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Pro-Donald Trump internet Reddit horde to turn attention to French elections

The first week of President-elect Donald Trump has been as tumultuous as the campaign of presidential candidate Donald Trump, with protests rocking cities, social media reports of hate crimes jumping the day after the election, and minority groups in fear over what a Trump administration would mean given the rhetoric of some of his supporters.   

But the internet has moved on.

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"The Great Meme War," as the 4chan politics board and the alt-right inhabitants of Reddit's "The Donald" board have jokingly called the election, must continue.

The next targets, following the success of the trolls in backing the Brexit Leave campaign, and the Trump campaign, will be other elections around the globe.

Various threads on 4chan politics board are calling for a meme war to push National Front leader Marine Le Pen to an election win in the upcoming presidential elections in France. 

"How do we get her elected and meme her to the presidency?" one poster asked. 

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Le Pen and the National Front are the French cousins of Donald Trump and his far-right, racist, nationalist supporters, such as the American alt-right

The playwright William Congreve once wrote: "Nothing remains when that day comes but to sit down and weep like Alexander [the Great] when he wanted other worlds to conquer."

A woman holds a French national flag during a presidential campaign rally in Paris on Monday.
A woman holds a French national flag during a presidential campaign rally in Paris on Monday. Photo: AP

But Trump's troll and Twitter loyalists have plenty of worlds left to conquer.

How do they do it? By creating memes on sites like Meme Generator and ImgFlip to fling against their enemies online.

France's far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen.
France's far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen. Photo: AP

Even as France comes within their sights, they are continuing their war with the mainstream media.

On Friday a report surfaced that Trump loyalists were upset at reports of increased hate crimes in the days after Tuesday's election, particularly a line in a CNN article linking the crimes to "Trump's America".

Incoming president: Donald Trump's victory is giving European far-right candidates hopes
Incoming president: Donald Trump's victory is giving European far-right candidates hopes Photo: AP

Posts on subreddits that back Trump show supporters preparing an information war against the network through social media memes

Trump redditors, those who frequent the chat site, called for a boycott of mainstream outlets such as CNN - ironic when you consider that CNN regularly let candidate Trump use its prime-time hours to squeeze other candidates out of the news cycle. 

Co-operation: Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
Co-operation: Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Photo: Supplied

From one post on the "The Donald" board on Reddit: "Everyone with cable or satellite needs to immediately go into the settings in their DVR menu and block CNN, MSNBC, Headline News, and CNBC. No more visiting their webpages and giving them clicks and advertising dollars. And no more posting their stupid stories on here, even to ... mock them."

Trump frequently targeted rants at the press pool, who he had centred in a cage-like area during events, often pointing at reporters and inciting the crowd. He's stated frequently he would lessen press protections and open journalists to more libel suits as a matter of policy.

Will France be the next scene of electoral upheaval?
Will France be the next scene of electoral upheaval? Photo: Supplied

Trump's anti-constitutional rhetoric has had a destructive effect on those members of the fourth estate reporting on him.

The abuse journalists have taken during Trump's campaign has left many in the profession vulnerable, scared and afraid for the future of the country.

4Chan pranks have come a long way, according to this meme.
4Chan pranks have come a long way, according to this meme. Photo: Supplied

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Pentagon Papers lawyer Floyd Abrams called a Trump presidency "the greatest threat to the First Amendment since the Sedition Act of 1798". Abrams is not using hyperbole - Trump's own words and the actions of his followers show the threat is very real.

Julia Ioffe, an award-winning investigative reporter, interviewed future first lady Melania Trump in April for GQ.

Marine Le Pen as Pepe the Frog
Marine Le Pen as Pepe the Frog Photo: Supplied

Within 24 hours, memes about Ioffe began pouring from enraged Trump supporters, including one Photoshopping her as an Auschwitz prisoner. She received phone calls playing Hitler speeches - for a profile that wasn't overtly critical and was factual. 

David French of National Review began receiving racist threats late in 2015.

Despite being a conservative, alt-right trolls sent him images of his African-American daughter in a gas chamber, flooded his wife's blog with violent images, including shootings and suicides of black men, called her house and threatened to shoot her. They even hacked into a phone call between her and her elderly father. 

French wrote Erick Erickson, a conservative activist who dis-invited Trump to an event hosted by his Red State website, had angry Trump supporters come to his house. A man yelled at Erickson's children in a store and condemned their father to them. 

The Anti-Defamation League has reported 800 journalists have faced anti-Semitic attacks in 2016, mostly from Trump supporters.

While Trump trolls plan a campaign of memes against CNN, the network has made moves to counter fake news websites that feed fraudulent information to Facebook users.

Mark Zuckerburg, Facebook's founder, deflected claims that fake news on his site contributed to misinformation during the election.

While the assault against journalism continues, Trump trolls aren't quitting the election business.

The next stop for this horde may be France.

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