‘Russian meddling now more subtle’

Russian agents believed to be connected to the government have been active in spreading divisive content and promoting extreme themes ahead of Tuesday’s US mid-term elections, but they are working hard to cover their tracks, according to government investigators, academics and security firms.

Researchers studying the spread of disinformation on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other platforms say the new, subtler tactics have allowed most of the so-called information operations campaigns to survive purges by the big social media companies and avoid government scrutiny.

“The Russians are definitely not sitting this one out,” Atlantic Council Digital Forensic Research Lab director Graham Brookie said.

“They have adapted over time to increased [US] focus on influence operations.”

US intelligence agencies say Russia used disinformation and other tactics to support President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

The Russian government has rejected allegations of election interference.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson declined to comment on claims of further meddling.

“We cannot react to some abstract cybersecurity analysts because we do not know who they are and whether they understand anything about cybersecurity,” Dmitry Peskov said.

He said Moscow expected no significant improvement to its strained ties with Washington after the vote.

If the goals of spreading divisive content have remained the same, the methods have evolved in multiple ways, researchers say.

For one, there has been less reliance on pure fiction.

People have been sensitised to look for completely false stories, and Facebook has been using fact-checkers to slow their spread on its pages. –