Russian-linked Facebook accounts encouraged violence

Russian-linked Facebook accounts reportedly encouraged violence against groups such as Black Lives Matter activists and police officers last fall. 

Three Facebook accounts made by the Russian Internet Research Agency pushed for violence between groups of different ideologies, CNN reported Tuesday.

An account called “Being Patriotic” said Black Lives Matter activists who don’t respect the flag should “be immediately shot,” according to CNN.

{mosads}Blacktivist, another Russia-linked group, posted in November 2016: “Black people have to do something. An eye for an eye. The law enforcement officers keep harassing and killing us without consequences.”

A third group, Secured Borders, said the only way to deal with “dangerous illegal aliens” is to “kill them all.”

“If you get deported that’s your only warning. You come back you get shot and rolled into a ditch… BANG, problem solved,” a post by the group said.

“The state department needs to be burned to the ground and the rubble reduced to ashes,” read another post.

Mark R. Jacobson, a Georgetown University professor and expert on Russian influence operations, said the Russians don’t want groups like Black Lives Matter and the “Alt-Right to sit there and have discussions and debates about the future of America.”

“They want violent clashes,” he said.

Executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter this week are testifying publicly for the first time on how Russia used their platforms to interfere in the 2016 election.

Social media and tech companies have been under intense scrutiny since Facebook disclosed that a firm with ties to Russia bought $100,000 in political advertisements in the run-up to the 2016 vote.

Twitter also announced in late September that it had found over 200 accounts that could be linked to Russian election interference.