The reports, by teams at the cybersecurity company New Knowledge and Oxford University, fill out a portrait of the impressive operations by the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg.
The Senate Intelligence Committee released on Monday two new reports that it commissioned about the Russian campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media platforms during the 2016 election and beyond. The reports, by teams led by experts at the cybersecurity company New Knowledge and Oxford University, fill out a portrait of the impressive operations by the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg.
[Read the New Knowledge and Oxford reports .]
Together, they essentially burnish the résumé of Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, a loyal associate of President Vladimir V. Putin’s, who owns the Internet Research Agency and its multiple corporate siblings.
Americans might be infuriated by what Mr. Prigozhin’s companies are doing, but they’re doing it well.
Here are major takeaways from the reports.
[ Read more coverage and analysis on the reports here.]
The New Knowledge report finds that while “other distinct ethnic and religious groups were the focus of one or two Facebook pages or Instagram accounts, the black community was targeted extensively with dozens.”
Facebook ads were targeted at users who had shown interest in black history, the Black Panther Party and Malcolm X. The most popular of the Russian Instagram accounts was @blackstagram, with 303,663 followers.
On YouTube, the Russians played on police shootings of unarmed black men with channels with names like “Don’t Shoot” and “BlackToLive.”
While most media attention has focused on Facebook pages appealing to the political right, the Russian effort aimed at black Americans was actually larger, reaching almost as many people. Of 81 Facebook pages created by the Internet Research Agency, 30 targeted African-American audiences, amassing 1.2 million followers, the report finds. By comparison, 25 pages targeted the political right and drew 1.4 million followers.
On Monday, both the N. A. C. P. and the Congressional Black Caucus expressed concern about the targeting.
