Russian internet trolls created over 100 events displayed to Facebook users during the 2016 U.S. presidential race, in turn reaching more than a quarter of a million unique accounts during the course of Moscow’s alleged election meddling, the social network revealed in congressional testimony released Thursday.
Facebook identified 129 event pages made by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian company that engaged in “state-sponsored information operations” across its platform during the 2016 race, Facebook said in a written statement dated Jan. 8 and released by the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“Approximately 338,300 unique accounts viewed these events. About 25,800 accounts marked that they were interested in an event, and about 62,500 marked that they were going to an event,” Facebook said.
Facebook did not provide examples of the bogus events, and the statement to lawmakers said it was unaware if any of them ever actually transpired in real life, though previous reporting revealed that a May 2016 “Stop Islamization of Texas” rally organized by the IRA drew crowds in Houston.
Widely regarded as a professional “troll farm,” U.S. intelligence officials have linked the IRA to conducting online propaganda and dis-information campaigns on behalf of the Kremlin, including social media operations meant to disrupt the 2016 race and particularly Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Representatives from the nation’s largest social media platforms discussed the IRA’s activities during congressional hearings last fall, and Facebook revealed in October that IRA content had reached about 126 million users before associated accounts were suspended.
Facebook introduced a feature last month that lets users see if they had followed any IRA-linked accounts, and Twitter this week started notifying more than 600,000 users who had interacted with IRA content.
With just a little over 9 months until the November midterm election, Facebook also told the Senate panel that it’s taking steps to defend against another further foreign interference on par with the activities witnessed in 2016.
“We will also significantly expand the number of people who work specifically on election integrity before the 2018 U.S. federal elections this fall, including people who investigate this specific kind of abuse by foreign actors,” Facebook said.
A report released by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence last January assessed that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a state-sponsored interference campaign targeting the 2016 race and Mrs. Clinton’s presidential ambitions.
“Moscow’s influence campaign followed a Russian messaging strategy that blends covert intelligence operations — such as cyber activity — with overt efforts by Russian Government agencies, state-funded media, third-party intermediaries and paid social media users or ‘trolls,’” the report said.
“The likely financier of the so-called Internet Research Agency of professional trolls located in Saint Petersburg is a close Putin ally with ties to Russian intelligence,” the report said.
Russia has denied meddling in the 2016 race. The election is currently being investigated by the Department of Justice and four congressional committees, including intelligence panels in the House and Senate.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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