Past investigations have proved that the Russians interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and that Russian trolls took particular interest in discouraging Black voters, but now a new report show just to what extent, and it seems the interference is ongoing.
“Active and ongoing interference operations remain on several platforms,” according to the report, produced by New Knowledge, a cybersecurity company.
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A Russian influence campaign was organized by St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, owned by a businessman, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. Prigozhin and several of the company’s employees were indicted in February as part of Robert Mueller’s investigation.
The New Knowledge report details the Russians’ focus on African Americans.
“The most prolific (Internet Research Agency) efforts on Facebook and Instagram specifically targeted Black American communities and appear to have been focused on developing Black audiences and recruiting Black Americans as assets,” the report said.
The Russians created gmail accounts, Facebook, and Instagram accounts that targeted the Black community.
“In some cases, Facebook ads were targeted at users who had shown interest in particular topics, including Black history, the Black Panther Party and Malcolm X. The most popular of the Russian Instagram accounts was @blackstagram, with 303,663 followers. The Internet Research Agency also created a dozen websites disguised as African-American in origin, with names like blackmattersus.com, blacktivist.info, blacktolive.org and blacksoul.us. On YouTube, the largest share of Russian material covered the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality, with channels called ‘Don’t Shoot’ and ‘BlackToLive,’” the New York Times reported.
“Of 81 Facebook pages created by the Internet Research Agency in the Senate’s data, 30 targeted African-American audiences, amassing 1.2 million followers, the report finds. By comparison, 25 pages targeted the political right and drew 1.4 million followers. Just seven pages focused on the political left, drawing 689,045 followers,” the Times reported.
While the report did not explain why the Russians targeted African-Americans, it most likely was to stir up racism and encourage Blacks not to vote.
“Very real racial tensions and feelings of alienation exist in America, and have for decades,” Renee DiResta, one of the report’s authors and director of research at New Knowledge, said. “The I.R.A. didn’t create them. It exploits them.” Thirty-seven people have been charged in investigations related to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Although it is not known if the Russian trolls had an effect on Black voters, it is true that Black voter turnout declined in 2016 for the first time in 20 years in a presidential election. It is a fact, according to the report, African Americans were the single group targeted most heavily.
“Messaging to African Americans sought to divert their political energy away from established political institutions by preying on anger with structural inequalities faced by African Americans,” the report states. “These campaigns pushed a message that the best way to advance the cause of the African American community was to boycott the election and focus on other issues instead.”
This is why it infuriates me when our community ignores the Russia investigation. Black voters were a key target of this misinformation and manipulation effort by Russia. Race is the most reliable source of division in American politics. https://t.co/7tt39waYsJ
— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sifill_LDF) December 17, 2018
