translated from Spanish: Track incendiary messages linked to company operated by Trump adviser

A text message company operated by one of the top officials of President Donald Trump’s campaign sent thousands of anonymous messages to specific people urging their supporters to show themselves where votes were being counted in Philadelphia on Thursday, falsely claiming that Democrats were trying to steal the election. The messages instructed Trump’s supporters to meet at an intersection of the center where hundreds of protesters from both political sides confronted each other Thursday afternoon. Pennsylvania is a crucial politically undefined state in which former Vice President Joe Biden took advantage on Friday, and in a subsequent television speech he predicted a victory that would give him the presidency of the country.” This kind of message is to play with fire, and we’re very lucky that it apparently didn’t heat up any more conflict,” said John Scott-Railton, a researcher at the University of Toronto Citizen Lab, specializing in analyzing the internet. Scott-Railton helped trace the source. The texts were sent using rented telephone numbers to the Opn Sesame texting platform, two people told the subject that they spoke on condition that they were not identified. The company’s director is Gary Coby, digital director of the Trump campaign. It provides texting services to GOP clients, including the Republican National Committee.” ALERT: Liberals and radical Democrats are trying to steal this election from Trump! We need your support!” the text said, instructing those who received it to “show their support” in a corner near the Philadelphia Convention Center where the votes were being counted and there were many tensions. A senior Trump campaign official, who spoke on condition of remaining anonymous, said the message did not come from the campaign. Because Opn Sesame is used by multiple customers, of whom the company did not want to identify any, it was not possible to determine exactly who sent the message. Coby didn’t want to comment. The Washington Post was the first to report Opn Sesame’s link to the messages. Among those who received the invitation text is Chris Bray, who lives in rural Bucks County, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Philadelphia.Bray, who claimed to have voted for Biden and been registered as an independent, indicated that he was very surprised when he saw the message on his phone, as he never signed up for any service related to the Trump campaign.” I actually texted several more friends, to say, ‘hey, have you guys been getting robot texts like this?'” Bray said on Friday. “It was an exhortation to act. Stripe on the rhetoric we’ve been listening to for months, and that’s really dangerous if you gather the right people who have a screw a little loose. We just don’t know what can happen.” Later Thursday night, two men were arrested near the convention center for carrying loaded firearms without permission, police commissioner Danielle Outlaw said. District attorney Larry Krasner said there was no indication that they were part of an extremist group.

Original source in Spanish