A report Thursday revealed that Super PAC aligned with the Hillary Clinton campaign has spent $1 million to “correct” critics on social media sites including Facebook and Reddit.

The trolling campaign (for that is what it is) is being run by a Super PAC called “Correct the Record” and goes by the name of “Barrier Breakers 2016,” according to The Daily Beast.

A press release from the organization claims that it has already “addressed more than 5,000 people that have personally attacked Hillary Clinton on Twitter,” and seems focused not on the current Republican Party candidates, but instead fans of the self-confessed socialist rival for the Democrat slot in the election Bernie Sanders.

On Reddit, a number of “Bernie Bros” have been targeted by the campaign, including one Sanders fan who wrote:

“This explains why my inbox turned to cancer on Tuesday. Been a member of Reddit for almost four years and never experienced anything like it. In fact, in all my years on the internet I’ve never experienced anything like it.”

Correct the Record describes the campaign in more positive terms, writing:

While Hillary Clinton fights to break down barriers and bring America together, the Barrier Breakers 2016 digital task force will serve as a resource for supporters looking for positive content and push-back to share with their online progressive communities, as well as thanking prominent supporters and committed superdelegates on social media.”

To be expected

Long gone are the days where political candidates erred on whether to campaign online or not, and every serious candidate has a social media team behind them vying for attention online.

It is to be expected that those campaigns would also indulge in some more nefarious attempts to persuade people on social media platforms, but what makes this stand out is the scale of it, and the audacity to be saying they are trying to manipulate social media so blatantly as well.

You could ask if they have any shame, but given their candidate of choice doesn’t have much the answer is already a given.

If you are a Bernie Sanders supporter and you are inundated by Hillary Clinton trolls, the best advice also comes from Reddit, where user workythehand writes this:

The best tactic to use against “professionals” is to simply downvote and move on. The more you argue with them, the more likely people will read the astroturfer’s posts.

Keep your eyes out for very young accounts, repetition of phrasing and syntax (the same “Sanders only diagnoses the problem … ” talking points, for instance) in every post, and rapid fire posting – 10+ comments in the span of a few minutes is a good indicator.

They will try to goad people into negative rancor. They want proof that “BernieBros” are sexist and abusive. Don’t give in to them, don’t allow them any more traction than they already have. Once again, just downvote and move on.

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