Over on Facebook I'm a member of about 100 or so groups about books/readers etc, largely to promote my stuff. And because I'm a member of so many groups, sometimes I see patterns. And I'm seeing one right now... about racism in America and bad-faith attempts to amplify discord

About two weeks ago the book groups started to be flooded with anti-Black, anti-protest, pro-Trump posts usually involving footage of car chases or cops arresting people. The footage wasn't usually recent, and wasn't even always from the U.S.

All the posts were either from white women over 60, people impersonating K-Pop stars, and people with African names hailing from a large assortment of counties. This already sounds weird enough, right? Well, of course there's more....

About a week later, all those posts stopped. Now, suddenly there was an influx of similar visual content, but completely opposite text... anti-cop, anti-fascist, etc. although not really the way people I know who are activists speak.

And the source accounts? Basically the same as the first batch, just with fewer white women. In some cases, I was able to verify it was the exact same accounts posting to both sides of the issue (difficult to check, because the posts get reported nuked quickly).

Today... a new cycle seems to be beginning, this time about interracial relationships.

So what on earth are we looking at here? I'm not sure. But it's intended to sew discord and doesn't seem to be actual individuals conveying their actual beliefs. Here's what it does seem to be doing:

Every time one of these posts happen, people in the groups react. People find out who in the group believes what (useful to an extent if you want less racists in your life), everyone yells at each other, feels shitty, and goes back to their own FB wall to complain about it.

The unhappiness spreads. And the people who posted, get a very good sense of racists/anti-racists/people willing to stay silent in a super generic FB group about something most people like... books.

When people say there are various orgs/countries running ops on FB to sew discord and mess with the U.S. election, this is part of what they mean.