The Russian connectionRussian-operated bots posted millions of social media posts, fake stories during Brexit referendum
More than 156,000 Twitter accounts, operated by Russian government disinformation specialists, posted nearly 45,000 messages in support of the “Leave” campaign, urging British voters to vote for Brexit – that is, for Britain to leave the European Union. Researchers compared 28.6 million Russian tweets in support of Brexit to ~181.6 million Russian tweets in support of the Trump campaign, and found close similarity in tone and tactics in the Russian government’s U.K. and U.S. efforts. In both cases, the Russian accounts posted divisive, polarizing messages and fake stories aiming to raise fears about Muslims and immigrants. The goal was to sow discord; intensify rancor and animosity along racial, ethnic, and religious lines; and deepen political polarization — not only to help create a public climate more receptive to the populist, protectionist, nationalist, and anti-Muslim thrust of both Brexit and the Trump campaigns, but also to deepen societal and cultural fault lines and fractures in the United Kingdom and the United States, thus contributing to the weakening of both societies from within.
More than 156,000 Twitter accounts, operated by Russian government disinformation specialists, posted nearly 45,000 messages in English in support of the “Leave” campaign, urging British voters to vote for Brexit – that is, for Britain to leave the European Union.
The researchers compared two broad social media campaigns by the Kremlin – the first in support of Brexit, the second in support of Donald Trump’s presidential bid. After screening, the researchers’ dataset for the EU referendum contained about 28.6 million tweets, while the sample for the U.S. presidential election contained ~181.6 million tweets.
In a report – titled “Social media, sentiment and public opinions: Evidence from #Brexit and #USElection” – which was released last Wednesday, data scientists from Swansea University and the University of California, Berkeley found that hundreds of the Russian government accounts which participated in the pro-Brexit campaign, also participated in the Russian government’s campaign to help Trump win the U.S. presidency.
Twitter, in information it provided to congressional investigators, also identified these accounts as tools of the Kremlin.
“The separate findings amount to the strongest evidence yet of a Russian attempt to use social media to manipulate British politics in the same way the Kremlin has done in the United States, France and elsewhere,” says a New York Times report.
Techcrunch writes that “You do have to wonder whether Brexit wasn’t something of a dry run disinformation campaign for Russian bots ahead of the U.S. election a few months later.”
The Russian government’s disinformation campaign in support of Brexit was similar in tone and tactics to the Russian government’s disinformation campaign in support of Trump. In both cases, the Russian accounts posted divisive, polarizing messages and fake stories aiming to raise fears about Muslims and immigrants. The goal was to sow discord; intensify rancor and animosity along racial, ethnic, and religious lines; and deepen political polarization. The purpose of the Kremlin’s campaign was not only to help create a public climate more receptive to the populist, protectionist, nationalist, and anti-Muslim thrust of both Brexit and the Trump campaigns – in the United States, Russia’s pro-Trump effort was more explicitly racist and nativist in tone — but also to deepen societal and cultural fault lines and fractures in the United Kingdom and the United States, thus contributing to the weakening of both societies from within.