I’m not a twitter thread guy but this definitely needs more attention: The blatant astroturfing of the Reopen America (or Gridlock) movement and the clear ways Americans are being manipulated. So starting off: you’ve probably seen this picture floating around

It sounds rediculous that people all over the country are suddenly protesting the closure of businesses. Perhaps the sentiment was there but it seems like these mobilized people came out of nowhere. Where did they come from?

First of all, the definition of astroturfing from Wikipedia. Basically it means that the re-open movements are not organic and merely mimics a true grassroots movement

The Facebook group Operation Gridlock Pennsylvania is a group the supports team-opening. This is their page

If you visit the link in the last paragraph, it takes you to this website

Wait a second - Pennsylvania firearms association? What does a gun rights group have to do with the covid 19 shutdown? A second Facebook group called Minnesotans Against Excessive Quarantine looks like this, almost identical to the Pennsylvania one:

Going to the link in the About page takes you to this website. Looks familiar

The Facebook groups have the same descriptions almost word for word. The linked websites are almost identical. Why would organic movements in two separate states have exactly the same website and Facebook page layouts? It gets weirder.

Doing a whois lookup on both the sites gives you this

The domains for reopenPA and reopenMN were created two minutes apart on the same day with the same registrar. Seems legit

The point is: the websites for this movement were created by political organizations to further an agenda. They are not the result of concerned citizens coming together

Credit to reddit user Dr_Midnight for this information. Here is his comment in the thread https://reddit.com/r/maryland/comments/g3niq3/_/fnstpyl/?context=1