User:DoctorWho42/2016 Bernie Sanders Facebook groups suspension

2016 Bernie Sanders Facebook groups suspension refers to a series of Facebook groups and online communities that were temporarily suspended on April 25, 2016. Given its proximity to the United States' "Super Tuesday" or United States presidential primary early in a United States presidential primary season when the greatest number of U.S. states—in this case: Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island— hold primary elections and caucuses, this event drew speculation from many publications that this was a coordinated cyber-attack. Reports later indicated that this was actually a Facebook bug.

Background
On April 25, 2016, a number of major Facebook groups supporting American politician and junior United States senator Bernie Sanders with a large number of members were temporarily suspended. Sanders is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. While the reasons for the suspension were initially unclear, Internet trolls and spammers were posting explicit and obscene imagery including child pornography and threats of violence to the groups in order to get them flagged and removed. Many publications have speculated whether this was a part of the super PAC's social media campaign supporting rival presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, an isolated action by Clinton supporters, or a Facebook bug.

List of affected Facebook groups
SpinMedia's website Death and Taxes's Jamie Peck said that "I myself can report that porn is still popping up in popular FB group Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash, and its members are not amused." Seattle's alternative newspaper The Stranger's Matt Baume said "the group Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash is still up and running."

In response, new groups were created as another "Bernie Believers" or "Bernie Sanders Reconvenes." Since then the removed groups were later reinstated. Reportedly, Bernie Sanders Is My Hero was the first to return.

Aidan King
On April 26, 2016, Reddit user "imjoshs" shared a screenshot of his conversation with Aidan King via ConnectWithBernie slackchat. Aidan King is the digital/social media manager for Bernie Sanders' campaign as well as the founder of the Facebook group "Sanders for President" Redding group. King said a Facebook bug shut down many groups. King wrote "Facebook hasn’t released a public statement but they had a bug and it closed a ton of Facebook groups. Our supporters are just more vocal so the Internet blew up with ‘Bernie groups being shut down’ rather than ‘Facebook groups are being shut down.’"

Bros4Hillary
Members of a rival Facebook group called "Bros4Hillary" (B4H) have boasted about taking credit for the action as well as another since-deleted post imploring B4H members to use the same tactic against BSDMS. B4H's political director, Alex Mohajer, said he did not condone the actions of the former B4H members.

Hillary Clinton super PAC
Elizabeth Shappell, Communications Director from David Brock-founded Hillary Clinton super PAC Correct the Record, claimed they were not involved nor they did not condone the action. In an interview with The Daily Beast's Ben Collins, Shappell said "Correct the Record's Barrier Breakers 2016 had nothing to do with this. In fact, we strongly condemn this type of behavior. Currently, Barrier Breakers is exclusively engaged in positive messaging supporting Hillary Clinton."

Media
Paste's Walker Bragman and Shane Ryan called it a "coordinated cyber attack by Clinton supporters." SpinMedia's website Death and Taxes's Jamie Peck said that "I myself can report that porn is still popping up in popular FB group Bernie Sanders’ Dank Meme Stash, and its members are not amused." Seattle's alternative newspaper The Stranger's Matt Baume said "the group Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash is still up and running."