A comprehensive study compiled for the Senate describing, with new details, Russian efforts to support President Trump’s 2016 campaign and administration is set to be released this week.
The report was conducted by Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project and network analysis firm Graphika. It’s based on data from 2009 to 2017 that was provided to the Senate and House Intelligence committees, The Washington Post reported Sunday. The report offers insight into the use of social media platforms that have received little congressional attention so far, such as YouTube, Instagram, Google+, Tumblr, and Pinterest. It also looks at email accounts run by Google’s Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft’s Hotmail.
The study, which has yet to be publicly endorsed by the Senate intel panel, found Russian inference, spearheaded by the Internet Research Agency, peaked during the parties’ conventions and the presidential debates in 2016. The operations, in particular, targeted right-leaning Americans with issues like gun rights and immigration, while trying to suppress the vote of left-leaning African-Americans.
Researchers slammed Facebook, Twitter, and Google, which supplied the majority of the data analyzed, for their “belated and uncoordinated response” to the Russian disinformation campaign, as well as the companies’ failure to turn over consistently “meaningful” data. They also criticized the tech giants for not picking up on the Russian strategy earlier, given some ads were bought with Russian rubles or with Russian contact information, including via Internet Protocol addresses.
The report’s findings will be widely disseminated ahead of Democrats re-taking the House in early January, reigniting investigations into the 2016 election. The Senate Intelligence Committee previously concluded in July that Russia played a part in the 2016 campaign.
