Twitter reveals Russiabacked ads ahead of US presidential election

WASHINGTON: Twitter revealed that nearly 2,000 ads were placed on the messaging service in 2016 by a Russian media group suspected of trying to interfere with the US presidential election.

A Twitter statement said the social media company shared data with congressional investigators about ads from RT, a television group with links to the Moscow government.

Twitter said RT spent US$274,000 in 2016 on Twitter ads that may have been used to try to influence the US election.

The news comes after Facebook acknowledged foreign entities linked to Russia paid to promote political messages on the leading social network, potentially violating US election laws. A blog post by Twitter said its vice president for public policy, Colin Crowell, met with staff from two congressional panels investigating Russian interference in the election process.

“This is an ongoing process and we will continue to collaborate with investigators,” the statement said.

Twitter said it examined efforts by foreign agents to interfere with the election after Facebook indicated it found 450 accounts that appeared to have been used for this purpose.

“Of the roughly 450 accounts that Facebook recently shared as a part of their review, we concluded that 22 had corresponding accounts on Twitter,” the statement said.

“All of those identified accounts had already been or immediately were suspended from Twitter for breaking our rules, most for violating our prohibitions against spam.”

The statement added that RT, which was named in January in a US intelligence report on election interference, spent at least US$274,100 in 2016 for 1,823 tweet ads or ‘promotions’ that ‘definitely or potentially targeted the US market.’

“These campaigns were directed at followers of mainstream media and primarily promoted RT Tweets regarding news stories,” the statement added.