Takeaways from Twitter's data trove

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Twitter’s release of millions of tweets relating to foreign influence campaigns on the platform created a treasure trove of data for journalists and researchers to mine through. The information sheds light on the vast, yearslong campaign to sow discord and influence US politics, not only by Russia’s infamous Internet Research Agency but by accounts tied to Iran as well. New Knowledge Research Director Renee DiResta, whose group tracks disinformation and analyzed Twitter’s latest batch of data, pointed to an “evolution over time” by the IRA, which she said shifted from focusing on “more-domestically focused” matters in Russia to US politics in early 2015. But even after the shift, a majority of the IRA posts were targeted not directly at influencing American elections but rather at hot-button political topics, especially race. “The election was heating up but at the same time the overwhelming majority of the content … focused on race,” she said. And the evolution has continued. DiResta said foreign activity is “progressing to rely on local news” over “canonical” national outlets. She suggested this tactic could be because Americans hold greater trust in local outlets. DiResta said the findings pointed to a significant difference in how Russian trolls approached Twitter as opposed to Facebook. “Their Twitter operation was much more opportunistic than their Facebook operation,” she said. On Facebook, trolls sought to foster “in-group communities,” the researcher argued, while on Twitter, where there are no group pages, there was “a far broader collection of topics” that were more responsive to trends.

The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, another group that dug into the data, found that the IRA’s goals spanned from preventing Hillary Clinton’s victory to also “dividing polarized online communities in the US, unifying support for Russia’s international interests, and breaking down trust in US institutions.” One other consistent theme: suppressing the African-American vote. “A vote for Jill Stein is not a wasted vote” was a common refrain, according to DiResta. Other efforts focused on spreading disinformation about voting to minorities, she added.

 


Takeaways from Twitter's data trove