The Russia watchHoodwinked Twitter users; Facebook & Brexit; Russia’s Colombia meddling, and more

Twitter to tell 677,000 users they were had by the Russians. Some signs show the problem continues (Eli Rosenberg, Washington Post)
The disclosures are the latest sign of how widely the effort to disrupt the 2016 election through disinformation permeated the services of social media companies, including Twitter, Facebook and Google.

Facebook agrees to take a deeper look into Russian Brexit meddling (Natasha Lomas, TechCrunch)
Facebook has said it will conduct a wider investigation into whether there was Russian meddling on its platform relating to the 2016 Brexit referendum vote in the U.K.

“Our New President” brings huge dose of fake news to Sundance (Steve Pond, SFGate)
Sundance 2018: Documentary is built around Russian propaganda from the 2016 election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton

FBI flagged Moscow-connected Russians attending Trump inauguration: report (Brett Samuels, The Hill)
Several Russians connected to the Kremlin attended events in Washington, D.C., on Inauguration Day last year, drawing the FBI’s attention, The Washington Post reported Saturday. Counterintelligence officials with the FBI reportedly expressed concerns about some of the half-dozen Russians, given the ongoing investigation into possible collusion between President Trump’s campaign and Moscow.

Russia finds young men who love guns — and grooms them (Anne Applebaum, Washington Post)
By now we are all familiar with the Russian disinformation campaigns, designed to undermine democracy and sow distrust, which are present in many Western countries. The many uses of Russian corruption — the companies deployed for the political ends of the state, the banks and oligarchs who sponsor foreign politicians — are well known, too. But they aren’t the whole story. For an underfunded ex-superpower trying to regain influence on the cheap, money and trolls only go so far. Equally cheap, and in some places equally plentiful, is the supply of young men fascinated by guns, camouflage, judo and paramilitary games played in forests. These men sometimes attract a more specific, more military-minded clientele. On Europe’s eastern edge, they have also attracted some interest from Russia.

Lithuania probing bogus story after TV station is hacked (Liudas Dapkus, Associated Press)
Lithuania’s Defense Ministry says an investigation was launched Friday after hackers posted a bogus story on the website of a television news station. Defense Vice Minister Edvinas Kerza told reporters the national cybersecurity center is investigating the case and the internet protocol address (IP) of the hacker had been traced to St. Petersburg in Russia.

Twitter admits there were many more Russian trolls on its site during the 2016 U.S. presidential election (Tommy Romm, Recode)
Twitter revealed on Friday that trolls tied to the Russian government spread far more disinformation during the 2016 U.S. presidential election than the company first reported — and it pledged to notify hundreds of thousands of users who had seen that content.

Netanyahu turns down meeting with Russian cybersecurity head linked to U.S. hack (Raoul Wootliff, The Time of Israel)
Citing schedule restraints, Prime Minister’s Office says premier ‘must decline’ Eugene Kaspersky’s request for sit-down at Davos World Economic Forum this week

Facebook will elevate ‘trusted’ news outlets after surveying U.S. users (Kerry Flynn, Mashable)
Facebook announced on Friday that news isn’t disappearing from your News Feed, but the social network is placing quite the heavy hand on what it decides to show you. It’s a dramatic shift for Facebook, which has generally shied away from making judgement calls on the quality of content in lieu of letting users decide what they want to see.

Russia using disinformation tactics to disrupt Colombia elections: Former U.S. official (Adriaan Alsema, Colombia Reports)
Russia is using social media to interfere in Colombia’s pending elections, according to the director of the Kimberly Green Latin and Caribbean Center at Florida International University.

Russian networks pushing conservative meme, researchers say (Newsmax)
Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence operations are pushing a conservative meme related to the investigation of Russian election interference, researchers say. The purported Russian activity involves the hashtag #ReleaseTheMemo, a reference to a secret congressional report about President Donald Trump’s allegations that he was wiretapped by the Obama administration.