Twitter told to get its act together on misinformation

Twitter has been told to “look again” for evidence of Russian interference in UK politics as new research appears to show the social network under-reported the problem to MPS.

Data unearthed by the Press Association shows more than 2,400 tweets about the UK, Brexit, the refugee crisis and last year’s general election came from at least 154 accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Kremlin-linked organisation accused of sowing disinformation on social media.

Many of the accounts had tens of thousands of followers, with some messages shared thousands of times between 2015 and 2017, but the full scale and impact of the campaign is unclear because of the limited data available.

Twitter told MPS on a parliamentary committee investigating fake news in February that it had found 49 such accounts tweeting specifically about Brexit, after months of pressure from its chairman Damian Collins.

However, Twitter’s evidence fell short of the demand Mr Collins has requested in letters since November that the company provides “a list of accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency and any other Russian-linked accounts that it has removed and examples of any posts from these accounts that are linked to the United Kingdom”.

Mr Collins told the Press Association: “There’s clearly been a lot more activity than they acknowledged. So does that mean they were unaware of it or that they just aren’t looking for it?”

He said he would be asking the social media network to look once more for evidence of Russian interference in UK politics on its platform in light of the research.

“It confirms the view that Twitter cannot be allowed to mark its own homework,” said Ian Lucas, who also sits on the Department for Culture, Media and Sport: “It seems an extraordinary state of affairs that such influential businesses can ask for everything to be taken on trust.”

A Twitter spokesman stressed the shortfall had occurred because the company’s investigation had focused on the Brexit campaign specifically, not the 2017 election or other issues around UK politics.

All of the 154 accounts found to have been involved were “permanently suspended” last autumn, it added.

He added: “Our CEO Jack Dorsey has detailed our new ‘Health’ initiative and opened up a request for proposals to external parties to come and inform our path forward. We don’t claim to have all the answers.”

The accounts, identified by crossreferencing Twitter’s own list of Iralinked accounts with databases of millions of tweets gathered by researchers in the UK and US, were particularly active around terrorist attacks or political events and could be found celebrating the Brexit result and amplifying anti-european or Islamophobic messages.

Many of the tweets painted the refugee crisis across Europe as a Muslim invasion, stirring up anti-muslim and anti-immigration sentiment.

Others falsely described some crimes, such as incidents in Munich and London’s Russell Square, as terrorist attacks.

Thousands more targeted the US election and US politics as well as French and German elections.

An EU official who tracks Russian information campaigns on social media said the aim of the Internet Research Agency is to “weaken the west... from the top level to the lowest level”.

“They are looking for divisive topics,” said the official, who did not want to be identified.

The inquiry will meet again tomorrow to question Matt Hancock, secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, on the Government’s response to online disinformation campaigns from foreign actors.

A Government spokesman said: “To date, we have not seen evidence of successful interference in UK democratic processes by a foreign government.”

“Twitter cannot be allowed to mark its own homework

As investigations continue into the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Twitter has been told to revisit its probe into interference in its site by Russian operatives.

The issue was downplayed when the social media firm was quizzed by parliamentarians last month.

Research has now uncovered thousands of messages from accounts linked to a Russian organisation accused of disseminating “fake news”.

People are increasingly turning to the likes of Twitter and Facebook for information, many treating what they read and see entirely uncritically.

As well as informing opinion on issues such as immigration and crime, decisions with far-reaching consequences, such as the referendum on leaving the European Union, are possibly being influenced by such activity.

The scale of the problem cannot yet be known due to failures in data-gathering, but it is a truly global issue.

British, French and US elections are said to have been targeted by the Russian Internet Research Agency.

The only action taken so far is to remove 154 Twitter accounts found to have spread suspect material. Hundreds more may have sprung up in their place.

The firm is wrong to suggest it can do no more and it is time for social media companies to stop operating under the impression they are above the law and be governed by the same strict rules to which others adhere.