A new report says Russian attempts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election went beyond social media.
A source familiar with the investigation confirmed to CNN Thursday that the "Don't Shoot Us" Facebook page was one of 470 accounts taken down after the company found they were run by the Kremlin-linked troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency (IRA). The IRA's Don't Shoot Us campaign posed as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and even Pokemon Go to fuel racial tensions and division in America.
Pokemon Go is an augmented reality app that exploded in popularity last year as gamers tried to catch and train virtual Pokemon through their smartphones.
According to the report, the Don't Shoot Us campaign -- an apparent reference to the Michael Brown-inspired mantra "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" -- announced a contest on its Tumblr page in July 2016 for Pokemon Go players. Players were encouraged to visit sites of alleged police brutality cases and to give characters the names of police shooting victims, including Eric Garner, for a chance to win Amazon gift cards.
