A pro-Hillary Clinton Super PAC is pledging to spend $1 million to “push back against” users on major social media platforms.
In a statement, Correct the Record’s “Barrier Breakers 2016” looks to create a “task force” to help Clinton supporters combat online harassment and correct misleading claims about the Democratic nominee.
The statement continues, saying that Clinton’s supporters are “more enthusiastic than Sen. Bernie Sanders’ supporters, but are discouraged from engaging online and ”afraid to voice their thoughts" because of the fear of harassment.
In addition, Hillary Clinton’s female supporters “have been subject to intense cyber-bullying and sexist attacks from swarms of anonymous attackers.”
The Super PAC announced that it would spend over a million dollars to “engage in online messaging” for the leader of the Democratic race.
“Correct The Record will invest more than $1 million into Barrier Breakers 2016 activities, including the more than tripling of its digital operation to engage in online messaging both for Secretary Clinton and to push back against attackers on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram.
The Super PAC was created last May as a spinoff of American Bridge SuperPAC, which is run by longtime Clinton supporter and advisor David Brock, who also started Media Matters for America—a left wing media watchdog.
Sanders supporters on Reddit are already noticing a difference, reports The Daily Beast.
“This explains why my inbox turned to cancer on Tuesday,” wrote user OKarizee. “Been a member of reddit for almost 4 years and never experienced anything like it. In fact, in all my years on the internet I’ve never experienced anything like it.”
Super PAC’s are not supposed to coordinate with a candidate’s campaign, but according to Sunlight Foundation’s Libby Watson, there’s an FEC loophole that allows for the coordination for public material.
“SuperPACs aren’t supposed to coordinate with candidates. The whole reasoning behind (Supreme Court decision) Citizens United rests on (PACs) being independent, but Correct the Record claims it can coordinate,” Watson told The Daily Beast.
“It’s not totally clear what their reasoning is, but it seems to be that material posted on the Internet for free—like, blogs—doesn’t count as an ‘independent expenditure.’”
