NBC News is publishing its database of more than 200,000 tweets that Twitter has tied to "malicious activity" from Russia-linked accounts during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
These accounts, working in concert as part of large networks, pushed hundreds of thousands of inflammatory tweets, from fictitious tales of Democrats practicing witchcraft to hardline posts from users masquerading as Black Lives Matter activists. Investigators have traced the accounts to a Kremlin-linked propaganda outfit founded in 2013 known as the Internet Research Association (IRA). The organization has been assessed by the U.S. Intelligence Community to be part of a Russian state-run effort to influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential race. And they're not done.
"There should be no doubt that Russia perceives its past efforts as successful and views the 2018 US midterm elections as a potential target for Russian influence operations," Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday.
"The Russians utilize this tool because it's relatively cheap, it's low risk, it offers what they perceive as plausible deniability and it's proven to be effective at sowing division," he told the annual hearing on worldwide threats. "We expect Russia to continue using propaganda, social media, false flag personas, sympathetic spokesmen, and other means of influence to try to build on its wide range of operations and exacerbate social and political fissures in the United States."
“Frankly, the United States is under attack,” he said.
The depth of this problem is still being understood. In January, Twitter emailed nearly 700,000 users to tell them they may have engaged with the Russian accounts. Less than two weeks later, Twitter announced the number of users notified had more than doubled.
Twitter said it has a "commitment to transparency" and has handed over to Congress a list of 3,814 account names it connected to the IRA. Twitter has since suspended those accounts.
But when Twitter suspends accounts, it deletes their tweets from public view and demands that third parties using its data delete the tweets, too.
Experts say the social media network shouldn't apply the same policies to gadget spammers as to evidence of foreign election interference.
"Twitter's knee jerk reaction is to purge," said David Carroll, an associate professor of media design at the New School. "What it does is erase history in an almost Orwellian way."
At the request of NBC News, three sources familiar with Twitter's data systems cross-referenced the partial list of names released by Congress to create a partial database of tweets that could be recovered. The sources asked to remain anonymous to avoid any politicization of their work or being identified as possibly violating Twitter's developer policy. ... more https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/now-available-more-200-000-deleted-russian-troll-tweets-n844731
“WASN’T I A GREAT CANDIDATE?”: INSIDE MAR-A-LAGO, TRUMP BURNS AS MUELLER BRINGS MORE CHARGES
In a remarkable barrage of tweets, Trump attacked everybody but Russia for the fallout over the 2016 election. “They are laughing their asses off in Moscow,” he complained, while accusing his enemies of a witch hunt against him.
equestered at Mar-a-Lago and without his usual golf outing to sustain him, Donald Trump spent much of the past 24 hours venting his frustrations with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, following indictments against 13 Russians accused of meddling in the 2016 election. In more than a dozen messages beginning Saturday afternoon and continuing into the night, Trump railed against the F.B.I., Democrats, General H.R. McMaster, the media, Barack Obama, and, naturally, Hillary Clinton. “If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams,” Trump tweeted Sunday morning, while claiming that he had never denied Russia’s involvement. “They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!”
Of course, Trump has repeatedly denied that Russia assisted his election, as Mueller’s indictment alleges, and continued to do so over the weekend. “There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election,” Trump said in one tweet. In another, he accused the “Fake News Media” of ignoring the fact that the Russian disinformation campaign had begun before he announced his candidacy. A few minutes later, he tweeted again, pointing to comments from a Facebook advertising executive who suggested the main purpose of the Russian campaign was to divide Americans, not to sway the election.
At no point did Trump say anything critical about the Russian agents who had launched the attack on America’s electoral and media institutions, or about Russia itself, which continues to conduct cyber war against the United States. Instead, later Saturday night, the president excoriated the F.B.I., saying the bureau failed to stop a recent mass shooting at a local high school because it was too focused on Russia. “Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter,” he wrote. “They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!”
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!
4:08 AM - Feb 18, 2018
Shortly before midnight, he tweeted again, chiding his National Security Adviser for disparaging Russia rather than Clinton, and describing a series of incidents and issues he believes represent the true threat against America. “General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems. Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!”
Hours later, after waking up Sunday morning, he thought of one more:
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump Never gotten over the fact that Obama was able to send $1.7 Billion Dollars in CASH to Iran and nobody in Congress, the FBI or Justice called for an investigation!
He then turned his wrath toward Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, the “leakin’ monster of no control,“ who often appears on CNN to discuss the White House’s inner workings. “He is finally right about something. Obama was President, knew of the threat [from Russia], and did nothing. Thank you Adam!”
The remarkable series of tweets evokes a man backed into a corner. Although the president and his allies have maintained that nobody on the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, many insiders within his orbit have expressed worries that Mueller’s probe will lead to more indictments. Already, the special counsel has leveled charges against Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort; Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates; former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn; and foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos. While Manafort and Gates have pleaded not guilty, Flynn and Papadopoulos have made arrangements to cooperate with prosecutors, and Gates is believed to be negotiating for a deal. Mueller has interviewed dozens of Trump’s aides and allies, including Hope Hicks, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, and others with direct knowledge of the campaign, and is believed to be particularly interested in a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer peddling damaging information about Clinton. Legal experts have suggested Mueller appears to be building a case of obstruction of justice, whether or not he also finds evidence of underlying crimes.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said “it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer.” The Russian “hoax” was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia - it never did!
12:33 PM - Feb 18, 2018
Mueller’s latest indictment says that some of accused Russians communicated with “unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign”—language that is currently giving comfort to some in Trump’s inner circle. But the words Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein chose in describing the indictment should still worry the president: “There is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity.” That leaves the door open to future indictments—potentially implicating Trump’s associates or even Trump himself.
Trump, who sees the Russia investigation as an attempt to delegitimize his presidency, seems determined to undermine Mueller, the F.B.I., and other elements of the Justice Department in anticipation of that possibility. It has also left him wounded, as he obsesses over his treatment on cable news, from within his palatial Palm Beach estate. “Now that Adam Schiff is starting to blame President Obama for Russian meddling in the election, he is probably doing so as yet another excuse that the Democrats, lead [sic] by their fearless leader, Crooked Hillary Clinton, lost the 2016 election,” he fumed Sunday morning. “But wasn’t I a great candidate?”
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