(Photo : Photo by Liz Lynch/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 25: Visitors wearing masks reminiscent of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's court robes hold up a "Thank You RBG" sign as they pose for a photo in front of the U.S. Capitol on September 25, 2020 in Washington, DC. Ginsburg, who was appointed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, served on the high court from 1993, until her death on September 18, 2020. She is the first woman to lie in state at the Capitol.
After the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, political advocacy groups and organizers jumped on the sorrowful news as an opportunity to stop the Trump administration from pointing a nominee to take the position of Ginsburg before the November presidential election, which is against the dying wish of Ginsburg.
In September 2020, after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Bader Ginsburg died, the authenticity and accuracy of several social media posts claiming that members of the public could appeal their U.S. senators to hold off appointing the successor of Ginsburg until after the November 2020 presidential election, by just texting RBG, Ginsburg's initials, to the number 50409.
A message has been circulating in different social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, said that anyone who wished to delay the Senate nomination for the new Supreme Court until after the election must text RBG to 50409, adding that it is a bot that will send a signed letter to the senators.
According to snopes.com, the circulating messages were accurate and described an authentic automated service that is being run by Resistbot, a product of a Delaware-registered, non-profit organization called the Resistbot Action Fund.
In August 2020 and on September 21, 2020, the service has been tested using SMS utility on a mobile phone and it runs smoothly on both occasions. As stated by the creators of "Resistbot" the same operation works on Facebook's Messenger, Apple's iMessage, Twitter, and Telegram's encrypted text message app.
First-time users are being required to provide their mailing address in order for the bot to work out both their congressional district and state and to validate their identity using email verification, while repeat users are no longer required to enter or verify their identity and address.
From there, Resistbot automatically attaches the signature of the user to an online petition and generates a standard email, on behalf of the user, and sends it to the relevant lawmakers. In the September 2020 campaign case of the "RBG", the letter said, that as patriots, people are mourning over the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, adding that the message is appealing for the people not to conform in a new Supreme Court justice until after the November 2020 election, following the previous set after Justice Scalia's death four years ago. And appealed to allow the public to make a monumental decision just like what happened four years ago.
As of September 24, 2020, according to Jason Putorti, Resistbot's executive director, more than 1.5 million signed letters have been sent to the senators across the country, asking to delay the SCOTUS nomination after the November presidential election. Purpose, the co-creator of the application and a former volunteer for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign, talked about his belief that texting is an essential medium in organizing, Earn the Necklace reported.
In the autumn 2020 Supreme Court nomination campaign case, the email was only sent to two U.S. senators of each user.
Resistbot is an authentic automated political advocacy service that is being run by a registered non-profit organization. The "RBG" campaign was a legitimate piece of political activism and was not a scam, and the circulating posts in the different social media platforms promoting it were accurate.
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