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Russia's 2016 election meddling more comprehensive than realized
![Russian 2016 Influence Operation Targeted African-Americans on Social Media]()
The Russian influence campaign on social media in the 2016 election made an extraordinary effort to target African-Americans, used an array of tactics to try to suppress turnout among Democratic voters and unleashed a blizzard of activity on Instagram that rivaled or exceeded its posts on Facebook Russian 2016 Influence Operation Targeted African-Americans on Social Media
Two new reports on Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections are shedding more light on the size and scope of the campaign, showing it was far more extensive and thorough than previously understood.
The reports also support conclusions by the U.S. intelligence community — and published in an unclassified January 2017 report — that the goal of all of Russia's meddling in the months leading up to the 2016 elections was to get their preferred candidate elected president of the United States.
"What is clear is that all of the messaging clearly sought to benefit the Republican Party and specifically Donald Trump," according to the report by Oxford University's Computational Propaganda Project and network analysis firm Graphika.
The findings, as first reported by the Washington Post, said Russians working for a group called the Internet Research Agency (IRA) began experimenting with social media to influence local elections in 2009 and expanded its operations to U.S. elections in 2013 using Twitter.
It gradually added other popular social media sites to its campaign, including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, using race and social issues such as gun rights, immigration and police brutality to sow division and discontent.
