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The Russian social media campaign in the 2016 elections made extraordinary efforts to target African Americans. She used various tactics to try to suppress the voter turnout of Democratic voters and triggered a storm of posts on Instagram that rivaled or exceeded her D & # 39; s after a report issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee [Facebook] on report adds new details to the clear picture in the past two years of the energy and imagination of the Russian effort to influence the American public and divide the country.
"Active and ongoing interference operations remain on multiple platforms," says the report, produced by New Knowledge, a Austin, Texas-based cybersecurity firm, along with researchers from Columbia University and of Canfield Research LLC. An ongoing Russian campaign, for example, seeks to influence opinion on Syria by promoting Bashar al-Assad, Syrian President and Russian ally in the brutal conflict there.
The New Knowledge Report, obtained by the New York Times. before its scheduled release Monday, is one of two commissioned by the Senate Committee on a bipartite basis. They are largely based on data on Russian operations provided to the Senate by Facebook, Twitter and other companies whose platforms were used.
The second report was authored by the Computational Propaganda Project of Oxford University with Graphika, a company specializing in social media analysis. The Washington Post first published a report on Oxford on Sunday.
The 2016 Russian influence campaign was led by a St. Petersburg-based company called Internet Research Agency, owned by businessman Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, a close ally. of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. Mr. Prigozhin and a dozen employees of the company were indicted last February as part of the investigation into the interference of the special advocate, Robert S. Mueller III .
Both reports point out that the Internet Research Agency has created social media accounts under fake names on virtually all available platforms. One of the main goals was to support Donald Trump, first against his Republican rivals in the run for president, then in the general election and as president since his inauguration.
By creating accounts designed to belong to Americans, the Internet Research Agency has expanded its messages not only via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, which have attracted the most attention, but also on YouTube, Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest, Vine and Google+, among other platforms. His attack on the United States has used almost exclusively high-tech tools created by American companies.
New Knowledge researchers have discovered many examples of Russian operators building an audience on one theme and then switching to another, often more provocative. messages. For example, an Instagram account called @army_of_jesus_ was first released in January 2015 with images of the Muppet Show, then was transferred to The Simpsons and in early 2016 became Jesus-centric. Several Memes Associated Jesus with Mr. Trump's Campaign and Satan with Mrs. Clinton
The Russian Campaign was the subject of hearings in the Senate last year and has been extensively reviewed by academic experts. The new reports largely confirm earlier findings: the campaign was aimed at attacking Hillary Clinton, reinforcing Trump and exacerbating existing divisions in American society.
But the New Knowledge report pays particular attention to the emphasis placed by Russians on African Americans. , which is obvious to anyone who examines collections of memes and messages.
"The most prolific IRA efforts on Facebook and Instagram specifically targeted black American communities and appear to have been focused on developing black audiences and recruiting black American assets," says report. Using American-sounding Gmail accounts, the Russians recruited and sometimes paid out unintentional American activists of all races to hold rallies and broadcast content, but there was a disproportionate pursuit of African Americans, the report concludes. .
"One or two Facebook pages or Instagram accounts were at the heart of distinct ethnic and religious groups. The black community was largely targeted by dozens of people. "In some cases, Facebook ads targeted users who had shown interest in topics such as blacks. History, the Black Panther Party and Malcolm X. The most popular Russian Instagram account was @blackstagram, with 303,663 subscribers.
The Internet Research Agency has also created a dozen websites disguised as African-Americans, bearing names such as blackmattersus. .com, blacktivist.info, blacktolive.org and blacksoul.us. On YouTube, most of Russian literature covered the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality, with strings called "Don & # 39; t Shoot" and "BlackToLive."
The report does not attempt to explain the heavy focus on African Americans. But the tactics of the Internet Research Agency echo the Soviet propaganda efforts of many decades ago that often highlighted racism and racial conflict in the United States, as well as the recent operations of the United States. Russian influence in other countries that sought to stir up ethnic conflict.
The report's authors and director of research at New Knowledge, stated that the Internet Research Agency "exploited pre-existing legitimate grievances wherever they could." As the elections drew near, the Black Lives Matter movement was at the center of national attention in the country. In the United States, the Russian operation took the opportunity, she added – and added material called "Blue Lives Matter" when a reprimand favorable to the police appeared.
"Very real racial tensions and a sense of alienation exist in America. decades, "said DiResta. "The I.R.A. did not create them. He exploits them.
On 81 Facebook pages created by the Internet Research Agency in Senate data, 30 targeted African-American audiences, gathering 1.2 million followers, says the report. In comparison, 25 pages targeted the political right and rallied 1.4 million supporters. Only seven pages were devoted to the political left, attracting 689,045 supporters.
While the right-wing pages promoted Trump's candidacy, the left-wing pages scorned Ms. Clinton while promoting Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Jill Stein of Green. Party candidate. The crackdown on voters targeted in particular Sanders' supporters and African Americans, urging them to avoid Mrs. Clinton in the general election and to vote for Ms. Stein or stay home.
It is difficult to determine whether such efforts have had a significant effect. judge. Black voter turnout declined in 2016 for the first time in 20 years in a presidential election, but it is impossible to determine if this was the result of the Russian campaign.
The New Knowledge Report states that the Internet Research Agency's presence on Instagram has been underestimated and could have been as effective or more effective than its efforts on Facebook. The report says that there were 187 million commitments on Instagram – users "loving" or sharing content created in Russia – compared 76.5 million engagements on Facebook.
In 2017, while US media focused on Russian operations on Facebook and Twitter.
The New Knowledge Report criticizes social media companies for misleading the public.
"Unfortunately, it seems that the platforms have misrepresented themselves or have escaped certain statements. to the report, "the report says, noting what he calls a false claim that specific population groups are not targeted by the influence operation and another that the campaign was not seeking not to discourage the vote.
"It is not clear whether these answers were the result of an erroneous or missing analysis, or of a more deliberate escape," says the report. [19659002] The report suggests a reluctantly respect for the scale and creativity of R US influence operations.But the Russians were not eager to boast of their efforts.
After the Elections, the report says that the Internet Research Agency has published about 70 posts on Facebook and Instagram that mocked allegations that Russia was ingested in the election.
"You lost and you do not know what to do? ", said the u One of these messages: "Simply blame the Russian pirates."
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