The trouble with demanding an investigation is that you might not like what you find.
For over a year, the Dems had bet everything on trying to explain Trump's win as a Russian influence operation. But the investigation has gone to some interesting places. Like Russian ads pushing Bernie Sanders and race riots.
A network of Twitter accounts suspected of links to Russia were used this weekend to stoke the controversy over whether NFL players should stand for pregame performances of the national anthem, The New York Times reported late Wednesday. The accounts pushed both sides of the debate, using hashtags such as #boycottnfl, #standforouranthem and #takeaknee, the newspaper reported.
The left started with the premise that these kinds of tactics were a covert plot to support Trump or opponents of Islamic migration. But that premise died hard once it became clear that the Russians were exploiting a variety of causes across the left-right spectrum for their influence operation.
And the Russians were working the black nationalist side of the street (and have since the first days of the USSR.)
A social media campaign calling itself "Blacktivist" and linked to the Russian government used both Facebook and Twitter in an apparent attempt to amplify racial tensions during the U.S. presidential election, two sources with knowledge of the matter told CNN. The Twitter account has been handed over to Congress; the Facebook account is expected to be handed over in the coming days.
Both Blacktivist accounts, each of which used the handle Blacktivists, regularly shared content intended to stoke outrage. "Black people should wake up as soon as possible," one post on the Twitter account read. "Black families are divided and destroyed by mass incarceration and death of black men," another read. The accounts also posted videos of police violence against African Americans.
The Facebook account had 360,000 likes, more than the verified Black Lives Matter account on Facebook, which currently has just over 301,000.
The page also publicized at least seven rallies and demonstrations around the country in 2016. The events ranged from the 50th anniversary of the Black Panther Party to a march in Baltimore commemorating the death of Freddie Gray. In several cases, it appears that the events were real, and were organized by other groups, but that the Blacktivist account
This is the sort of thing the Communists in America were doing over a hundred years ago. When they took over the USSR, it became SOP. And though Russia is officially non-Communist, it's run by the same guys who got started doing this.
But unlike the Commies, the rulers of Russia are much less ideologically tethered. It's why they're playing both sides of the anthem debate. The goal is to spread chaos and blend your propaganda with the margins by appearing to be one of them.
You don't confuse a virus with the target. Influence operations of this kind are like virii. They're meant to get past your defenses. It's not alliance. It's impersonation.