Miki Jourdan / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Donald Trump’s campaign targeted TV and Facebook ads at 3.5 million Black American voters in key states in an attempt to stop them from going to the polls, according to a UK news network, Channel 4.
The massive data leak obtained by the outlet shows that, in 2016, files were prepared on nearly 200 million American voters.
Flickr / Gage Skidmore
The millions of Black American voters were broken up into eight categories.
They bunched up 3.5 million voters from 16 key battleground states into a category called “Deterrence” for people it hoped wouldn’t show up to vote.
The stats? “61% of the category in Georgia, despite making up 32% of the population in the state; 46% in North Carolina, where they made up 22% of the population; and 17% in Wisconsin, despite making up 5.4% of the population,” according to Forbes.
Trump even boasted about it after winning the polls in 2016:
We did great with the African-American community … They didn’t come out to vote for Hillary.
Although it’s impossible to say if they’re connected, research shows that the number of eligible Black people who voted on Election Day in 2016 dropped for the first time in 20 years to 59.6% from 66.6% in 2012.
Flickr / Gage Skidmore
As bombshells keep dropping before Election Day, Twitterati didn’t waste time calling Trump a racist.
Trump is a racist MF for not wanting black people to vote. #RacistTrump https://t.co/sPaOzeYntl
— David ex Trump voter for Biden Weissman (@davidmweissman) September 28, 2020
In fact, they made the hashtag, #racistTrump, trend.
BREAKING: Trump's 2016 Campaign used data they obtained on 200 million Americans to target 3.5 million black voters on Facebook to try and convince them not to vote on Election Day. It worked.
Raise your hand if you agree that Trump is racist!#RacistTrump
— Mrs. Krassenstein (@HKrassenstein) September 28, 2020
Some used irony to make the point:
Who could imagine that a klansman's son, who wouldn't rent to POC in the 70s, called for the death penalty for the Central Park Five, and called Nazis "very fine people," would hire a firm to stop 3.5 million Black people from voting in 2016? #RacistTrump https://t.co/0swSjhOrkR
— Scary Larry Says #TrumpLiedAmericansDied 🇺🇸✊🏿🌊 (@StompTheGOP) September 28, 2020
One Black Lives Matters supporter also wondered if the Black Trump supporters — with 0 posts — are in fact, “Trump Bots.” But many agreed that this was “psychological warfare.”
They have “Trump Bots” that pose as black trump supporters on social media as well. Making it appear as though more black people support him. If you look at the pages, they have 0 posts and follow black owned pages and trump support pages. pic.twitter.com/hrbCTNjhDV
— Ms.Kamisa (@KamisaFreeman) September 28, 2020
Not only does he not care about the American people, minorities, etc. - He’s actively engaged in psychological warfare with these communities. That’s what this is.
— crease (@covfefe_14) September 28, 2020
Channel 4 in Britain is now distributing its film which shows, in detail, how Donald Trump and Russian intelligence worked to keep Black Americans from voting.
A historic scandal - and an act of war. https://t.co/fe0tQhxEdq
— Eric Garland (@ericgarland) September 28, 2020
PickPik
Team Trump has (obviously) called it “fake news.” Although Cambridge Analytica, the firm that worked 45’s campaign admitted that “AA” (African American) voters were targeted.
After Brad Parscale, Trump’s former campaign manager and someone who worked directly with Cambridge Analytica was hospitalized following an alleged suicide attempt this week, many on Twitter speculated that the two instances might be connected.
Yes, I just tweeted that. He was in charge and worked directly with Cambridge Analytica and was wondering why he was never indicted, maybe he's about to be. Target is the last to know
— Sandi Bachom (@sandibachom) September 28, 2020
Need more proof to connect the dots? According to reports, two ex-Cambridge Analytica staffers are now working for Trump.
Many on the social media platform observed that Facebook wasn’t innocent in all of this either.
Facebook had staff embedded in the Trump Campaign.
If the campaign was targeting Black voters with voter suppression tactics, Facebook not only knew; they helped. https://t.co/hE0k8EscRh
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) September 29, 2020
It's all tied together. Cambridge Analytica and Peter Thiel who also sat on the board of facebook. He owns Palantir who collects and disseminates COVID data for the government now. 🧐
— Stunt Mom (@StuntMommy) September 28, 2020
Should Facebook exercise this kind of power? Not in a democracy, says Twitter.
We've always known the Tr*mp campaign actively tries to keep Black people from voting. But they had a powerful ally: @Facebook, who sat on their hands while they spread misinfo to Black voters. No platform should have this much power over our democracy. https://t.co/CZfs6y6Ma2
— Rashad Robinson (@rashadrobinson) September 28, 2020
Many took to the platform to call out the fascist tendencies that this piece of news brought to light.
If true this is disgusting. This is the stuff you expect from dictators. Not from the USA, the once beacon of democracy worldwide. Trump 2016 campaign 'targeted 3.5m black Americans to deter them from voting' https://t.co/OBpQRAnF0X
— Caitríona Balfe (@caitrionambalfe) September 28, 2020
— CallaLilly33 (@CLilly33) September 28, 2020
Screenshot / YouTube
If there’s one thing this data leak has done, it’s inspired Black Americans to go out and vote — against Donald Trump.
Trump’s attempt to deter Black voters in 2016 won’t be happening in 2020. Our voices will be heard and our votes shall without question, be counted. This mark has no idea just how determined we truly are yet his racist ass is about to learn. He’s done! https://t.co/cBTQAvh1Yk
— Darius’s Dad (@dad_darius) September 28, 2020
