The Russia connectionRussian interference: Far, wide, ongoing, and successful
Thanks to the bipartisan, exhaustive work of the Senate Intelligence Committee, we now know more about Russia’s broad, sustained effort to help Donald Trump win the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. This effort was similar to Russia’s interference campaign in more than two dozen other countries, aiming to bring to power – or increase the power of – leaders, parties, and movements who would be more accommodating toward Russia’s interests. Here is how the U.S. media covered the two important reports written based on material gathered by the Intel Committee.
Thanks to the bipartisan, exhaustive work of the Senate Intelligence Committee, we now know more about Russia’s broad, sustained effort to help Donald Trump win the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. This effort was similar to Russia’s interference campaign in more than two dozen other countries, aiming to bring to power – or increase the power of – leaders, parties, and movements who would be more accommodating toward Russia’s interests (see “Report details two decades of Putin’s attacks on democracy, U.S. vulnerability to Kremlin’s interference,” HSNW, 11 January 2018).
Two reports, prepared for and released by the Senate Intelligence Committee, show Russia’s effort to interfere in and influence the 2016 presidential campaign to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump were far-reaching and included intentional efforts to suppress the African American vote, erode trust in the media, and promote WikiLeaks.
They also found social media companies have been less helpful and less forthcoming than they have claimed.
CNBC:
Once it became clear that social media platforms played a key role in the election, researchers from both reports said, tech companies did as little they could to comply with researcher’s requests.
CNN:
The reports, both commissioned by the committee, are based on troves of data Facebook, Twitter, and Google handed over to the committee about the Russian campaign to influence the 2016 US presidential election. Much of the data has not previously been disclosed publicly.
The first report — by Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project and Graphika, a network analysis firm — offers new details of how Russians working at the Internet Research Agency, which U.S. officials have charged with criminal offenses for interfering in the 2016 campaign, sliced Americans into key interest groups for targeted messaging. These efforts shifted over time, peaking at key political moments, such as presidential debates or party conventions, the report found.
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