4chan trolls reportedly behind part of the Iowa caucus chaos

[eddie13]

https://mashable.com/article/4chan-iowa-caucus-phone-lines/
According to NBC News, 4chan trolls posted the Iowa Democratic Party hotline on the imageboard’s politics section on Monday night, the night of the Iowa caucuses, urging the site’s users to “clog the lines.”
staff and volunteers were met with repeated phone calls from people who would immediately hang up and those who voiced their support for President Trump.


https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/clog-lines-iowa-caucus-hotline-posted-online-encouragement-disrupt-results-n1131521
An Iowa Democratic Party official said the influx of calls to the reporting hotline included “supporters of President Trump who called to express their displeasure with the Democratic Party.”

Users on a politics-focused section of the fringe 4chan message board repeatedly posted the phone number for the Iowa Democratic Party, which was found by a simple Google search, both as screenshots and in plain text, alongside instructions.

"They have to call in the results now. Very long hold times being reported. Phone line being clogged,"

The unexplained, and at times hostile, calls

The Trump campaign denied any affiliation with people clogging phone lines on Monday night.

“We don’t know anything about this, but perhaps Democrats should consider using an app that works," communications director Tim Murtaugh said. "It's laughable that they would try to blame Trump for their own incompetence."

Some users on 4chan pushed back against users claiming to spam phone lines on Monday night. One user said he didn’t want other trolls “making us the scapegoat for the DNC.”

“I can’t wait for the news headlines saying nefarious trolls ruined the caucus,” another added.


Twitter chatter.. https://twitter.com/search?q=4chan%20iowa&src=typed_query

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Do you think the DNC is just trying to pass the blame off onto someone else or were they really wrecked by 4chan?

How stupid can they be to leave such a gaping hole in their election security..

Some are saying things such as "This is felony election interference" but is that true since the DNC is a private organization and not a part of the government?

TYT will be live at 8 PM on the subject (I think).. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REwvFfxKUCA
I might tune in to see how pissed they are..

https://youtu.be/Ylj6SdPgxqo

[1715084718]

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[1715084718]

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[1715084718]

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[TECSHARE]

Hacker 4chan at it again. I bet the Russians were behind it as well.

[eddie13]

https://youtu.be/Ylj6SdPgxqo

From the video..

"4chan gonna 4chan"
"badactors took that phone line and put it on a site where badactors go to do badactor stuff"

[TECSHARE]

https://youtu.be/Ylj6SdPgxqo

From the video..

"4chan gonna 4chan"
"badactors took that phone line and put it on a site where badactors go to do badactor stuff"

That is some nice freedom of speech you have there. It would be a shame if some one labeled it as hate speech and censored it wouldn't it?

[squatz1]

At the end of the day there was going to be chaos either way, doesn't matter who did it. This was caused by people posting the phone number online, and the people running the poll not changing the phone number they were using quick enough.

All the Democrats are trying to do here is pin the blame on someone else for them not making sure their app works, and ensuring that the public was informed of things quick enough. This is stupid.

[TwitchySeal]

Some are saying things such as "This is felony election interference" but is that true since the DNC is a private organization and not a part of the government?

Maybe.

Something similar happened in 2002 for a NH Senate race.

The GOP hired a call center to jam the phone lines of the democrats who were calling people to remind them to vote on the day of the election.  A few people went to prison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_New_Hampshire_Senate_election_phone_jamming_scandal

Looks like at least a few people did:

https://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/242274581/icg-iowa-caucus-general-12#p242274780

But the number was available on google so...they kinda deserved it.

[eddie13]

But the number was available on google so...they kinda deserved it.

I can't say I condone the trolls jamming the lines but I can laugh at the Ds incompetence to let such a thing happen..
And some voters want these people in charge of their healthcare and military.. Imagine that..

[TwitchySeal]

But the number was available on google so...they kinda deserved it.

I can't say I condone the trolls jamming the lines but I can laugh at the Ds incompetence to let such a thing happen..
And some voters want these people in charge of their healthcare and military.. Imagine that..

I doubt anyone qualified to be in the cabinet was volunteering in Iowa and IDP is a bunch of old white farmers.

[TECSHARE]

I doubt anyone qualified to be in the cabinet was volunteering in Iowa and IDP is a bunch of old white farmers.

You are just ok with being an open classicist racist huh?

Lets try to switch it around a bit...

I doubt anyone qualified to be in the cabinet was volunteering in Iowa and IDP is a bunch of old black farmers.

I dunno, sounds pretty bigoted to me.

More hilarity:

https://summit.news/2020/02/07/rachel-maddow-blames-4chan-for-shambles-in-iowa/

[Balthazar]

[squatz1]

Some are saying things such as "This is felony election interference" but is that true since the DNC is a private organization and not a part of the government?

Maybe.

Something similar happened in 2002 for a NH Senate race.

The GOP hired a call center to jam the phone lines of the democrats who were calling people to remind them to vote on the day of the election.  A few people went to prison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_New_Hampshire_Senate_election_phone_jamming_scandal

Looks like at least a few people did:

https://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/242274581/icg-iowa-caucus-general-12#p242274780

But the number was available on google so...they kinda deserved it.

Hm, even if we are to explore the line of thought that people were stopped from reporting data or something along those lines , I feel as if the most important portion is that you interfered in a primary -- something that is handled by a political party, not by the government.

Even if you were to interfere in the voting of a primary, would that be illegal? As the party makes any and all decisions relating to the voting process for the primary. If the DNC wanted to right now, they could vote to change their bylaws and pick Clinton as their nominee if they so pleased. I'm assuming this is right.

But yes, this was posted online and it was beyond stupid that this is being blamed as one of the big reasons for the delays. Shouldn't have posted it online and maybe the app should've been working.

[TwitchySeal]

Some are saying things such as "This is felony election interference" but is that true since the DNC is a private organization and not a part of the government?

Maybe.

Something similar happened in 2002 for a NH Senate race.

The GOP hired a call center to jam the phone lines of the democrats who were calling people to remind them to vote on the day of the election.  A few people went to prison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_New_Hampshire_Senate_election_phone_jamming_scandal

Looks like at least a few people did:

https://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/242274581/icg-iowa-caucus-general-12#p242274780

But the number was available on google so...they kinda deserved it.

Hm, even if we are to explore the line of thought that people were stopped from reporting data or something along those lines , I feel as if the most important portion is that you interfered in a primary -- something that is handled by a political party, not by the government.

Even if you were to interfere in the voting of a primary, would that be illegal? As the party makes any and all decisions relating to the voting process for the primary. If the DNC wanted to right now, they could vote to change their bylaws and pick Clinton as their nominee if they so pleased. I'm assuming this is right.

But yes, this was posted online and it was beyond stupid that this is being blamed as one of the big reasons for the delays. Shouldn't have posted it online and maybe the app should've been working.

I think most of the charges involved telephone harassment, or something similar, nothing to do with election fraud.  Haven't dug too deep though.

[squatz1]

Some are saying things such as "This is felony election interference" but is that true since the DNC is a private organization and not a part of the government?

Maybe.

Something similar happened in 2002 for a NH Senate race.

The GOP hired a call center to jam the phone lines of the democrats who were calling people to remind them to vote on the day of the election.  A few people went to prison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_New_Hampshire_Senate_election_phone_jamming_scandal

Looks like at least a few people did:

https://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/242274581/icg-iowa-caucus-general-12#p242274780

But the number was available on google so...they kinda deserved it.

Hm, even if we are to explore the line of thought that people were stopped from reporting data or something along those lines , I feel as if the most important portion is that you interfered in a primary -- something that is handled by a political party, not by the government.

Even if you were to interfere in the voting of a primary, would that be illegal? As the party makes any and all decisions relating to the voting process for the primary. If the DNC wanted to right now, they could vote to change their bylaws and pick Clinton as their nominee if they so pleased. I'm assuming this is right.

But yes, this was posted online and it was beyond stupid that this is being blamed as one of the big reasons for the delays. Shouldn't have posted it online and maybe the app should've been working.

I think most of the charges involved telephone harassment, or something similar, nothing to do with election fraud.  Haven't dug too deep though.

Ah. Sounds like no prosecutor would want to get into the mud on that one, sounds like something that you throw on the news. Make a threat or two about it that you could get fined or face criminal prosecution, and people don't do it again cause they're scared of getting into punishment (even though no one would punish them anyway)