How Russia Exploited Black Lives Matter, Sean Hannity, and Mass Shootings

Here are some key tactics used in the Kremlin’s disinformation attack.

leirbagarc/123RF; FrankRamspott/Getty

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

On Friday, special counsel Robert Mueller indicted thirteen Russian nationals for attempting to sabotage the 2016 US elections. The 37-page indictment alleges that Russians working for the Internet Research Agency, a Kremlin-linked troll farm, engaged in a multiyear campaign to spread misinformation and actively supported Donald Trump’s bid for the White House. Operatives used fraud to pose as real Americans on social media, seized on politically divisive topics, and even tried to suppress minority turnout. The latest revelations also indicate that Facebook and Instagram were key platforms used in the Russian attack. 

The indictment lays out numerous details about the Kremlin’s operation—so-called active measures deployed on social media that Mother Jones contributor Denise Clifton has been reporting on since last fall. Here are some key aspects of the Russian disinformation campaign and the role of “fake news” covered by Clifton that resonate with Mueller’s latest indictment.

Russian trolls stoked anger over Black Lives Matter, even duping Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Dorsey twice retweeted @Crystal1Johnson, an account run by the Internet Research Agency. Researchers at the University of Washington found at least 29 known Russian trolls tweeting about Black Lives Matter and police shootings, spreading content widely over a nine-month period. The accounts targeted both left and right-leaning audiences: “It’s striking how systematic the trolls were,” Ahmer Arif, one of the researchers behind the study, said. “The content they’re sharing is tailored to align to each audience’s preferences.”

Russian Trolls Stoked Anger Over Black Lives Matter More Than Was Previously Known

The Kremlin targeted Trump’s Republican critics including Mitt Romney, Bob Corker, Jeff Flake—and especially John McCain. In these cases, trolls tended to spread stories from far-right American outlets such as Breitbart News. “The Russians are latching onto hyperpartisan content,” said Bret Schafer, an analyst for the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a group of national-security experts behind a dashboard working to expose Kremlin interference in US politics. 

Pro-Russia Trolls Are Targeting Trump’s GOP Critics—Especially John McCain

Russian trolls weaponized Fox News pundit Sean Hannity. Hannity’s website ranked among the top 10 shared by Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence-campaigns, including a big effort behind GOP Rep. Devin Nunes’ push to #ReleaseTheMemo.

Sean Hannity Is Now a Favorite Weapon of Online Trolls Attacking America

Exploiting the latest mass shooting to sow more discord over gun politics. Following a massacre in Sutherlands Spring, Texas, Russian-linked Twitter accounts helped spread and amplify false conspiracy theories about the shooter being connected to antifa. A similar effort followed the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida this week, with Russian bots sharing stories trying to frame the shooter as mentally disturbed, as well as other stories falsely connecting the shooter to antifa groups. 

Putin’s Trolls Used the Texas Church Massacre to Sow More Chaos

The Russian operation zeroed in on key battleground states in 2016. An Oxford University study showed that fake news content was shared most in battleground states including Pennsylvania, Florida and Michigan, where Trump won by slim margins. Another study over a month-long period from the University of Southern California found that bots accounted for 1 in 5 election-related tweets, and that bots were just as effective at spreading messages as human accounts were. 

Fake News on Twitter Flooded Swing States That Helped Trump Win

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate