Russians Attempted to Use Pokémon Go to Stoke Racial Tensions

Russians Attempted to Use Pokémon Go to Stoke Racial Tensions

Facebook, Twitter, and Google — so far these are platforms we know Russian-linked parties used in order to meddle in the 2016 election.

But those were child’s play compared to CNN’s latest scoop — not even the popular phone game Pokémon Go was spared Russia’s long reach.

CNN reports:

One Russian-linked campaign posing as part of the Black Lives Matter movement used Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and Pokémon Go and even contacted some reporters in an effort to exploit racial tensions and sow discord among Americans, CNN has learned.

The campaign, titled “Don’t Shoot Us,” offers new insights into how Russian agents created a broad online ecosystem where divisive political messages were reinforced across multiple platforms, amplifying a campaign that appears to have been run from one source — the shadowy, Kremlin-linked troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN that the Don’t Shoot Us Facebook page was one of the 470 accounts taken down after the company determined they were linked to the IRA. CNN has separately established the links between the Facebook page and the other Don’t Shoot Us accounts.

The Don’t Shoot Us campaign — the title of which may have referenced the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” slogan that became popular in the wake of the shooting of Michael Brown — used these platforms to highlight incidents of alleged police brutality, with what may have been the dual goal of galvanizing African Americans to protest and encouraging other Americans to view black activism as a rising threat.

I’m so old, I remember when it was Donald Trump who was single-handedly responsible for stoking race tensions that we left in such great shape after eight years of Obama’s presidency.

Evidently, these Russian-linked parties (no one is reporting exactly who they are) encouraged Pokémon Go users to find Pokemon in locals where an incident of police brutality allegedly took place. In exchange for their SJW pokemoning, participants were promised Amazon gift cards.

The makers of Pokémon Go are trying their best to put as much distance between themselves and the “game assets were appropriated and misused in promotions by third parties without” their permission.

CNN ctd:

Specifically, the Don’t Shoot Us contest directed readers to go to find and train Pokémon near locations where alleged incidents of police brutality had taken place. Users were instructed to give their Pokémon names corresponding with those of the victims. A post promoting the contest showed a Pokémon named “Eric Garner,” for the African-American man who died after being put in a chokehold by a New York Police Department officer.

Winners of the contest would receive Amazon gift cards, the announcement said.
It’s unclear what the people behind the contest hoped to accomplish, though it may have been to remind people living near places where these incidents had taken place of what had happened and to upset or anger them.

CNN has not found any evidence that any Pokémon Go users attempted to enter the contest, or whether any of the Amazon Gift Cards that were promised were ever awarded — or, indeed, whether the people who designed the contest ever had any intention of awarding the prizes.

“It’s clear from the images shared with us by CNN that our game assets were appropriated and misused in promotions by third parties without our permission,” Niantic, the makers of Pokémon Go, said in a statement provided to CNN.

“It is important to note that Pokémon GO, as a platform, was not and cannot be used to share information between users in the app so our platform was in no way being used. This ‘contest’ required people to take screen shots from their phone and share over other social networks, not within our game. Niantic will consider our response as we learn more.”

All of which leaves us wondering if Hillary was a Russian agent. She did encourage people to “Pokémon Go to the polls!” in a failed attempt to convince us she was not a soulless robot.

Follow Kemberlee on Twitter @kemberleekaye

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