Correct the Record, a super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton's bid to become US president, has promised to invest more than $1 million to respond to users criticizing its candidate on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, and other social media services. The super PAC says its new "Barrier Breakers digital task force" will to respond "quickly and forcefully to negative attacks and false narratives found online," in addition to thanking major supporters and "committed superdelegates" directly.
In a press release, Correct the Record said its new initiative was inspired by interactions with Bernie Sanders supporters. So-called "Bernie Bros" have become a phenomenon online, sharing their chosen candidate's videos, pictures, and memes across social media services. Hillary Clinton's supporters appear to be quieter on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and the like, but Correct the Record said that this doesn't reflect a lack of enthusiasm — rather, that they were often afraid to speak up about their choice because they fear harassment. "Many of Hillary Clinton's female supporters in particular," the press release reads, "have been subject to intense cyber-bullying and sexist attacks from swarms of anonymous attackers."
Super PACS like Correct the Record can raise and spend unlimited funds for their chosen candidate, but are technically banned from co-ordinating with their campaign, as their official name — "independent-expenditure only committees" — denotes. But Libby Watson of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan advocate for more transparent government, has noted that Correct the Record could use a loophole in these rules to communicate directly with Clinton's campaign. "It's not totally clear what their reasoning is," Watson tells The Daily Beast. "But it seems to be that material posted on the Internet for free — like, blogs — doesn't count as an ‘independent expenditure." Writing last year, Watson specified that the FEC "only regulates Internet activity when it is communication placed on another person's website for a fee."
The task force says it will attempt to sway the internet's legion of Sanders supporters to Hillary's side as the election draws closer. Behind that effort will be people from a variety of backgrounds, including former reporters, PR specialists, designers, bloggers, and other "Hillary super fans." The new investment will see more of Hillary's critics addressed directly in the future, but the super PAC says it's already taken 5,000 individuals to task over their personal attacks on their candidate, an effort noted by one Reddit user who said a deluge of replies on a disparaging post from pro-Hillary users turned their inbox "to cancer" this week.
Comments
I’m honestly having trouble trying to find the words on how this makes me feel. I find it quite strange that anyone would feel the want/need a super pac to fight against people online. It’s so weird.
By MrsAngelD on 04.21.16 11:07pm
If it gets as nasty as BernieBros are, yes it is needed.
By (((GeekJen))) on 04.22.16 1:57am
Bernie bros is a made up thing
By cmd plus q on 04.22.16 3:41am
No it isn’t.
By (((GeekJen))) on 04.22.16 4:03am
Wow, they set up this Barrier Breakers digital task force quite fast it seems
By Tuff on 04.22.16 4:38am
Oh heavens womeens folk has its own opinion. Will this madness never end?
/s
Payed for by the PAC My ass.
By (((GeekJen))) on 04.22.16 7:34am
Bernie Bros/Obama Boys
It’s the same tactic Hillary uses to deflect criticism about all her policies. She didn’t like how "loud" Bernie was, watch his "tone".
All of it a diversion to ridiculous topics which should be spent more on….
how about Foreign Policy? Medicare? the Economy?
This notion that Bernie Sanders and his supporters are sexist is ridiculous, the only real sexist running is Donald Trump so the more mud you fling at someone who is NOT racist/sexist/facist, the less the mud is worth when you are really fighting those things aka Donald Trump.
By kangawu on 04.22.16 8:38am
http://mashable.com/2016/01/29/bernie-sanders-berniebros/#i3n2YUp0Vmqp
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/02/07/3746988/bernie-sanders-tells-berniebros-to-knock-it-off-we-dont-want-that-crap/
https://newrepublic.com/minutes/128747/sanders-campaign-knows-bernie-bros-problem
By (((GeekJen))) on 04.22.16 9:43am
The mashable article had precisely TWO examples of "Bernie Bro" behavior, and one of them was a woman! LOL.
The think progress piece simply points out that Bernie asked his supporters to be respectful. Two examples provided, one links to a blank page, one links to another article that uses for its linked examples…the same two examples from the mashable article!
Jamil Smith might be the most unabashed Hillary shill in media. I mean, look at his twitter for 5 minutes. It reads like a parody account.
Every candidate has asshole supporters. This Bernie Bro nonsense is the same as Obama boys was: a distraction from her and her supporters’ inability to defend her actual record.
By nickexperience on 04.22.16 10:00am
He denounces it because the media keeps bringing it up. Where are the stats? Where are the facts? The articles you brought in took tweets in that were bigoted yes but I can do the exact same thing to the Hillary-bros and the Donald Drumpf’s of the world too.
The argument is that the point is moot since every candidate has racist/sexist supporters.
What’s really sexist is how Hillary is being treated like a glass doll how every critic of how corrupt she and the rest of the establishment is somehow sexist and detrimental to all women.
Clinton literally had a surrogate tell women to go to hell if they didn’t vote for her, isn’t that sexist as hell too? Where’s the media uproar, where’s the pitchforks? Oh right, the media likes having money in politics because that’s how they get their BMWs lined with gold.
By kangawu on 04.22.16 10:37am
Yes, we get it there are assholes who support Bernie. Guess what? There are just as many or more assholes who support Hillary.
By Corruption on 04.22.16 12:15pm
The Left is coming to terms with the reality that a decade of calling everybody who disagrees with them ‘sexist’ or ‘racist’ has diluted the words of their legitimacy so much that now that they’re rightly accusing Trump of racism and sexism nobody is sure if they’re just blowing smoke of not.
By wrath0fkahn on 04.22.16 10:18am
Just as the Right is having to realize that socialism is no longer a dirty word either, mostly because of them using it so much.
By jason.joyner.5205 on 04.22.16 10:29pm
Agreed, haha. I still get a chuckle when I think back to Obama being called a socialist.
By wrath0fkahn on 04.25.16 9:23am
I really do wish they were made up. Unfortunately that is not the case.
By Demios on 04.22.16 5:33am
What has surprised me is that any post about Hillary on Twitter or Facebook is just filled with angry and hateful comments towards Hillary by Bernie supporters. They might not be "Bernie Bros", but the hate is pretty real.
By oghowie on 04.22.16 1:11pm
I am not American but hate Hillary for the fact that she came in my country to prop up a corrupt regime and meddled in internal affairs of our country. She was dumb enough to not understand the popular uprising or maybe she was happy with corrupt regime. Luckily, Hillary’s interviews managed to tar the Clinton legacy which Bill had worked hard for. And it was only after she left SoS that Obama was able to clear up the mess she left.
We have had women leaders 3 decades before US. I actually use to laugh at US being a backward nation by not electing a women Prez, but if Hillary is the only capable woman you guys could find then I would rather go for the old Jewish "socialist". Hillary’s character has nothing to do with her gender. For me she will always be seen a a corrupt foreign leader who tried to prop up her corrupt buddies in my country.
By Momo24 on 04.22.16 2:01pm
Well in 2008 it was Obama Boys and in 2016 its BernieBros
By Momo24 on 04.22.16 10:30am
Never heard about Obama Boys until people brought it up here. Doesn’t roll off the tongue at all…
By oghowie on 04.22.16 1:12pm
A lot of Clinton tricks from 2008 and 2016 are similar. In 2008, she was right of Obama on gun issues, so much so that Obama called her Annie Oakley. She was left of Obama on healthcare and called his non-support for universal healthcare as shameful.
By Momo24 on 04.22.16 1:55pm
BernieBros? Really? How old are you?
By Corruption on 04.22.16 12:14pm
Bernie supporter here. Hillary gets an unfair shake and the conservative media has been skewering her with lies and false hoods. I don’t particularly like her as a candidate but I do think she’s been unfairly mocked / attacked and so this makes total sense to me.
Bernie 2016
By YojiExrei on 04.22.16 11:11am
I appreciate them stating this loudly and proudly. Now I’ll know to basically never trust any pro-Hillary post at all.
By Michael Cormier on 04.21.16 11:42pm
Now?
By Socks_with_Holes on 04.21.16 11:43pm
Haha didn’t have much faith before but this is a pretty clear reinforcement.
By Michael Cormier on 04.21.16 11:45pm