INSTAGRAM > FACEBOOK
Silhouettes of mobile users are seen next to a screen projection of Facebook logo in this picture illustration taken March 28, 2018. (Reuters)
RUSSIAN TROLL MERCH
Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin funded the Internet Research Agency’s campaign to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.Prigozhin, along with 12 other Russian nationals, was recently indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
The trolls also promoted and distributed coupon codes for real-life American businesses with no affiliation to the Russian effort, possibly with the goal of expanding their following among a targeted niche audience, DiResta said.“We have no idea if anyone called them.”
Suppressing the vote
A Facebook posting, released by the House Intelligence Committee, for a group called "Woke Blacks" is photographed in Washington, Friday, Feb. 16, 2018. A federal grand jury indictment on Feb. 16, charging 13 Russians and three Russian entities with an elaborate plot to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, noted that in the latter half of 2016, the defendants and their co-conspirators, through their Internet Research Agency LLC, personas, including "Woke Blacks," to begin to encourage U.S. minority groups to not vote in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
CONSERVATIVE OUTRAGE
IT AIN’T OVER
“IRA posts on Instagram and Facebook increased substantially after the election, with Instagram seeing the greatest increase in IRA activity,” researchers found. “Engagement rates increased and covered a widening range of public policy issues, national security issues, and issues pertinent to younger voters.”Some of their efforts — cough, memes — are still being shared online today.“These memes do continue to spread within the communities they were targeting, particularly content by lesser-known or quietly-removed pages,” researchers wrote.Cover image: Spanish fans play the highly addictive Pokemon Go game during a gathering in central Madrid, Spain, Thursday, July 28, 2016, to play the computer game. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)“These memes do continue to spread within the communities they were targeting.”