The Senate Intelligence Committee is set to release two reports on Monday detailing the breadth of the Russian social media campaign to sow discord in the United States.
Recruiting ‘assets’
CNN obtained one of the reports in advance of its release. That report was prepared by New Knowledge, a firm that tracks disinformation online. New Knowledge found that the IRA’s efforts went beyond the digital, as the group regularly tried to co-opt unsuspecting Americans to complete real-world tasks or hand over their personal information. CNN and other outlets have previously reported on some efforts like this, but others included in the New Knowledge report had not previously been made public.
In one instance, through its page “Army of Jesus,” which was targeting Christians, the group offered “free counseling to people with sexual addiction,” New Knowledge found.
The phony counseling service could have created an opportunity to blackmail or manipulate individuals who availed of it, the report notes.
“Recruiting an asset by exploiting a personal vulnerability — usually a secret that would inspire shame or cause personal or financial harm if exposed — is a timeless espionage practice,” it says.
New Knowledge says that it is not known whether anyone took up the offer of counseling.
CNN has previously reported that the IRA co-opted unsuspecting Americans to coordinate protests in the U. S., in one instance even paying a Florida man to build a cage to bring to an event advocating for the imprisonment of Hillary Clinton.
A shift to Instagram
All of the major social media platforms were used as part of the campaign, the reports said. But New Knowledge found that in 2017, as investigators and reporters began unearthing the Russian social media campaign on the two platforms it used most, Facebook and Twitter, “the IRA shifted much of its activity to Instagram.”
The spread of disinformation on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has received less scrutiny than it has on other platforms.
“The most prolific IRA efforts on Facebook and Instagram specially targeted Black American communities and appear to have been focused on developing Black audiences and recruiting Black Americans as assets,” the report notes.
