'Russian trolls' promoted California independence

Social media accounts with ties to Russia pushed a huge Twitter trend in favour of an independent California on US election night 2016, BBC Trending has learned. The campaign was one of at least two popular online independence drives with links to the Kremlin.
It was a surprising development on a surprising night. In the early hours of 9 November 2016, shortly after it became clear that Donald Trump would be the next president of the United States, the hashtag #Calexit hit Twitter's list of top trends.
Trump, Brexit... Calexit?
"Calexit" is short for "California exit" - the idea that the US state could break away from the rest of the nation - and the election-night trend seemed to be driven by liberal activists wary that heavily Democratic California would be governed by Trump.

In addition to pro-Texas independence content, the page pumped out anti-Muslim stories and created a confrontation with followers of another Internet Research Agency page, United Muslims of America. At one point in May 2016, those behind the two pages scheduled rival events at the same time and same place in Houston.
"What neither side could have known is that Russian trolls were encouraging both sides to battle in the streets and create division between real Americans," said Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the US Senate intelligence committee which has been investigating social media interference in the 2016 election.
"Ironically, one person who attended stated, 'Heart of Texas promoted this event but we didn't see one of [their members]'. We now know why.
"It's hard to attend an event in Houston, Texas, when you're trolling from a site in St Petersburg, Russia. Establishing these two competing groups, paying for the ads and causing this disruptive event in Houston cost Russia about $200," he said.