Thread by @KrisGoldsmith85

Took leave from work to take care of myself (as much as I could, all considered) this week for the first time in as long as I can remember. To see everything I’ve worked on for years — fighting disinfo and the radicalization of veterans — with death of vets in the Capitol... 1/x

It’s been crippling. It’s all that I can think about. And I’m angry. Angry at those who didn’t listen — particularly those on the Hill who I’ve been warning for years. Angry at those who avoided responsibility, could have been proactive, and refused to seek solutions. 2/x

After a two-year investigation on behalf of @VVAmerica, I wrote and published a report on the way veterans were being targeted online. My mandate at the time was to focus on foreign entities seeking to take advantage of, defraud, and radicalize troops, vets, and our families. 3/x

I discovered during my investigation that Macedonians stole "Vets for Trump" FB pages, and were using them to spread hateful, racist, and xenophobic rhetoric **MORE EFFECTIVELY THAN THE ORIGINAL OWNERS.** 4/x washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

As @craigtimberg explained: The saga of Vets for Trump is a case study in how misinfo +political activism can become intertwined, and how the line between domestic and foreign actors can blur in an online world where social media accounts can be bought, sold and even hijacked 5/x

A year prior, @CraigSilverman + team from @BuzzFeed had written about *these same Macedonians,* who stole and ran Vets for Trump, had created an entire publishing industry to prey on Trump followers and feed them crazy conspiracy theories 6/x buzzfeednews.com/article/craigs…

The BuzzFeed article ends with how the Macedonians wrote an email to to @tedcruz’s office about how Facebook had begun to block their phony pages. Coincidentally, Cruz really leaned into the “conservatives are being targeted by social media” messaging around the same time. 7/x

Flash back forward to 2018 and the WaPo article — Craig reveals how Trump-supporting veterans, including one who ran for congress in Texas, had been working with these Macedonians to spread their propaganda, knowingly, for years, motivated in large part by the money. 8/x

In my report, I included dozens of posts made by the Macedonians, who were pretending to be Vets for Trump, posting attacks against and disinfo about 2020 democratic candidates, including, of course, @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris. 9/x

I included only one piece of content in my report that was posted by the Americans while they controlled the Vets for Trump page. This, featuring @RashidaTlaib, @AOC, @IlhanMN, and @AyannaPressley. Remarkable for a few reasons, not just the obvious insertions in background. 10/x

Remarkable part 1: The original poster of the meme (I’m not sure if it was foreign or domestic in origin) didn’t just insert an ISIS flag, Osama, and Impeach sign. They also played on racist tropes, darkened @IlhanMN’s eyes and teeth. 11/x

The original source also sharpened @AOC’s facial features to make her look menacing, evil. (High res version is available in my report at VVA.org/trollreport) 12/x

Remarkable part 2: the reactions in the comments. So, so many people who followed the Vets for Trump Facebook page believed this image to be authentic. Hundreds truly believed that Democratic lawmakers are members of ISIS. I’m not being hyperbolic. They truly believe this. 13/x

The post is still up, by the way. I’ve personally reported it several times. For racism. For xenophobia. For presenting falsified info. For hate speech.

FB at some point labeled it with a “false information” tag. But the damage has been done. 14/x

These are the comments in the order that they appear on my screen when I visit on mobile (may not be the same for you, or on desktop). It takes 3-screens worth of scrolling to reach a skeptical commenter. Others sincerely believe that Americans voted in real ISIS terrorists. 15/x

The admins of the Vets for Trump page aren’t just randos who have no connections to or relationships with players in the Trump political ecosystem. Here’s a thread compiling photos of the founder of Vets for Trump. He was arrested following Trump’s fraud claims about Philly 16/x

https://twitter.com/krisgoldsmith85/status/1324892866347474944

Try to keep in mind this is *just a single post* that Vets for Trump posted on 19 Jan 2019. Wherever they got it from, it already had 2K shares. Vets for Trump amplified that by 3.5K shares (as of summer 2019, when I gave WaPo this screenshot). 17/x

When I interviewed Vets for Trump for my report, they told me that once FB gave their page back to them, they reviewed the Macedonians’ work and learned to improve their own. The lesson: post about 3 outrageous images a day, no written commentary. Meme should ask a question. 18/x

Side note: at the time, this Vets for Trump group wasn’t registered as a PAC. Fundraising? Yes. Promoting a political campaign? Yes. Working with foreigners (then victims of theft, but benefited from foreign work)? Yes. Was a crime committed? 🤷 19/x buzzfeednews.com/article/janely…

I thought a crime was likely committed. But the day the WaPo story went live, Trump stood on the lawn of the @WhiteHouse and suggested Ukraine and China interfere in the election... so... it was a tough news day. Thankfully @JaneLytv kept tracking. 20/x buzzfeednews.com/article/janely…

Jane’s Dec 2019 BuzzFeed article did get the attention of law enforcement, that much I can say. But I have seen no evidence that charges were filed against anyone I looked into. Less than a year later, one of the founders of Vets for Trump, armed, drove from VA to PA... 21/x

...apparently on a “fire mission” (his words) at a election facility in Philly.

Side note: I was in the Army as a forward observer, whose job was “fire missions.” That means “blow stuff up” with artillery. I dunno if this Vets for Trump guy, a Navy vet, knew the meaning. 22/x

I expected when that happened, Vets for Trump would distance themselves as an org from their founder. Even I underestimated how warped their worldview was — they instead made him a fundraiser and called him a “political prisoner.” 23/x militarytimes.com/news/election-…

But let's go back earlier. This all started in summer 2017, when I discovered an imposter version of the congressionally-chartered veterans service organization that I was working for. I wasn't the only one ringing the alarm. 24/x militarytimes.com/veterans/2017/…

Way back in Oct 2017 @LeoShane of @MilitaryTimes was writing about this. The Oxford study that this article was about provided qualitative and quantitative evidence that troops and vets were being targeted online by foreign entities for radicalization 25/x militarytimes.com/veterans/2017/…

By then VVA had already spent months fighting with Facebook, mostly via semi-automated complaint systems, to have the imposter page taken down. Imposter admins were from Russia and Bulgaria. So we went public. via @nikkiwentling of @starsandstripes 26/x stripes.com/news/veterans-…

FB's response? "Community Standards were not violated" and "encouraged [VVA] to speak out and educate other users." To rephrase: handful of millennials at VVA should train 86,000+ Vietnam Veterans how to identify the unimpeded Russians/Bulgarians. 27/x

stripes.com/news/veterans-…