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| ence in Europe, German Council on Foreign Relations, at 4 (Sept.-Oct. 2015). Adrian Chen, The Agency The New York Times, June 2, 2015. Ben Popken & Kelly Cobiella, Russian Troll Describes Work in the Infamous Misinformation Factory NBC News, Nov. 16, 2017. Adrian Chen, The Agency The New York Times, June 2, 2015. The Notorious Kremlin-linked Troll Farm and the Russians Trying to Take it Down The Washington Post, Oct. 8, 2017. Adrian Chen, The Agency The New York Times, June 2, 2015. David Filipov, The Notorious Kremlin-linked Troll Farm and the Russians Trying to Take it Down The Washington Post, Oct. 8, 2017; Thomas Grove and Paul Sonne, US. Imposes Sanctions on Russian Restaurateur With Ties to Putin The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 20, 2016. An Ex St. Petersburg Troll Speaks Out Russian Independent TV Network Interviews Former Troll At The Internet Research Agency Meduza, Oct. 15, 2017. to derail online debates and amplify the anti-West narratives propagated by RT and Sputnik. These trolls use thousands of fake social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms to attack articles or individuals that are critical of Putin and Kremlin policies, spread conspiracy theories and pro-Kremlin messages, attack opponents of Putin’s regime, and drown out constructive de- bate. 244 According to a New York Times investigation, in 2015 hundreds of young Russians were employed at a troll farm in St. Peters- burg known as the Internet Research Agency (IRA, where many worked hour shifts in departments focused on different social media platforms. 245 The organization was organized in a kind of vertically-integrated supply chain for internet news. An NBC interview of a former worker at the IRA, Vitaly Bespalov, revealed that workers were highly compartmentalized and used to amplify each other’s work the third floor held bloggers writing posts to undermine Ukraine and promote Russia, on the first floor writers composed news articles that referred back to the blog posts created on the third floor, and then commenters on the third and fourth floors posted remarks about the stories under fake Ukrainian identities. Meanwhile, the marketing team worked to package all of the misinformation into viral-ready social media formats. 246 At the beginning of each shift, workers were reportedly given a list of opinions to promulgate and themes to address, all related to current events. Over a two-shift period, a worker would be expected to publish 5 political posts, 10 nonpolitical posts (to establish credibility, and 150 to 200 comments on other workers posts. 247 For their labor, they made between $800 to $1,000 a month, an attractive wage for recent graduates new to the work force. 248 The professional trolls were also provided ‘‘politology’’ classes that taught them the Russian position on the latest news. 249 Russian media outlets have reported that the IRA was bankrolled by a close Putin associate, Evgeny Prigozhin, a wealthy restaurateur known as the ‘‘Kremlin’s Chef whose network of companies have received a number of lucrative government contracts, and who was sanctioned by the Obama Administration in December 2016 for contributing to the conflict in Ukraine. 250 According to one former employee, IRA staff on the foreign desk were responsible for meddling in other countries elections. 251 In the run up to the 2016 US. presidential election, for example, VerDate Mar 15 2010 04:06 Jan 09, 2018 Jkt PO 00000 Frm 00050 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 S:\FULL COMMITTEE\HEARING FILES\COMMITTEE PRINT 2018\HENRY\JAN. 9 REPORT FOREI-42327 with DISTILLER 45 252 Ibid. 253 Ibid. 254 Committee Staff Discussion with Facebook. An Ex St. Petersburg Troll Speaks Out Russian Independent TV Network Interviews Former Troll at the Internet Research Agency Meduza, Oct. 15, 2017. Luke Broadwater, Second Russia-Linked Effort Promoted Protests During Trial of Freddie Gray Officers The Baltimore Sun, Oct. 12, 2016. Diana Pilipenko, Facebook Must Follow The Money to Uncover Extent Of Russian Meddling The Guardian, Oct. 9, 2017. Andy Greenberg, Hacker Lexicon What is the Dark Web Wired, Nov. 19, 2014. Joseph Cox, I Bought a Russian Bot Army for Under $100,’’ The Daily Beast, Sept. 13, 2017. The Surprising New Strategy of Pro-Russia Bots BBC Trending (BBC News Blog, Sept. 12,2017. foreign desk staff were reportedly trained on the nuances of American social polemics on tax issues, LGBT rights, the gun debate, and more . . . their job was to incite Americans further and try to rock the boat The employee noted that our goal wasn’t to turn the Americans toward Russia. Our task was to set Americans against their own government to provoke unrest and dis- content.’’ 253 Based on conversations with Facebook officials, it appears that Kremlin-backed trolls pursued a similar strategy in the lead up to the 2017 French presidential election, and likely before Germany’s national election the same year. 254 The IRA also apparently had a separate Facebook desk that fought back against the social network’s efforts to delete fake accounts that the IRA had developed into sophisticated profiles. 255 In addition, in the United States, Russian-backed social media accounts linked to the IRA paid for advertisements to promote disinformation and encouraged protests and rallies on both sides of socially divisive issues, such as promoting a protest in Baltimore while posing as part of the Black Lives Matter movement. 256 While the IRA has reportedly been inactive since December 2016, a company known as Glavset is a reported successor, and other related companies, including Teka and the Federal News Agency, maybe carrying out similar work. 257 Many of the fake accounts used to amplify misinformation are bots, or automated social media accounts. Bot networks can be created or purchased wholesale fairly cheaply on the dark web, apart of the internet accessed with special software that gives users and operators anonymity, and thus is often used as a marketplace for illicit goods and services. 258 According to one report, they can be purchased for as little as $45 for 1,000 bots with new, unverified accounts, and up to $100 for 500 phone-verified accounts (which have a unique phone number attached to them). 259 Through automation, bots can spread disinformation at high speed and in great numbers, quickly amplifying a false story’s reach and profile and making it trend on social media platforms. For example, during the French presidential election, bots were used to spread memes, gifs, and disinformation stories about Emmanuel Macron. Bots have also been used to attack perceived critics of the Kremlin by flooding their accounts with retweets and followers, clogging the target’s account and possibly resulting in temporary suspension from the platform for suspicious activity. 260 Kremlin-aligned hackers, supported by trolls, bot networks, and friendly propaganda outlets, have also used ‘‘doxing’’ to great effect. Doxing occurs when hackers break into a network, steal propri- VerDate Mar 15 2010 04:06 Jan 09, 2018 Jkt PO 00000 Frm 00051 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 S:\FULL COMMITTEE\HEARING FILES\COMMITTEE PRINT 2018\HENRY\JAN. 9 REPORT FOREI-42327 with DISTILLER 46 Bruce Schneier, How Long Until Hackers Start Faking Leaked Documents The Atlantic, Sept. 13, 2016. Andy Greenberg, Russian Hackers Get Bolder in Anti-Doping Agency Attack Wired, Sept. 14, 2016; see Appendix C. 263 FireEye iSight Intelligence, APT28: At The Center of The Storm, Russia Strategically Download 0.63 Mb. Share with your friends:
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