The following article by Libor Jany and Matt DeLong was posted on the StarTribune website May 14, 2018:
Campaign used police shootings of Castile, Clark to deepen Minnesota’s racial divide.
Thousands of newly disclosed fake Facebook posts and ads show for the first time how Russia’s campaign to influence the 2016 election directly targeted Minnesotans with divisive, racially charged messages.
Among the scores of often incendiary ads released last week by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, about a dozen referenced Minnesota events, including the police shootings of Jamar Clark and Philando Castile, a Star Tribune analysis shows. Dozens more mentioned controversies elsewhere, but were funneled to Facebook users in Minnesota.
The ads appeared to be part of what U.S. intelligence agencies have described as a sophisticated Russian campaign meant to use the social media giant’s platforms to sow discord in the lead-up to the 2016 election. Continue reading “Minnesota’s Clark, Castile cases were used in Russian-made Facebook posts”