Russian Twitter trolls deflected Trump news
SAN FRANCISCO — Disguised Russian agents on Twitter rushed to deflect scandalous news about Donald Trump just before last year’s presidential election while straining to refocus criticism on the mainstream media and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, according to an Associated Press analysis of since-deleted accounts.
Tweets by Russia-backed accounts such as “America— 1st—” and “BatonRougeVoice” on Oct. 7, 2016, actively pivoted away from news of an audio recording in which Trump made crude comments about groping women, and instead touted damaging emails hacked from Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta.
The extent of Russian intrusion to help Trump and hurt Clinton in the election has been the subject of both congressional scrutiny and a criminal investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. Those investigations are looking into the possibility of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.
The Associated Press’ analysis illuminates the strategy behind the Russian cyber meddling: swiftly react, distort and distract attention from any negative Trump news.
The Associated Press examined 36,210 tweets from Aug. 31, 2015, to Nov. 10, 2016, posted by 382 of the Russian accounts that Twitter shared with congressional investigators last week. Twitter deactivated the accounts, deleting the tweets and making them inaccessible on the internet.
“MSM (the mainstream media) is at it again with Billy Bush recording … What about telling Americans how Hillary defended a rapist and later laughed at his victim?” tweeted the America— 1st — account, which had 25,045 followers at its peak, according to metadata in the archive.
Twitter handed over the handles of 2,752 accounts it identified as coming from Russia’s Internet Research Agency to congressional investigators ahead of the social media giant’s Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 appearances on Capitol Hill. It said 9 percent of the tweets were election-related.
The Associated Press obtained the most comprehensive historical picture so far of Russian activity on Twitter in the crucial runup to the Nov. 8, 2016, vote.
The Russian accounts didn’t just spring into action at the last minute. They were similarly active at earlier points in the campaign.
Racial discord also figured prominently in the tweets, just as it did with many of the ads Russian trolls had purchased on Facebook in the months leading up to and following the election.