Hiding-In-Plain-Sight No More: Cloaking Extremism In The Guise of Patriotism > Laurie Roberts Nails 2-For-One Reveal of "Rally Forge"

Longtime entrenched uber-conservative AZ Politico Rusty Bowers - a chosen feature of multiple posts on this blog -  got some overdue oxygen fanning the flames of the smoldering ashes in his down-ballot post-election survival as Speaker of The State House. He has a newly-anointed accomplice, Jake Hoffman who owns and operates a direct-marketing outfit "Rally Forge". . . Note how similar the name is with Valley Forge. That says so much about the East Valley in more ways than one:

Facebook bans firm behind Turning Point's election troll farm 

By STEVEN OVERLY

10/08/2020 12:44 PM EDT

Updated: 10/08/2020 05:07 PM EDT

"Facebook said it removed 200 Facebook accounts, 55 pages and 76 Instagram accounts tied to Rally Forge. 

( INTERRUPT - PAUSE - BLOGGER NOTE 

Note how it sounds like Valley Forge (an allusion to history and George Washington in the faux absurd appeals to patriotism. 

Rally Forge is a direct-marketing firm here in Arizona )

Rally Forge employed people who used use fake names and profile pictures while commenting on content posted by other users or mainstream media outlets, Facebook's head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said Thursday. The firm did that work on behalf of Turning Point and Inclusive Conservation Group, a hunting advocacy organization.

> More on the campaign: Facebook said it removed 200 Facebook accounts, 55 pages and 76 Instagram accounts tied to Rally Forge. Those accounts also spent just shy of $1 million on advertising, a figure that Gleicher said reflects all of Rally Forge's spending on Facebook, including ads not tied to deceptive campaigns.

> Twitter also taking action: A spokesperson for Twitter said Thursday that the social network suspended 262 accounts connected to Rally Forge for violating its own policies against manipulation and spam

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OPINION: House Speaker Rusty Bowers appoints a newly elected legislator who specializes in internet disinformation campaigns to the No. 2 post on the panel that oversees elections. Genius plan

Arizona's minister of disinformation is appointed to help oversee election law? Seriously?

Laurie Roberts, Arizona Republic Published 8:00 a.m. MT Nov. 23, 2020

Jake Hoffman (Photo: Town of Queen Creek)

The newly elected legislator who ran what amounts to an internet troll farm — paying teens to post conservative talking points and baseless conspiracy theories aimed at getting President Donald Trump re-elected — has been appointed to the state House committee that oversees elections.

No, really.

House Speaker Rusty Bowers this week not only appointed incoming Rep. Jake Hoffman to the House Government and Elections Committee, he made this minister of disinformation the panel’s vice chairman.

The Washington Post in September exposed Hoffman’s Rally Forge, a digital marketing firm that paid teenagers, some of them minors, to set up fake personas and blanket social media with thousands of nearly identical posts aimed at undermining confidence in the validity of election and downplaying the impact of COVID-19.

Their posts, often replies to news stories, created the appearance of a social media groundswell of youth support for conservative causes but actually were slightly edited comments lifted from a shared document, according to the Post

 

Source: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2020/11/23/jake-hoffman-deceived-voters-now-serve-house-election-committee/6361721002/