Ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner, sees the social media platform Reddit as a potential target to explore in the Russia meddling probe, The Hill reported.
Reddit was a major purveyor of fake news during election season, including the pizza shop-pedophilia ring story that continued to get propagated despite being repeatedly debunked, according to HuffPost.
And with 542 million monthly visitors, Reddit is a great staging area for foreign operatives to try out different stories and memes to see what will resonate.
"When you're going to test a message . . . you want to send a trial balloon," Renee DiResta, a social media network expert, told The Hill. "One great way to do that is to post a link to Reddit. You can gauge how receptive an audience is. You can see whether something is gaining traction. You can see their reactions if you're trying to refine your message."
A big hit on Reddit can easily get fake news from nefarious sites onto Facebook and Twitter, platforms that are currently the focus of Sen. Warner's investigation, The Hill reported.
But Reddit has the attention of lawmakers.
Reddit's open platform makes it easier for subversive activity; users don't need accounts to join groups. And Reddit's terms of service aren't nearly as stringent as those on Facebook and Twitter, and the platform relies on volunteer moderators to police its communities, The Hill reported.
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