Erasmus Baxter | Phoenix New Times
In a rare and somewhat dystopian example of in-sourcing, an Arizona politician appears to have been involved in employing local teens to replicate Russian efforts to spread right-wing disinformation on social media in advance of the upcoming presidential election.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Rally Forge, a local digital marketing company headed by Jake Hoffman, a Queen Creek council member and Republican House candidate for Legislative District 12, ran a program over the summer in which teenagers were paid to spam Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook with identical messages that asserted COVID-19 is overhyped and generally attempted to undermine confidence in the validity of American elections — all in support of President Donald Trump.
