Civic Register
| 10.18.17

Gotta Influence ‘em All: Russia Used Pokémon Go In Meddling

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Next month, representatives from Google, Facebook, and Twitter will appear before the Senate and House Intelligence Committees to discuss how the Kremlin leveraged social media to spread fake news during the 2016 presidential election. Apparently, Congress should have also invited Pikachu to the hearings.

A report from CNN found that part of the Russian campaign to exacerbate U.S. racial tensions involved utilizing Pokémon Go.

The campaign was linked to the now-infamous Internet Research Agency, the Russian-backed "troll farm" tasked with infiltrating American social media and spreading fake news in an effort to, as CNN explained, “exacerbate racial tensions and sow discord among Americans.”

"Don’t Shoot Us," was one such multi-platform campaign. Meant to mimic the Black Lives Matter movement, Don’t Shoot Us – a reference to Michael Brown’s “Hands up, don’t shoot!” – included a website and associated content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

And Pokémon Go.

In July 2016, the Don’t Shoot Us Tumblr account announced a contest: Pokémon Go players were encouraged to name their Pokémon "with a U.S. police brutality victim’s name," train the pocket monsters at gyms “near the crime scene,” then take take screenshots of their digital protest. The Tumblr post that promoted the contest shared an example: Pokémon Hypno is named “Eric Garner” — the African American man who died after being placed in a chokehold by an officer of the New York Police Department.

Winners of the contest were promised Amazon gift cards.

"It's clear from the images shared with us by CNN that our game assets were appropriated and misused in promotions by third parties without our permission," Niantic, the makers of Pokémon Go, said in a statement.

Do Not Shoot Us was one of the 470 pages Facebook removed from the site after it was determined that it was linked to Russian groups attempting to interfere with the 2016 election. Instagram and Twitter have also suspended the group. The website, however, is still active.

Were you targeted by the Russian disinformation campaign? Do you think the Kremlin’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 election affected its outcome? Did you win an Amazon gift card? Hit Take Action, tell your reps what you hope to hear during next month’s hearings with the social media giants, then let us know below.

— Josh Herman

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