https://twitter.com/AndrewWyrich/status/918576144802373632/photo/1
CNN broke the news Thursday that the “Don’t Shoot Us” campaign against police brutality was a disinformation scheme hatched by Russia, possibly to make the Black Live Matter movement look bad and sow more racial discord in the US leading up to the 2016 Presidential Election. Even stranger, that meddling effort involved a promotion centered around the inexplicably popular app Pokemon Go, a game that is basically a trading rats for candy simulator. To summarize, Russian agents may have used Pokemon Go to try to somehow inflame racial hatred or resentment, because we are truly living in the stupidest of all timelines.
As for the dumb, dumb, so-very-dumb Russian meddling scheme, it doesn’t seem to have accomplished much. They ran a contest promising Amazon gift cards to Pokemon players who caught pokemonsters near locations of alleged police brutality, named the pokemonster after the victim, and sent them a screencap. Niantic, makers of Pokemon Go, have pointed out that the game “cannot be used to share information between users in the app so our platform was in no way being used. This ‘contest’ required people to take screen shots from their phone and share over other social networks, not within our game. Niantic will consider our response as we learn more.”
Pity the poor intern who has to write that press release.
The initial reaction to CNN’s reporting comprised of several tweets like this one:
Everything is so stupid. https://t.co/ZjciCfGRxJ
— Pete Vernon (@byPeteVernon) October 12, 2017
Or this spin on an old gag:
In Russia, Pokemon catch you #PokemonGo
— G ✨ (@ginasoffian) October 12, 2017
And then the photoshops and jokes flooded in, with people making references to conspiracies most favored by the InfoWars set:
This part of Pokemon Go always struck me as strange pic.twitter.com/T5E3TrffS0
— Jason O. Gilbert (@gilbertjasono) October 12, 2017
https://twitter.com/quasirealSmiths/status/918557175538122755
Putin shouldn’t be so proud of a magikarp. Anybody can get those. Sheesh.
https://twitter.com/Pokemon_Newz/status/918593620722282496
Plenty of sarcasm was shared:
i was gonna vote in november but then russian bulbasaur told me 'not to pokemon go to the polls after all' and i foolishly assented
— Luke Savage (@LukewSavage) October 12, 2017
https://twitter.com/dantelfer/status/918642955329654785
CNN: Even Pokemon Go was used by Russia to interfere in the election.
MUELLER: I’m gonna *Catch Em All.*
— Power to the People ☭🕊 (@ProudSocialist) October 12, 2017
And many placed the blame squarely on Pikachu. Et tu, Pikachu?
BREAKING! Leaked images of #Russia's secretive #PokemonGo Unit: pic.twitter.com/FJCK2iA4OK
— Hannibal Khoury (@The_Cyrenian) October 13, 2017
.@CNN is reporting Pokemon Go was targeted by Russia to affect the election. Sources say Pikachu is refusing to testify to Senate Intel..
— NYPatriot (@NWOinPanicMode) October 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/natemcdermott/status/918556021248987136
In hindsight, it was pretty obvious which Pikachu mole that the Russians were using to influence our election through Pokemon Go. pic.twitter.com/TeR18JfBuD
— The Darkest Timeline Numbersmuncher (@NumbersMuncher) October 12, 2017
And finally, we saw the power and glory of Pikachu on full display. The audio really makes this one:
https://twitter.com/EnglishRussia1/status/918764838532403200