesMatter banners, and heavy weaponry. On the other: counter-protesters with signs decrying Islamophobia, calling for communal unity, and a bubble machine going at full blast. 

Despite the presence of AR-15s, the demonstrations ended without violence. The white supremacists screaming “Fascist and proud!” dissipated, as did those supporting the Islamic center. 

The organizers behind the anti-Islam protesters, however, never showed. And now, over 16 months later, we know why. 

As CNN reported last week, the protest was put together by the “Heart of Texas” Facebook page – a page that was revealed last month as one of the fake accounts operated out of Russia. Unlike the November anti-Hillary Clinton, pro-secession rallies the page attempted to organize across Texas, the May protest not only brought armed protesters, but a raft of counter-protesters to face down those calling for “white power!”

Just let that roll around in your mind a little.

That means that the Russian government used an American social media platform to organize a situation where American people could easily have been shot and killed.

Who needs more bombs and bigger armies when you can so easily accomplish something like that?

And the Russians clearly knew which Americans were most susceptible to their manipulations.

Courtesy of McClatchy:

Russia has exploited social media networks to target current and former U.S. military personnel with propaganda, conspiracy theories and other misinformation, achieving “significant and persistent interactions” over Twitter during a one-month period last spring, a British research team found. 

The Oxford University study, which traced the reach of three websites with clear ties to the Russian government, adds a new dimension to revelations of a Kremlin cyber campaign aimed at undermining Americans’ trust in democracy during last year’s U.S. elections and helping Donald Trump win the presidency. 

“We’ve found an entire ecosystem of junk news about national security issues that is deliberately crafted for U.S. veterans and active military personnel,” said Philip Howard, a professor of internet studies who led the research. “It’s a complex blend of content with a Russian view of the world – wild rumors and conspiracies.”

Remember when I told you about that buddy from the gym who claimed that his opinion of Hillary was altered when he saw a meme on social media showing Hillary standing among a bunch of dead bodies and calling her a "war monger?"

Yep, you guessed it, he is ex-military.

I remember at the time wondering how he was targeted as he is essentially apolitical.

Now I know.

And we are still everyday learning more and more about how easily the Russians manipulated the American people.

It is enough to make you feel disgusted that you have to share the planet with such fucking morons.