Theodore Johnson, a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice who studies black voting behavior, said one thing being missed in the analysis of Russia’s black-centric web content is that a lot of it was probably intended to sway white audiences.

“Equally important was putting black activist language out on social media in order to scare white citizens into thinking their nation was changing, and mobilize white voters in support of Trump,” he said, pointing to posts that falsely showed Black Lives Matter activists with guns and claimed they planned to exercise their second-amendment rights.

“Black folks were not the target for that,” Johnson said, adding in reference to pro-law enforcement conservative reactionaries: “I’m convinced the ‘Blue Lives Matter’ crowd was the target there.”

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“The No1 objective was to throw chaos into our democracy in our electoral process,” Johnson said. “Lessening people’s faith in the system, having folks question the integrity of your election itself – the process, the results – that was the whole point of this.”