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Article snippet: Dr. Lourdes Ashley Hunter was still reeling from MORE’s announcement banning military service by transgender people when she received an email asking if she would help organize a protest against the policy. For Hunter, who identifies as transgender, the ban felt personal, so she was happy to help set up a protest in Washington, D.C. The local organizer offered to connect Hunter, executive director of the Trans Women of Color Collective, with a woman named Mary Smith from the activist group “ReSister.” What Hunter didn’t realize at the time was that Smith was part of a coordinated disinformation campaign intended to influence politics and stir division in the United States. Facebook this week revealed it had identified the “Resisters,” which appears to go by both Resister and ReSister stylings in emails, Facebook chats and archived versions of its now-deleted Facebook page, along with other pages like the “Aztlan Warriors,” and “Black Elevation,” to be a part of “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” It said they sought to spread propaganda online while creating Facebook events that many people showed up to in real life. In Washington, D.C., where Hunter is based, she gathered sound equipment and other materials for the protest and paid fees associated with it, which Mary Smith said she would repay. The process seemed to be moving smoothly, but Hunter noticed that some things seemed off. Mary Smith declined to speak to Hunter on the phone, saying that she “was recov... Link to the full article to read more