Santa Fe New Mexican

Russia to use race issues to meddle?

- By Mary Clare Jalonick

WASHINGTON — The tensions coursing through the United States over racism and policing are likely key targets for adversarie­s seeking to influence the November election, lawmakers and experts warn — and there are signs that Russia is again seeking to exploit the divide.

Earlier this year, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pulled down dozens of accounts with names like “Blacks Facts Untold” that had been followed or liked by hundreds of thousands of people. The accounts were fake, created by an organizati­on in Africa with links to Russia’s Internet Research Agency.

Similarly, this past week Facebook announced it had removed a network of accounts linked to that “troll factory” that had pushed out stories about race and other issues. The network had tricked unwitting American writers to post content to the pages.

It’s a troubling but familiar pattern from Russia, as the Internet Research Agency overwhelmi­ngly focused on race and the Black Lives Matter Movement when targeting the U.S. in 2016. The goal, part of the Russian playbook for decades, was to sow chaos by posting content on both sides of the racial divide. Indeed, “no single group of Americans was targeted by IRA informatio­n operatives more than African-Americans,” concluded a report from the Senate Intelligen­ce Committee.

With the election just two months away, some lawmakers are worried that the Russian efforts, now evolved and more sophistica­ted than four years ago, could again take hold. They fear the Trump administra­tion’s decision to limit what it tells Congress — and by extension the American people — about election threats will allow the propaganda to spread.

“Race was a big piece of what they did in 2016, and given heightened racial tensions this year, there’s no reason they wouldn’t be doing the same thing again,” says

Maine Sen. Angus King, an independen­t who is on the Senate Intelligen­ce Committee. He says the informatio­n that is now being limited “belongs to the American people.”

Democrats were furious last weekend after Director of National Intelligen­ce John Ratcliffe, a close ally of President Donald Trump, informed Congress that the office would supply written informatio­n to the intelligen­ce committees about election threats but would no longer be doing in-person briefings, denying lawmakers the chance to ask questions.

The cancellati­on came a few weeks after U.S. intelligen­ce officials publicly stated that Russia is using a variety of measures to denigrate Trump’s opponent, Democratic presidenti­al candidate Joe Biden, ahead of the election. Trump responded to that assessment by saying that “nobody has been tougher on Russia than I have.”

Election interferen­ce has always been a sensitive subject for Trump. The president has often dismissed the idea that Russia interfered at all in 2016, and has replaced many long-serving intelligen­ce officials with his own appointees.

The intelligen­ce statement did not offer specifics about what tactics Russia is using, but the past provides important clues.

In 2016 the Internet Research Agency had an “overwhelmi­ng operationa­l emphasis on race” that was apparent in the online ads it purchased — more than two-thirds contained a term related to race. The company targeted that content to “African-Americans in key metropolit­an areas with well-establishe­d black communitie­s and flashpoint­s in the Black Lives Matter movement,” according to a Senate Intelligen­ce Committee report.

One of its top performing pages, “Blactivist,” generated 11.2 million engagement­s with Facebook users.

Bret Schafer, an expert on foreign disinforma­tion with the bipartisan group Alliance for Securing Democracy, said stoking racial animosity is a Kremlin strategy that goes back decades. His group tracked a major uptick in social media activity on racial issues from Russian state-sponsored media and political figures this summer, especially after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapoli­s police.

“We have seen a constant messaging theme being race and racism in the U.S.,” Schafer said. “They’re very good at it.”

There is evidence that the recent police shooting of a Black man in Kenosha, Wis., and the resulting protests — the focus of political sparring between Trump and Biden this week — have fueled a new round of social media activity from foreign government­s.

English-language media outlets linked to the Russian government have published stories supporting the protests, and “Cop Injustice in Kenosha” is the headline on a video posted by an online news organizati­on with ties to Russia. Another video from the Kremlin-backed outlet Redfish shows Trump supporters driving aggressive­ly through protesters in Portland, Ore., where there have been protests for weeks.

The stories are precisely the kind of content lawmakers are trying to keep tabs on.

The acting chairman of the Senate committee, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told a local news outlet this past week that has spoken to Ratcliffe and expects the in-person briefings to continue.

But it is unclear whether they will. A spokeswoma­n for Ratcliffe would not confirm Rubio’s remarks.

The committee’s top Democrat, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, says he has been working with Rubio to urge Ratcliffe to reverse the decision.

 ??  ?? Donald Trump
Donald Trump

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States