Russian operatives continue to spread disinformation and divisive content online, but as social media platforms, tech companies, and intelligence experts become more aware of foreign interference efforts, Russian agents invent new ways to disguise their work.
Researchers studying the spread of disinformation on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other platforms say the new, subtler tactics have allowed most of the so-called information operations campaigns to survive purges by the big social media companies and avoid government scrutiny.
“The Russians are definitely not sitting this one out,” said Graham Brookie, director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. “They have adapted over time to increased (U.S.) focus on influence operations.”
In fact, on election eve, Facebook announced it blocked more than 100 suspicious accounts first detected by U.S. law enforcement.
Our very early-stage investigation has so far identified around 30 Facebook accounts and 85 Instagram accounts that may be engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior. We immediately blocked these accounts and are now investigating them in more detail. Almost all the Facebook Pages associated with these accounts appear to be in the French or Russian languages, while the Instagram accounts seem to have mostly been in English — some were focused on celebrities, others political debate.
Typically, we would be further along with our analysis before announcing anything publicly. But given that we are only one day away from important elections in the US, we wanted to let people know about the action we’ve taken and the facts as we know them today.
Once we know more — including whether these accounts are linked to the Russia-based Internet Research Agency or other foreign entities — we will update this post.
The announcement comes as Facebook remains under pressure to purge bots and other foreign actors intent on undermining the U.S. political system from its platforms. Last month, Facebook removed more than 800 pages and accounts that were spreading misinformation seeking to influence public opinion on both the right and left sides of the aisle.
On Monday, the FBI, in a joint statement with the Department of Homeland Security, Justice Department and Director of National Intelligence, said the agencies had “no indication of compromise of our nation’s election infrastructure that would prevent voting, change vote counts, or disrupt the ability to tally votes.”
“But Americans should be aware that foreign actors — and Russia in particular — continue to try to influence public sentiment and over perceptions through actions intended to sow discord,” the agencies said. “They can do this by spreading false information about political processes and candidates, lying about their own interference activities, disseminating propaganda on social media, and through other tactics.”
Experts say foreign actors now are spending more time spreading homegrown divisive content and disinformation rather than creating it from scratch.
“We’ve done a lot research on fake news and people are getting better at figuring out what it is, so it’s become less effective as a tactic,” said Priscilla Moriuchi, a former National Security Agency official who is now a threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future threat manager.
Instead, Russian accounts have been amplifying stories and internet “memes” that initially came from the U.S. far left or far right. Such postings seem more authentic, are harder to identify as foreign, and are easier to produce than made-up stories.
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Though jumping on existing bandwagons is easier than what Russia did in 2016, other new tactics have been more complex.
In the October indictment and an earlier operation uncovered by Facebook, records showed that the instigators used Facebook’s Messenger service to try to get others to buy advertisements for them and to recruit American radicals to promote real-world protests.
Those moves allowed the Russians to evade strengthened detection systems and blend in with the crowd.
“They are baiting Americans to drive more polarizing and vitriolic content,” Brookie said. “Any given solution needs to focus on basing our politics on facts, first and foremost, and to focus on what holds our country closer together.”
Russia seen adopting new tactics in U.S. election interference efforts (Reuters)
Election Update (Facebook newsroom)