Thread by @jordanliles

(THREAD)

1/ NEW from me via @snopes. A likely Russian admin was active in a Pennsylvania for Trump Facebook Group since before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and just disappeared this month after we contacted FB with questions. bit.ly/31Kegna #Election2020

2/ The Facebook admin account's activity paralleled descriptions of fake personas mentioned in the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee's report on Russia's efforts.

Following Trump's 2016 victory, the account defended Russia from accusations of foreign interference.

3/ The admin account was named "Gina Grin." The account (and what appeared to be a backup account) had around 2,000 total profile followers, while the Facebook Group now has 115,000 members.

Here's what we know about the inauthenticity of these accounts.

4/ The "Gina Grin" account liked only two TV shows: "Tucker Carlson Tonight" and "The Ingraham Angle," both right-leaning and pro-Trump. She also liked pages for conservative commentators Dan Bongino, Charlie Kirk, Michelle Malkin, and Ben Shapiro, to name a few.

5/ The likely Russian admin account, "Gina Grin," uploaded an image of actress Willa Ford for a profile photo, then flipped the image horizontally to avoid reverse image search detection, and added a Trump 2020 overlay. The account pretended in comments to be the pictured woman.

6/ The admin account also appeared to have taken a photograph of two German Shepherd puppies from Pinterest and said they belonged to her, giving them names and ages. A Google image search for "german shepherd puppies siblings" shows the same picture as the very first result.

7/ The admin account in the Pennsylvania for Trump FB Group named Gina Grin appears to have made a revealing mistake.

A person controlling the account clicked to like the page Молекулярная диагностика 2020.

This was the only Russian language page out of hundreds of page likes.

8/ Молекулярная диагностика 2020 is the hub for the Molecular Diagnostics conference in Moscow: "the leading event in the field of molecular diagnostics and related science and medicine trends in Russia." It is supported by The Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

9/ In 2016, Russians sought to access election systems in Pennsylvania, staged rallies in the swing state, and created fake American profiles with Pennsylvania as the location. Trump won MI, PA, and WI "by 0.2, 0.7 and 0.8 percentage points, respectively." (src: @washingtonpost)

10/ "Gina Grin," the admin account in the PA for Trump Facebook Group, disappeared only hours after Snopes reached out to Facebook with questions. The backup account also disappeared. In our email, we had referenced the Moscow conference and other data. bit.ly/31Kegna

11/ We reached out to @DarrenLinvill, Associate Professor in Clemson University's Department of Communication. We shared the red flags about the "Gina Grin" account, and while he couldn't say it was definitely a Russian account or an old IRA account, he did tell us this:

12/ He also told us: "The idea that an old IRA account, and I'm not saying that's what this is with any certainty, but the idea that hypothetically an old IRA account might be lurking somewhere where it had past influence from 2016 is not only plausible, I know it to be a thing."

13/ We also spoke with Nina Jankowicz (@wiczipedia), who studies disinformation with @TheWilsonCenter. She told us in regard to the Russian page like: "You wonder if they were perhaps logged into Facebook under the troll account, and hadn't moved back to their personal account."

14/ She also said: "Even if this was an account based in the U.S., and this person was of Russian descent, or something like that, it still seems to be a fake account and violates FB's terms of service for misrepresentation. I think they need to do a lot better in these cases."

15/ We archived posts made by the admin in the swing state Facebook Group. "Gina Grin" shared negative stories about Hillary Clinton, including Clinton Foundation memes.

Some of her shares attempted to ease the minds of Republicans who were unsure of voting for Donald Trump.

16/ The FB account shared posts about the hacked DNC emails, concentrated negativity on Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, posted negativity about Muslim peoples, and consistently shared disinformation, some of which was debunked by Snopes in that same year: 2016.

17/ Leading up to Election Day in 2016, FB posts by the likely Russian admin in Pennsylvania for Trump concentrated on Pennsylvania politics as well as defending Russia from accusations of interfering in the 2016 election.

That defense of Russia continued after Election Day.

18/ "Gina Grin" posted about demanding a recount following the 2018 midterms, after Democrats won the U.S. House. Prior to the midterms, she posted about the "RED WAVE" and uploaded memes with Maxine Waters, Barack Obama, George Soros, and others.

19/ "Gina Grin" posted support of "We Build The Wall," a fundraising effort for privately funded border wall construction.

In August 2020, prosecutors arrested and charged the charity's organizers for scheming to defraud donors to fund their personal expenses and lifestyles.

20/ In December 2018, Gina Grin pushed a false conspiracy theory about the tragic death of conservative writer Bre Payton, mentioning Robert Mueller in her post. Payton wrote for The Federalist and made numerous appearances on Fox News Channel.

21/ The Pennsylvania for Trump Facebook Group was renamed to Support Melania Trump, likely sometime following the 2016 election, but before 2020. On Jan. 1, 2020, "Gina Grin" began preparations for the 2020 U.S. presidential election, posting a new cover photo and a reminder.

22/ On March 28, 2020, she announced group rules. This was around the same time the first spike of COVID-19 cases began in the U.S.

(Note: In our story we refer to the admin account "Gina Grin" as a woman, but the identity behind the account could not be definitively confirmed.)

23/ "Gina Grin" posted negative memes about Dr. Anthony Fauci and a debunked conspiracy theory that claimed the virus was created in a lab. She also appeared to question the U.S. COVID-19 death toll and posted other virus memes. Images available in story. bit.ly/31Kegna

24/ Following the death of George Floyd, she posted an image that read: "Marked safe from white guilt." Her memes also mocked the idea of #BlackLivesMatter. "Here's your hero," read another negative meme that showed a picture of George Floyd. bit.ly/31Kegna

25/ The "Gina Grin" Facebook admin also called U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts a "POS" (perhaps because of some June 2016 votes), and supported pre-election proceedings to nominate Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. #SupremeCourt. #SCOTUS bit.ly/31Kegna

26/ After we contacted Facebook with questions and "Gina Grin" disappeared hours later, we reached out to another admin in the group. He told us he's "a veteran of the first Gulf War," and claimed there is "absolutely no foreign interference" in the group. bit.ly/31Kegna

27/ However, the group's inauthentic behavior goes beyond "Gina Grin." Facebook accounts like this one appeared to become members in the group the same day they joined the platform, posting photos of first lady Melania Trump with brief and sometimes poorly constructed captions.

28/ Snopes reporters are unable to confirm if the Support Melania Trump Facebook Group (originally named Pennsylvania for Trump in 2016) is still active, as an admin has set its visibility to "Hidden," meaning that only its 115,000 members can see it.

29/ In our conversation with Nina Jancowicz (@wiczipedia), she said that she believes Facebook groups are the "underexplored angle on all of foreign interference right now," and that "it's underexplored, in part, because the platforms make it really difficult to explore."

30/ Jancowicz (@wiczipedia) added: "Things like this are really difficult to track, and we shouldn't be doing Facebook's work for them." bit.ly/31Kegna

31/ Both likely Russian accounts disappeared hours after Snopes asked Facebook about their likely connection to Russia, just 20 days before the 2020 U.S. presidential election. One account was an admin in a swing state FB group for more than four years. bit.ly/31Kegna

32/ One disinformation post was shared 149,000 times. It was even fact-checked by @factcheckdotorg and cited in a @UtahLawReview paper.

It's likely that the activity created by Gina Grin's accounts reached millions of Americans between 2016 and 2020. bit.ly/31Kegna

33/ Care about the truth. Contribute. Become a Snopes Founding Member to support to our investigations into coordinated inauthentic behavior. bit.ly/3kxavZM

34/ See above, @WPXI, @KDKA, @WTAE, @6abc, @NBCPhiladelphia, @CBSPhilly, @PittsburghPG, and @PhillyInquirer. Also thanks and feel free to check out the story @MollyJongFast, @donie, @BrandyZadrozny, @CraigSilverman, @ExploitingNiche, @RMac18, @JuddLegum, and others! До свидания!

35/ Again, @WPXI, @KDKA, @WTAE, @6abc, @NBCPhiladelphia, @CBSPhilly, @PittsburghPG, and @PhillyInquirer.