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[scion]

Mueller bombshell: 13 Russian 'troll factory' staffers charged with allegedly meddling in US presidential election

Ruskies stole citizen IDs to spread discord – indictment

By Shaun Nichols in San Francisco 16 Feb 2018 at 20:03

Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor investigating foreign agents tampering with the 2016 US presidential election, has criminally charged 13 Russian nationals with conspiring against the United States.

A 37-page grand jury indictment, revealed today, named staff at the Internet Research Agency troll factory as conspirators in a plan to "sow discord," and tip the White House race in favor of Donald Trump.

The Russians are accused of stealing or fabricating Americans' identities to open PayPal accounts to purchase controversial attack ads. The agency also created online profiles with hundreds of thousands of followers to spread divisive messages, and coordinated political protests and campaign events, all while posing as legit Americans, it is alleged.

The trolls would use email addresses such as [e-mail] in organizing their efforts to tear the people of the United States apart, it is claimed.
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The charges are the first formal acknowledgement from Mueller of what many had already come to suspect and accept: that troll factories in Russia, with the Kremlin's blessing, had formed in the run-up to the 2016 elections to sow chaos in the US and stir up fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

Both Facebook and Twitter fessed up to taking money from the groups to run ads and promoted content, and Twitter has since admitted that thousands of Russian-controlled bot accounts were spreading propaganda aimed at Americans. ®

PS: Twitter deleted 200,000 tweets posted by Russian trolls, although you can now read them here.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/now-available-more-200-000-deleted-russian-troll-tweets-n844731

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/02/16/mueller_russians_election_indictment/