The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has released a second volume of findings from analysis of Russia’s efforts to use social media to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Vice Chairman Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) recently released a new report titled Russia’s Use of Social Media.
“Russia is waging an information warfare campaign against the U.S. that didn’t start and didn’t end with the 2016 election,” Burr said. “Their goal is broader: to sow societal discord and erode public confidence in the machinery of government. By flooding social media with false reports, conspiracy theories, and trolls, and by exploiting existing divisions, Russia is trying to breed distrust of our democratic institutions and our fellow Americans.”
Burr said while Russia may have been the first to hone the modern disinformation tactics outlined in this report, they are not the only ones doing it. The report notes that China, North Korea, and Iran are following suit.
“The bipartisan work that this Committee has done to uncover and detail the extent of that effort has significantly advanced the public’s understanding of how, in 2016, Russia took advantage of our openness and innovation, exploiting American-bred social media platforms to spread disinformation, divide the public, and undermine our democracy,”
Warner said.
The breakdown revealed the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency (IRA)
sought to influence the 2016 presidential election by harming Hillary Clinton’s chances of success and supporting Donald Trump at the direction of the Kremlin. It also found that the IRA targeted African-Americans more than any other group or demographic and engaged with unwitting Americans to further its reach beyond the digital realm and into real-world activities.