There is Something Weird Happening on Facebook Today.

There is something weird happening on Facebook today. My California congressman (or his aides) post something about the Shutdown every day. He usually gets 50 to 200 comments. They’re mostly from angry chuckleheads and most of those are from the same small gallery of “regulars”.

Today, my Rep got over 500 comments, almost all negative toward Democrats. Many are from outside my congressional district, and many of them are from out of state.

The Democratic Rep for an adjacent district has been clocking thousands of comments on the same subject. 

I visit my Rep’s page every day and do a little counter-commenting. When I see an suspicious comment from unfamiliar name, I check out their page. If they haven’t actually posted where they live, there are usually some reveals in their photos and check-ins.

My usual counter-comment to outsiders is this: “Hi [first name], how’s the weather in [location] today?”

These are not bots. There are a few mystery users —  like someone with 3.6k followers, but no public posts or info to speak of —  but most of these interlopers are real people.

This smells like the work of the Right-Wing-Noise-Machine. All it takes is for one RW influencer to post the page of an obscure California congressman into his/her feed, and thousands of Redhats see it in their feed in other states… and some percentage of those will comment.

I do not assume that Facebook itself is doing this… that’s just an excuse for inaction.

We need more grassroots liberals to participate in the open comments on public pages — starting with your own House Rep and Senators. Social media is not a “cesspool”, it is a battlefield… one than we should not cede to the enemy without a fight. 

As always my comments are aimed, not at the troll, but to an abivalent voter in the unseen audience of readers. 

But today, I would like readers to take a look at their Rep’s page, see if this comment “surge” is happening there, and report back here. Thanks.