Twitter posts data linked to Russia, Iran

Millions of tweets, images released

LONDON — Twitter Inc. has published millions of tweets, images and videos, and thousands of accounts linked to operatives based in Russia and Iran, shedding light on how bad actors outside the U.S. sought to manipulate social media discourse at home countries and abroad.

The social media company has previously disclosed the activities, going back to 2016, but said in a blog post Wednesday that it was opening up the data to the public to encourage independent analysis by researchers, academics and journalists.

The data sets just released are made up of 3,841 accounts affiliated with the Russia-based Internet Research Agency, 770 other accounts potentially based in Iran, as well as 10 million tweets and more than 2 million images, videos and other media.

Many of the accounts disclosed in the data sets have been previously reported. What’s unprecedented is the size of the archive of information. Researchers were able to glean that the IRA posted far more in Russian than in English when Russia was fighting in Ukraine, according to analysis conducted by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.

“One of the big takeaways is just how big these operations were. The second point is that these operations started out for the benefit of the countries they were working in,” said Ben Nimmo, a senior fellow at the DFRLab. “It really started out as a domestic tool for repression and then it was turned into a … weapon targeting the U.S.”

The Iran operation largely pushed pro-Iranian government messaging abroad, directing users to certain websites. The top three geopolitical phrases mentioned by the Iranian trolls included Saudi, Iran and Trump. One-third of the posts from the Iranian troll farm led users to AWDNEWS.com, which calls itself an independent news agency, yet Nimmo refers to it as “part of the Iranian messaging laundromat.”

The Russian operation had multiple goals, including interfering in the U.S. presidential election, dividing polarized online communities, unifying support for Russia’s international interests and weakening trust in American institutions, according to the DFRLab. One main purpose was to prevent a victory by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, with Russian troll accounts amplifying the hashtag #CrookedHillary and claiming voter fraud in favor of Clinton on Election Day.