The Internet Research Agency, Russia’s infamous troll farm, conducted a Twitter campaign before the 2016 presidential election that was larger and more coordinated than previously known, new research shows.
The research, conducted by cybersecurity firm Symantec, was detailed in a report by Politico on Wednesday.
According to Politico, Symantec analyzed a data set Twitter released in 2018 on nearly 3,900 accounts and 10 million tweets.
Here are some key findings from the Symantec report:
- The operation was carefully planned. Accounts were often registered months before they were used – and well in advance of the 2016 election. The average time between account creation and first tweet was 177 days.
- A core group of accounts was used to send out new content. These were often "fake news” outlets pretending to be regional news outlets.
- A large number of auxiliary accounts was used to amplify messages pushed out by the main accounts. These usually pretended to be individuals.
- The campaign directed propaganda at both the liberal and conservative political divide in the U.S.
The Symantec report said. “In the months after the election, it quickly became apparent that a sophisticated propaganda operation had been directed against American voters.”
And it added: “Along the way, we also came across some interesting bits of information, such as what appeared to be some rogue operators using monetized link-shortening services to make some money on the side.”
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