Frank Underwood reportedly helped Russia interfere with the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.
Former members of a troll group, operating under the reported protection of Vladimir Putin’s closest associates, said in an interview with a Russian TV channel that Netflix’s hit political drama House of Cards was required to be seen to help train the agents on hot-button issues in American political culture.
“At first we were forced to watch the ‘House of Cards’ in English,” a former peddler of fake news identified only as Maksim told the station. “It was necessary to know all the main problems of the United States of America. Tax problems, the problem of gays, sexual minorities, weapons.”
The Netflix show was one of many parts in the Russian’s attempts to better understand how to influence Americans, according to Yahoo!
The group is called the Internet Research Agency and they reportedly posted comments on some of the biggest news outlets including New York Times and Washington Post to get people upset and influence the election. A major objective was to decrease the chances of Hillary Clinton’s win the presidential election by emphasizing her past “corruption scandals.”
“The main message is: Are not you, my American brothers, tired of the Clintons? How many have they already been?” said Maksim, adding that President Barack Obama was also targeted. “We had a goal to set up the Americans against their own government to cause unrest, cause discontent [and] lower [President] Obama’s rating.”
In addition, the trolls discussed topics including gay rights and gun control to “rock the boat.”
“When it was gays, we almost always had to bring out the religious themes,” said Maksim. “Americans are very religious, especially those [who post] on news sites and write comments. You had to write that sodomy is a sin. That could always get you a couple of dozen ‘likes.’”
That said, House of Cards is now casting in Baltimore, Maryland.
