Russian Twitter trolls stoked racial tension in wake of Sherman Park riots in Milwaukee before 2016

[blue-wave]

Source: JSOnline.com/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The fires of the Sherman Park unrest in Milwaukee had barely burned out in August 2016 before Russian Twitter trolls sought political gain by stoking the flames of racial division.

A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel review found that Russia-linked accounts — including one named in a recent federal indictment — sent more than 30 tweets to spread racial animus, blame Democrats for the chaos and amplify the voices of conservatives like former Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. who were commenting on Sherman Park.

These foreign accounts started posting only hours after the unrest, getting more than 5,000 retweets at a time when residents of the neighborhood were trying to clean up and overcome fears of a renewed outbreak. This came three months before the 2016 election in which President Donald Trump was elected.

Read more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/15/russian-twitter-trolls-stoked-racial-tension-wake-sherman-park-riots-milwaukee-before-2016-election/421439002/

[Initech]

1. Too bad there's no way we as a country can collectively IP block Russia.

But that's wishful thinking.

[bettyellen]

2. Maybe labels w location should be required for Tweets and FB posts?

[BlueWI]

3. Twitter and FB deserve some accountability for this

They profit enough from all of the collective clicks to dedicate some resources to ferreting out this kind of abuse of their system.