Hillary Clinton supporters reportedly launched a coordinated cyber attack against Facebook groups backing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I, Vt.) Monday night, forcing the social media site to temporarily remove the pages for obscene content.
The Hill reported that Internet trolls flooded Sanders’ Facebook pages with spam and porn for roughly three hours before reporting the material.
Facebook’s automated policies temporarily deactivated the pro-Sanders groups because of the high report rates—including Bernie Sanders for President 2016, Bernie Sanders Is My Hero, and Bernie Sanders Activists—before bringing them back up around midnight EDT.
The groups affected have more than a quarter million Sanders supporters collectively, according to U.S. Uncut.
Reddit users speculated that pro-Clinton Super PAC Correct the Record was behind the assault given that it occurred on the eve of Tuesday’s Acela Primary races. The group, a brainchild of David Brock, pledged last week to pour $1 million into a new project aimed at pushing back on Clinton "attackers" across social media platforms.
"Everything seems to be pointing to Hillary trolls mass-reporting on Facebook groups to get them taken down temporarily," Reddit user BernieTron2000 wrote on a thread. "If David Brock and Hillary's stooges are looking to start an actual revolution against this nation's true owners, suppressing free communications would be the way to go."
Correct the Record denied involvement in the attacks, writing in a statement to The Hill that the group is "exclusively engaged in positive messaging" supporting the former secretary of state.
One Facebook user who participated was a member of the Bros4Hillary group backing Clinton’s campaign, The Hill reported. The group released a statement Tuesday condemning the behavior, adding that it had terminated affiliation with the user.
"We have not and do not approve of or condone harmful or offensive rhetoric or harassing behavior targeting supporters of any other candidate in the race," the group wrote. "We removed the offending posts and member as soon as possible. While our leadership team of administrators tries to catch every questionable post and comment, with over 7,000 members and on a 24-hour posting cycle, some fall through the cracks."
It remains unclear who was behind the social media affront.