Politics
- Russian government-backed online interference in the 2016 election aggressively targeted African-Americans more than any other group, according to a major new report from the Senate Intelligence Committee.
- Research from the Senate Intel Committee and other investigations, including the Mueller probe, have previously found evidence that Russia's interference efforts stoked racial tensions in an effort to depress African-American voter turnout.
- The vast majority of the online disinformation efforts were carried out by a firm called the Internet Research Agency.
- The new Senate report also found that the IRA "attempted and succeeded in some cases to influence their targets to sign petitions, share personal information, and teach self-defense training courses."
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Russian government-backed online interference in the 2016 election aggressively targeted African-Americans more than any other group, according to a major new report from the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Research from the Senate Intel Committee and other investigations, including special counsel Robert Mueller's massive 400-page report into Russian interference in the 2016 election, have previously found extensive evidence that Russia's interference efforts stoked racial tensions in an effort to depress African-American voter turnout.
The vast majority of the online disinformation efforts were carried about by a well-funded firm called the Internet Research Agency, which was mainly funded by Evgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch who held close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The new Senate report said that, "by far, race and related issues were the preferred target of the information warfare campaign designed to divide the country in 2016," with 66% of the IRA's paid Facebook ads invoking race "principally aimed at African-Americans in key metropolitan areas."
The Senate report confirmed previous findings that the IRA's social media operations weren't just explicitly pro-Trump, but weaponized "race, immigration, and Second Amendment rights in an attempt to pit Americans against one another and against their government"
In February of 2018, special counsel Mueller's office indicted 13 Russian nationals and 3 Russian companies on charges of conspiracy, conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft in connection with the IRA's online disinformation campaigns.
The new Senate report and the Mueller report described in great detail how the Internet Research Agency (IRA) weaponized social media both to spread inflammatory content supporting now-President Donald Trump and opposing Hillary Clinton - including organizing real-life protests and events.
Both the new Senate Intel report and the Mueller report found that online disinformation and inflammatory content spilled over into the real world, with "unwitting Americans" participating in real-life demonstrations orchestrated on social media.
The report said, for example, "the IRA targeted African-Americans over social media and attempted and succeeded in some cases to influence their targets to sign petitions, share personal information, and teach self-defense training courses."
The Mueller report also documented occasions on which IRA accounts posing as grassroots organizers contacted unwitting members of President Donald Trump's campaign to assist with pro-Trump events they were organizing, including "requests for signs and other materials to use at rallies" and "to promote the rallies and help coordinate logistics."
