RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
The scope of Russia’s meddling in last year’s presidential election is only now starting to become clear. Here is a look at six sites created by a single Russian troll farm, a sliver of the 470 accounts made public so far. In all, the sites in question ha
SITES STUDIED
As many as 126 million Americans were exposed to fake news stories, deceptive advertisements and other messages created by a Russian troll farm, according to research and estimates created by Jonathan Albright, a social media analyst from Columbia University. The 470 accounts and pages linked to Russian propagandists also had about 3,000 ads seen by an estimated 10 million users.
But that's just on Facebook. The Russian operatives had an estimated 2,752 fake Twitter accounts and 1,108 videos on 18 Google channels. Closed pages This chart shows Albright's research tracking user interaction with six closed Facebook pages created by the Russian troll farm in question: The sites offered false information about border security, police brutality and immigration.
Some of the six sites studied were created as early as July 2015.
HUGE SOCIAL REACTIONS
The information was shared through social media and the number below shows the sum of reactions, comments and shares for the sites.
VAST AMOUNT OF POSTING
A bubble graph shows each post by site and how much engagement (”likes,” comments, and reactions) they had.
EXAMPLES OF CONTENT
Facebook had declined to identify the fake Russian pages, but six sites have been publicly released, and The Daily Beast and other news organizations found some of what the sites were propagating. The examples below are from just a few of the Russian troll farm sites.