The Russian Troll Farm That Weaponized Facebook Had American Boots on the Ground
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The St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency—the same Kremlin-linked troll farm that placed thousands of ads on Facebook—also had boots on the ground. Russian trolls from the “American Department” of the Internet Research Agency duped American activists into taking real action via protests and self-defense trainings, BuzzFeed News reports, in what would seem to be a further attempt to exploit racial grievances. Taken together with Russians’ efforts to infiltrate social-media platforms, make contact with campaign officials, and hack into campaign databases, this is the latest evidence that Russia’s cyber campaign to disrupt the U.S. election was far broader and more wide-ranging than previously thought.
The troll farm’s targets seem to primarily have been black activists. In May 2016, Occupy Wall Street co-founder Micah White was approached several times by Yan Big Davis, a man who claimed to be a freelance reporter. Davis said he wrote for a Web site called BlackMattersUS, which focused “mostly on racism and police brutality themes” and which, Russian news outlet RBC reports, is linked to the Internet Research Agency. (The BlackMattersUS Web site is still up, though its Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter pages have since been suspended.)
Another activist, Conrad James, says he received a message in September 2016 after the death of Keith Lamont Scott, a black man who was shot by police in Charlotte, North Carolina. The BlackMattersUS Facebook page reached out to him directly. “I thought it was a knockoff of Black Lives Matter,” he said, adding that it “looked legit.” James ended up organizing two rallies for BlackMattersUS; the second took place in October 2016 as part of a set of national protests coordinated with groups like the A.C.L.U. and the N.A.A.C.P. James had no idea he’d been duped by a Russian troll farm until he was contacted by reporters.
Somewhat bizarrely, the Russians also contacted activists like M.M.A. fighter Omowale Adewale about self-defense training. The troll farm established a self-defense group, Black Fist, whose Web site reads, “Be ready to protect your rights . . . Let them know that Black Power Matters.” After being approached by a man named Taylor on Instagram in January 2017 about holding classes, Adewale started to train a small group. The classes increased in size and frequency as Taylor advertised them through Facebook ads, but they stopped in May when Taylor cut off communication with Adewale altogether.
Though most Russian efforts unveiled thus far seem to have been aimed at weaponizing the far right, the existence of BlackMattersUS indicates Russian agents were equally motivated to infiltrate the far left in order to amplify partisan divides that would simultaneously energize Trump’s base and disillusion Hillary’s. Last month, the Daily Beast reported that the same group of Russian agents that organized pro-Trump rallies in the U.S. also impersonated a U.S.-based Muslim nonprofit organization for more than one year on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, in an attempt to fuel divisions. Evidence linking those efforts directly to the Kremlin is mounting; U.S. officials believe that Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, owns a company that is believed to provide financial support for the Internet Research Agency. CNN reports that in 2013, the agency had a monthly budget of $1 million. One of its departments, the “Department of Provocations,” has the following mission: “how do we create news items to achieve our goals.”
This story originally appeared on Vanity Fair.
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