Several Facebook pages supporting Bernie Sanders were quickly shut down late Monday night after self-proclaimed Hillary Clinton supporters flooded some of the pages with pornographic images.
The pro-Sanders pages, including Bernie or Bust, Bernie Believers and Bernie Sanders is my HERO, had a combined 250,000 followers.
According to The Hill, The attack began around 9 p.m. EDT on Monday night and lasted until just after midnight Tuesday. The pages have since been reinstated.
The Facebook pages were flooded with explicit pornographic images in what seemed like a coordinated attack. Someone then flagged the sites to Facebook administrators for their obscene content.
Some people reported seeing child pornography among the images.
“We had what looked like a kiddie porn posted in one of our groups today,” said Sanders supporter Erica Libenow. “I reported that one. Seriously made me want to vomit.”
A Facebook spokesman told The Hill that a number of pro-Sanders groups “were inaccessible for a brief period” due to the company’s automated policies being “applied incorrectly.”
At least one Facebook user linked to the Los Angeles-based pro-Clinton group “Bros4Hillary” seems to have been a part of the attack.
But the group told TheWrap they had no prior knowledge of the incident and that the member has been “blocked” from the group’s page.
“We don’t condone that person’s behavior,” said Alex Mohajer, the group’s political director. “Our group is about love and respect.”
Mohajer explained that the group, a grassroots organization, cannot vet every person that clicks on its like button. He said the former member was not involved the group’s operations.
“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,” the group said in response. “We rely on members to ‘flag and report’ harmful, offensive, or trolling behavior, and apologize to the groups that were affected. This member acted on his own authority, is not apart of our leadership team.”