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-
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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 Share with your friends: