I seen this posting before. This was driven by a Russian troll farm. |
Robert Mueller's investigation uncovers a deliberate plot to interfere in the U.S. elections. They even went after Mueller as soon as the investigation into Michael Flynn picked up.
They were running with the campaign to paint Hillary Clinton as the villain and Donald J. Trump as the "savior of Black culture."
They used platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Vine, Gab, Meetup, Vkontakete, Live Journal to spread discourse. The Russian troll farm encouraged folks to support Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein and Trump.
Posing as fed-up Amerians, the Internet Research Agency (IRA) would engage in the hot topics.
The IRA's goal was to deepen divisions in U.S. society and convince Democrat-favoring liberals — including Latinos, youths and the LGBTQ community — not to vote, the report said.
But the most extensive analysis yet of thousands of IRA ads and posts across social media platforms in 2015-2017 showed a special emphasis on provoking the anger of black Americans so that they would stay home on election day.
The IRA-created account "Blacktivist" sent out messages on the Democratic candidate such as: "No lives matter to Hillary Clinton. Only votes matter to Hillary Clinton."
Another IRA account, "Black Matters," posted on Facebook: "Cops kill black kids. Are you sure that your son won't be the next?"
The four story complex in St. Petersburg was the Russian government espionage and internet hacking center. |
"These campaigns pushed a message that the best way to advance the cause of the African American community was to boycott the election and focus on other issues instead."
Separately, a portion of the 3,841 IRA accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube studied by the researchers sought to provoke Republican-leaning white Americans to get out and vote.
While the study did not draw any lines between the IRA propaganda and the election results — Republican Donald Trump stunned Clinton to take the White House — post-election data suggest some impact.
According to the Pew Research Center, white voter turnout surged in 2016 while black turnout sank by 5 percentage points, to 59.6 percent, from four years earlier.
Jill Stein is under federal watch. The former Green Party presidential nominee has ties to Russian oligarchs. |
The study showed the IRA U.S. campaign began in 2015, aiming to mobilize conservative voters, with no specific backing for Trump at the time.
But as the then-candidate gained support, and especially when he drove his anti-immigrant message, the IRA posts turned in his favor.
The IRA had "coherent teams," formed around specific ideologies such as gun rights and LGBTQ issues, that directed posts using user profile data provided by advertising arms of the social media companies.
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