Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appears to have retweeted tweets from an account with links to a Russian “troll farm.”
A now-deleted account with the username @Crystal1Johnson was flagged by the independent Russian news agency RBC as a Russian-backed account. Dorsey retweeted the account twice, prior to it being suspended, the Daily Beast reported, confirming part of RBC’s report.
“Rihanna collects her Humanitarian of the Year award from Harvard. She kicked off #WomensHistoryMonth with a bang!” reads the tweet Dorsey first retweeted in March.
He also retweeted the account one week later.
“Nobody is born a racist. This picture is so sweet! Teach your children to judge others by the kind of person they are inside,” the tweet read to accompany a photo.
The account, which appeared to be managed by a black woman from Richmond, Va., occasionally tweeted inflammatory content about Hillary Clinton.
“Clinton’s True Face.. KKK leader claims he gave $20K to Hillary Clinton campaign,” read one tweet from May 2016.
Earlier this week, it was reported that members of Trump’s family and campaign staff, including Donald Trump Jr. and Kellyanne Conway, promoted tweets from an account with the username @Ten_GOP, an account affiliated with a Russian “troll farm” during the 2016 campaign.
Twitter officials met with congressional investigators last month to discuss how Russia interfered with the election on Twitter. The Senate Intelligence Committee also invited Twitter, Facebook, and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to testify publicly on Nov. 1.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to say congressional investigators met with Twitter officials in September, not October.
