[Thread] 1/ Much talk this morning about numerous Facebook groups cropping up with "insert state name" + "against excessive quarantine". Some are suggesting that there is mass astroturfing campaign occurring to pressure state governors to reopen after Donald Trump's tirade 
2/ Reddit user u/dragonbeard311 has done some digging, which makes for interesting reading. reddit.com/r/maryland/com… Add to this other curious things. At least three of the groups have links to websites with the name ReOpen+State Initial. These are Wisconsin, Pennsylvania,
3/ & Minnesota. What's weirder is when you click on these links, they take you to new domains each related to gun lovers. "Wisconsin Firearms Coalition, Minnesota Gun Rights, Pennnsylvania Firearms Association". All have forms you can fill in to demand the end to the shutdown
4/ Now most of the FB groups were created between 14th and 16th April. In addition to the sites mentioned, GoDaddy has parked domains of "Reopen + State Initials" . I didn't check everyone but a fair few, and most seemed to have been created 17th April 2020.
5/ I don't know if GoDaddy detects such registrations automatically and parks them algorithmically . If not, a lot of registrations have occurred at the same time. Not all are identical, I found ReOpenOhio from the FB page. This has no obvious gun logo, but the form is identical,
6/ to the Wisonsin, Pennsylvania and Minnesota ones, including the text "With President Trump and epidemologists dramatically reducing the caseload forecast...". Spooky .... #COVID19
7/ I could keep digging, but I have some other work to attend to. Would be interesting explore further. Is this a monumental case of astroturfing, incredible organising, PR - management, imitation by like minded individuals.... Thoughts welcome.
