Facebook just confirmed that an unknown group is waging a propaganda war against the U.S. midterm elections. Using images and event invites to rallies in Washington next week, the attackers are attempting to sow discord into the American political landscape. Facebook has not identified whether Russian intelligence organizations were responsible, like with their 2016 election attacks, as this operation was more sophisticated than previous strategies that Facebook has implemented safeguards to thwart.
For now, Facebook has removed 32 pages and accounts associated with the group, including “Mindful Being” and “Resisters,” some of which shared psychedelic memes in an attempt to ingratiate themselves with receptive users. Last week I wrote that Facebook had dodged the question of whether it had evidence of attacks on the midterm elections. Now we have the answer: yes.
Scroll down or click through to see a sample of the images used in the attacks. TechCrunch does not endorse any of this imagery.
For more info, read our full-story on these attacks on democracy.