Experts tracking how Russians used Twitter to interfere in the U.S. presidential election say foreign nationals may have used the social media platform even more extensively than they did Facebook.
According to The New York Times, Russian influence operations not only set up fake Twitter accounts but also exploited Twitter's automation functionality to create bots that would "spread false stories and promote news articles about emails from Democratic operatives that had been obtained by Russian hackers."
Twitter bots are a longstanding problem for the platform, and the NYT says an online black market offers services that allow one person to control a large number of fake accounts all at once.
The Alliance for Securing Democracy's Disinformation Dashboard shows how Russians continue to manipulate U.S. social and cultural divides on Twitter. The dashboard tracks 600 known Russian-linked accounts. As President Trump sparked a national conversation about NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem, the Russian-linked accounts tackled the issue too, posting on both sides of the debate.
Twitter has not indicated what it plans to tell Congress Thursday, simply releasing a statement that reads as follows:
“Twitter deeply respects the integrity of the election process, a cornerstone of all democracies, and will continue to strengthen our platform against bots and other forms of manipulation that violate our Terms of Service."