The researcher said that Russia's efforts to reach Bernie Sanders supporters were more numerous than we knew

The tweet was not actually from Louisiana, according to an analysis by researchers at Clemson University. Instead, it was one of the thousands of accounts identified as based in Russia, as part of a covert effort to persuade supporters of the Vermont senator to "get away from it all." elect Trump. "Bernie Sanders says his message resonates with the Republicans," said another Russian tweet.

While much attention has been focused on whether the Trump campaign has encouraged or conspired with Russia, efforts to target Sanders supporters have been a less noted part of the story. Special advocate Robert S. Mueller III, in a case filed last year against 13 Russians accused of interfering in the US presidential campaign, said that workers at a facility of St. Petersburg, Internet Research Agency, had been instructed to write on social networks opposed to Clinton. but "to support Bernie Sanders and the candidate of the time, Donald Trump."

This strategy could be the subject of a new attention with the publication of the Mueller report, expected in a few days.

Sanders told Vermont Public Radio last year that one of his campaign agents had understood what was going on, he had alerted Clinton and told them, "I think these guys are Russians." But Sanders said he never knew it. suggestion that his staff did. A spokesman addressed questions to the 2016 campaign leader, Jeff Weaver, who had said in an interview that Sanders "was poorly voiced and confused some facts. . . . He did not know, I did not know, none of us knew "that Russia was behind the efforts.

It is only recently, with the latest analysis of Twitter data, that the scale of the disinformation campaign in Russia has been documented on this social media platform.

At the Washington Post's request, two researchers from Clemson University examined tweets in English identified as coming from Russia, many of which were intended to influence the election. It is impossible to say how many have been targeted on Sanders fans as many do not include his name. Some 9,000 Russian tweets used the word "Bernie", which was "liked" 59,281 times and retweeted 61,804 times.

But it was only part of Russia's efforts to target Sanders supporters, the researchers said. Several thousand other tweets, without any direct reference to Sanders, have also been designed to please his supporters, urging them to do more than just vote for Clinton in the general election.

"I think there's no question that Sanders was at the center of their strategy. It has clearly been used as a way to reduce Hillary Clinton's voter turnout, "said one of Clemson's researchers, Darren Linvill, an associate professor of communication. The tweets examined in the new analysis "give us a much clearer understanding of the tactics they used. It was certainly a higher volume than people thought. "

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Russia's social media strategy highlights a challenge that Sanders faces in his new candidacy for the Democratic presidency, this time in an overcrowded environment. Many Sanders supporters believe that he was treated unfairly by the Democratic Party and by Clinton, an objective on which the Russians sought to capitalize while they were striving to undermine Clinton's election to November.

Although Sanders later denounced the Kremlin's efforts and campaigned for Clinton, some Democrats believe he could have done more to ease tensions and encourage his supporters to support his former opponent. A former senior Clinton campaigner, who requested anonymity to avoid publicly criticizing Sanders before the 2020 primaries, said there was still bitterness in the way Sanders has repeatedly stated that the system was directed against him.

Sanders said in May 2016 that party rules allowing Clinton to bring together "superdelegates" did not fit the definition of "rigged", but he described the process as "a dumb process that certainly put our campaign at a disadvantage" .

The effort to promote Sanders as a means of influencing the US election began shortly after his nomination in the spring of 2015, according to Mueller's indictment against the Russians. Russia's goal was to defeat or weaken Clinton, who angered Russian President Vladimir Putin as Secretary of State.

One of the reasons why Sanders was at the center of Russia's concerns was little emphasized: he and Trump opposed trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Russian President Vladimir Putin had criticized the TPP, saying it was secret and that it "did not facilitate the sustainable development of the Asia-Pacific region."

During the primaries, Sanders gave at least three interviews to a Russian-controlled television channel, RT, in which his commercial position was highlighted. In February 2016, the network accused MSNBC of having broken with Sanders after stating that he "was helping to lead the opposition to the TPP." The network has published an article titled "Bernie Sanders" censored "by MSNBC while criticizing a trade agreement."

At about the same time that Sanders appeared on RT, Russian employees of the Internet Research Agency received a document explaining how to influence the US elections. Workers were urged to "seize any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the others (except Sanders and Trump – we support them)" ", according to Mueller 's indictment against the Russians.

The Twitter database shows the impact. The tweets sent from Russia, concealed in the guise of Americans, included: "Bernie Sanders turns to black voters to bolster his campaign of the oppressed". "Hillary Clinton's dramatic summer creates opportunities for Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden"; and "I'm for Bernie till the end!"

Then, in July 2016, WikiLeaks published e-mails from the Democratic National Committee suggesting that the party's mechanisms were directed against Sanders. The computers of the DNC were subsequently revealed to have been hacked by Russia. Piracy has led Trump to widen the gap between Democrats. "Emails from the DNC indicate that Bernie Sanders will be destroyed," says Trump tweeted July 23, 2016. ". . . Online from Wikileakes [sic]really vicious. Gree "

The Russian trolls have significantly increased their efforts to persuade Sanders supporters to oppose Clinton in the general election. One of their methods was to convince African Americans that they could not trust him.

"#BlackMenForBernie Leader goes to the trump! I will never vote for Hillary, welcome aboard the Trump train, "said a tweet from an account purporting to come from Texas and identified as" Southern. " Conservative Pro God. Fight against racism ". The account, managed by a Russian, had 72,121 subscribers. The post has been liked 260 times and retweeted 295 times, according to the Clemson database.

Linvill, the Clemson researcher, said Sanders was considered "a simple tool" for Russians. "It is a middle ground in the Democratic Party," which has resulted in a decline in Clinton's turnout, he said. The tweets suggested either voting for Trump or a third party candidate, such as Green Party candidate Jill Stein, or writing on behalf of Sanders.

If it is impossible to establish a direct correlation between a Russian-based tweet and the vote of someone in the United States, a post-election poll conducted for Ohio State University has shown how fake stories spread on social media may have resulted in a decline in Clinton's turnout. . Only 77% of those polled for Barack Obama in 2012 supported Clinton in 2016; According to the YouGov survey, 10% supported Trump, 4% voted for third party candidates and 8% did not vote.

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In an attempt to demonstrate how inaccurate information is in the general public, the survey asked respondents about three clearly false items widely distributed. A quarter of respondents thought Clinton was "in very bad health", 10% thought Trump had been approved by the pope and 35% (including 20% ​​of Obama's supporters) thought Clinton had approved the sale of weapons to "Islamic Jihadists, including ISIS. "

The Ohio State team concluded in a final version of its report that was to appear shortly that "the belief in these false reports is very closely linked to the defection of the Democratic ticket by Obama voters in 2012. ". Obama voters who recognized the three false voted for Clinton at a rate of 89%, while 61% of people who thought one of the stories was wrong voted for it and 17% of those who believed that two of the false stories supported Clinton.

Yoel Roth, head of Twitter's website integrity, said Twitter has been studying what happened during the presidential elections and will apply these lessons as the 2020 campaign unfolds.

"Protecting the integrity of public conversation around elections is at the heart of Twitter's mission," Roth said in a statement to The Post. "Since 2016, we have implemented new policies, significantly strengthened our application against malicious automations, established strong partnerships within the industry and with government entities, and opened the largest public archive of business operations." 39 Potential information online, including: thousands of accounts related to Russia we took off. "

Sanders told Vermont Public Radio last year that the Russians "were playing a really disgusting role because they did not believe in anything. And all they want is to sow division in this country, to bring people against each other. So what they were saying is in other words that Bernie Sanders is not going to win, so if you're a Bernie Sanders supporter, let me tell you that Hillary Clinton is a criminal, a murderer, a terrible person. . . crazy, all those disgusting things. "

Nick Merrill, spokesman for Clinton, said: "The Russians will hit again." Therefore, it is imperative that "all others, especially Democratic candidates, work together and support each other to defend against these threats".

Craig Timberg contributed to this report.