The company disabled a network of accounts that posed at times as locals in swing states to post on divisive political issues and the upcoming presidential election
Facebook on Monday said it removed a network of Russian-backed accounts that posed as locals weighing in on political issues in swing states, praising President Trump and attacking former vice president Joe Biden — illustrating that the familiar threat of Russian interference looms over the next U.S. presidential race.
Facebook said the network bears the hallmark of the same Kremlin-backed group that interfered in the 2016 election by sowing social discord, seeking to boost Trump and attacking Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The new disinformation campaign appears to follow the same playbook.
This time, a coordinated group of Russian accounts that appears to show some links to the Internet Research Agency largely took to Facebook’s photo-sharing app, Instagram, to post content this year about U.S. politics and memes targeting Democratic presidential contenders.
In February 2018, special ounsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals connected to the Internet Research Agency—a Russian troll farm Mueller suspected of posing as Americans and spreading false information in order to influence the United States’ 2016 presidential election. And a new court filingsubmitted on Wednesday, January 30 alleges that the Internet Research Agency launched a disinformation campaign against Mueller himself in 2018.
Mueller is accusing Concord Management and Consulting, a Russian company, of funding the Internet Research Agency, and the special counsel’s office is alleging that the 2018 disinformation campaign was designed to convince Americans that Mueller’s evidence against the Internet Research Agency was weak and lacked credibility.
After Mueller indicted Concord Management and Consulting and 13 Russian nationals in February 2018, the company hired Reed Smith, an American law firm, for representation in its battle against Mueller’s team. Concord alleged that Mueller was illegally appointed, hoping the case would be thrown out. But Judge Dabney Friedrich, much to the disappointment of Mueller’s critics, has refused to dismiss the case.
The following article by Sheera Frenkel and Daisuke Wakabayashi was posted on the New York Times website February 19, 2018:
A weekend gun control rally in Fort Lauderdale, FL. One hour after news of the school shooting in nearby Parkland spread, Twitter accounts that researchers have linked to Russia shifted their focus to the gun control debate. Credit Saul Martinez, The New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO — One hour after news broke about the school shooting in Florida last week, Twitter accounts suspected of having links to Russia released hundreds of posts taking up the gun control debate.
The accounts addressed the news with the speed of a cable news network. Some adopted the hashtag #guncontrolnow. Others used #gunreformnow and #Parklandshooting. Earlier on Wednesday, before the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., many of those accounts had been focused on the investigation by the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
“This is pretty typical for them, to hop on breaking news like this,” said Jonathon Morgan, chief executive of New Knowledge, a company that tracks online disinformation campaigns. “The bots focus on anything that is divisive for Americans. Almost systematically.” Continue reading “After Florida School Shooting, Russian ‘Bot’ Army Pounced”
The company disabled a network of accounts that posed at times as locals in swing states to post on divisive political issues and the upcoming presidential election
In February 2018, special ounsel Robert Mueller indicted 