Russia did not sit out 2018

Russia did not sit out 2018. Americans received a reminder of that on the eve of the midterm elections, when Facebook removed 115 accounts the company believes were linked to an influence operation. The good news is, the entities defending the election against incursions from abroad didn’t either. And compared with 2016, that is progress.

Before Facebook removed those accounts, it removed hundreds of others in late August. Twitter did the same thing, and last month it also released data that showed the extent of Russian and Iranian operations.

Companies and their partners in civil society and the government have made the simplest tactics, such as having a single user run thousands of automated accounts, harder to pull off. They also managed to disrupt some co-ordinated campaigns. As a result, Russian-linked accounts, according to researchers, appear to have failed to reach 2016 levels. Russia also had less success than in 2016, and launched fewer salvos – as far as is known.

This falls in line with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s insistence that election infrastructure was not tampered with. But those who would undermine democracy have evolved their tactics. Networks of automated accounts pushing out propaganda still found a place on the most popular platforms. And Russia may be saving its powder for 2020.