Ratfucking is an American slang term for political sabotage or dirty tricks. It was first brought to public attention by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in their book All the President’s Men.
Here’s what The Hill is reporting:
Multiple Facebook pages supporting Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders were abruptly removed from the social media network late last night following an apparent coordinated cyberattack.
The pro-Sanders pages — which include Bernie or Bust, Bernie Believers and Bernie Sanders is my HERO — were collectively followed by over a quarter-million supporters of the Vermont senator, and many had been operating continuously since Sanders launched his campaign last year.
The attack began around 9 p.m. EDT and lasted until just after midnight, when most of the pages recovered their accounts.
According to eyewitness reports, the pages were flooded with pornographic images in coordinated fashion and then flagged for obscene content, prompting Facebook to remove them.
“We had what looked like a kiddie porn posted in one of our groups today,” said Sanders supporter Erica Libenow, according to Heavy.com. “I reported that one. Seriously made me want to vomit.”
At least one Facebook user linked to the pro-Hillary Clinton group Bros 4 Hillary was reported to have participated in the attacks.
The Bros 4 Hillary team disavowed the user in a statement posted Tuesday morning, which condemned any “harmful or offensive rhetoric or harassing behavior targeting supporters of any other candidate in the race.”
Several websites and online forums and website attempted to draw a connection between the attacks and Clinton ally David Brock’s social media initiative, Barrier Breakers 2016, after noting that the former Bros 4 Hillary member had recently “liked” the initiative on Facebook.
According to U.S. Uncut, Brock’s super PAC Correct the Record has “earmarked $1 million for the effort … which aims to ‘correct’ Sanders supporters who criticize Hillary Clinton on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Instagram.”
In a statement to The Hill, Correct the Record denied any involvement in the attacks.
This doesn’t sound like anything Clinton would condone, not does it sound like a pro-Clinton group. Or a Brock’s group either.
Either this is self-sabotage by a Sanders person, or, more likely, someone on the right trying to draw a wedge between Sanders and Clinton people. (After all, if Sanders people refuse to vote for Clinton, that offsets all the Republicans who will not vote for Trump).