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The Senate Intelligence Committee is expected to release two reports on Monday on the scale of a Russian social media campaign aimed at sowing discord in the United States, a CNN news source said.
Committee members rely on a wealth of data that Facebook, Twitter and Google shared with the committee about Russia's campaign to influence the 2016 US presidential election. Has not yet been publicly disclosed.
The committee hired an online intelligence company to review data from Russian social media accounts as US accounts.
New Knowledge, one of the companies hired by the committee, monitors misinformation online. In its report to legislators, the firm stated that social media companies could have provided more useful data to the committee and presented them in a more accessible format.
The cabinet informed lawmakers that there were probably more Russian accounts that social media companies had not identified, according to one familiar with the report.
The firm has analyzed more than 10 million tweets, 116,000 Instagram posts and 61,500 Facebook posts sent by the troll group linked to the Russian government Internet Research Agency, according to a source close to the report. Special counsel, Robert Mueller, indicted IRA in February.
Part of the study focuses on the "identity theft and media reduction strategy" of the troll group, according to the person familiar with the report.
The researchers found that there were 44 Twitter accounts posing as US-related news agencies, which had amassed more than 600,000 subscribers. The report notes that many of the fake news agencies present themselves as local media and could be based on studies showing that Americans trust local media for their national newspapers.
The researchers also found that Russians "were constantly trying to erode confidence in traditional media." According to the source, WikiLeaks presented a positive picture.
A Google spokesman said the company had not commented on the report, but had pointed to some of the measures taken by the company to combat misinformation since 2016.
A spokesman for Twitter told CNN that the company had made "significant progress" against the manipulation of its service.
"Our main goal is to improve the quality of public conversation on our platform and the protection of the integrity of the elections is an important aspect of this mission," said the spokesman. . "We have made considerable progress since 2016 to counter the manipulation of our service, which includes the release in October of additional data relating to previously disclosed activities, to allow for the continuation of independent academic research and investigation."
A Facebook spokesman said that he had not had any comments on the report.
New Knowledge declined to provide comment to CNN.
Separate Report
The separate report shows that Russians working for the IRA have divided Americans into key interest groups in order to target the messages, the Post reported.
According to the Post, the Russians decided to convince the Conservatives to vote with messages on gun rights and immigration, and spread misinformation to left-wing African-American voters about how to vote and undermine their faith in the elections. Many other groups, including Latinos, Muslims, Christians, gays, liberals, southerners and veterans, have also been targeted by thousands of Russians-controlled social media accounts, the Post reported. .
"What is clear is that all the messages were clearly seeking to benefit the Republican Party – and especially Donald Trump," says the draft report obtained by mail. "Trump is mentioned most often in campaigns targeting conservatives and right-wing voters, where the message has encouraged these groups to support his campaign."
"The main groups likely to challenge Trump then received a message seeking to confuse, distract and ultimately discourage members from voting," the report said, according to the Post.
The Senate Intelligence Committee did not announce it supported the report's findings, but plans to publicly release it with another separate report later this week, the daily Post reported.
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