Reports: Russians targeted LGBT community with disinformation

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12/17/2018

A Russian social media operation aimed at helping Republican nominee Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election included efforts to polarize voters around LGBT issues and, in some cases, pushed LGBT voters to support Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders. The operation also posted a message aimed at lonely LGBT teenagers, an effort believed intended to blackmail vulnerable youth. “It is evident that the campaigns sought to demobilize African Americans, LGBT, and liberal voters,” states one of two reports made public Monday by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “This was attempted through organic posts that attacked [eventual Democratic nominee] Hillary Clinton. Content referred to President Clinton’s 2016 signing into law of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as an attack on the gay community, and in another, argued that Hillary supports Muslims, who the post insinuates are anti-gay.”

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