Facebook group pushing false claim of stolen US election rapidly gains 325,000 members

New York, November 5

A public Facebook group pushing false claims about voter fraud and Democrats making an attempt to “steal” the US election quickly swelled to greater than 325,000 members on Thursday, a day after it was created.

The “Stop the Steal” group, which says it was began by the conservative non-profit Women for America First, referred to as for “boots on the ground to protect the integrity of the vote”.

With tensions rising, about 200 of Republican President Donald Trump’s supporters, some armed with rifles and handguns, gathered outdoors an election workplace in Phoenix, Arizona, on Wednesday following unsubstantiated rumors that votes weren’t being counted.

In Detroit, officers blocked about 30 folks, largely Republicans, from getting into a vote-counting facility amid unfounded claims that the vote depend in Michigan was fraudulent.

It is regular in US elections for states to depend votes for days, or typically even weeks, after voting ends. Election specialists say fraud could be very uncommon in US voting.

Unfounded and debunked claims concerning the integrity of Tuesday’s election have unfold on social media by Trump and high-profile Republican accounts and the hashtag #StopTheSteal has gained momentum.

Facebook teams are billed as neighborhood boards for shared pursuits however watchdog organisations and social media researchers have argued that they are often hotbeds for hyper-partisan misinformation.

The ‘Stop the Steal’ group’s description says: “Democrats are scheming to disenfranchise and nullify Republican votes. It’s up to us, the American People, to fight and to put a stop to it.”

The group directed new members to an e-mail sign-up web page “in the event that social media censors this group”.

The group’s administrations and moderators included veteran Tea Party activist Amy Kremer and her daughter Kylie, in addition to Jennifer Lawrence and Dustin Stockton, two members of the group ‘We Build the Wall’, which have been raided by federal brokers in August as a part of a fraud investigation.

Attempts to achieve directors and moderators on Facebook weren’t instantly profitable. An e-mail and a phone message left with ‘Women for America First’ was not instantly returned.

Several Facebook occasions billed as “Stop the Steal” protests and caravans additionally laid out plans for customers to assemble in states throughout the nation. Reuters