Facebook, Twitter and Google have now testified before Congress on multiple occasions on the Russian social media election ads.
Russian interference in the U. S. election is no longer just speculation: Special counsel Robert Mueller brought criminal charges against 13 people and three businesses on Feb. 16. His indictment charges the defendants with conducting “information warfare” against the U. S. — predominantly through social media.
Facebook, Twitter, and Google testified before Congress in November on multiple occasions in regards to accounts based in Russia that purchased politically motivated ads leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Since then, social media networks have released some of those ads and shared data on how many users were affected. While the investigation continues into just how much impact those Russian social media election ads may have had, the companies have already uncovered a number of different facts on those ads — here’s what social media users need to know about the data.
On Friday, special counsel Mueller filed charges for conspiracy and identify theft, along with failing to register as foreign agents. The charges also include laws that prohibit foreign funds from being used in U. S. elections. According to the charges, the Russian nationals and businesses pretended to be Americans during the 2016 presidential campaign in activities from social media posts to rallies. The indictment also claims that the Internet Research Agency and other Russian-origin posts also discouraged minorities from even going to the polls.
While social media posts that are part of the investigation supported now President Donald Trump, the indictment doesn’t determine if those social media posts made an actual impact on the election, according to USA Today. Along with using bots and stolen identities, the foreign agents also used groups or social media pages, including one pretending to be associated with Black Lives Matter. The investigation also uncovered an email from one of those 13 nationals, Irina Kaverzina, which says, “I created all these pictures and posts, and the Americans believed it was written by their people.”
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube all have data indicating some political ads leading up to the election were purchased by Russian organizations. Facebook ads had the largest audience, with sponsored posts reaching as many as 126 million Americans (based on estimates from November). The Facebook-owned Instagram also had 120,000 posts with Russian links, though it’s unclear how many users saw those posts.
The reach of Russian trolling ads is also much wider than originally thought. Facebook originally said 3,000 ads were purchased by Russian trolls, with a reach of around 10,000, but now that number is 80,000 ads and a 126-million reach, though that new data also encompasses non-paid posts, images, and events.
On Twitter, at least 2,752 accounts and over 36,000 bots sharing political posts were connected to Russia, the platform shared in November. Twitter says, however, that only 0.74 percent of election-related Tweets came from those accounts, getting just 0.33 percent of impressions out of all the political Tweets between September 1 and November 15,2016.
Google says that one group spent $4,700 on search and display ads during the election, though none of those ads were targeted toward specific states or political interests. YouTube had 1,108 English-language videos from 18 Russian trolling accounts, though not all of those were political and only three percent saw upward of 5,000 views. The company didn’t find any related Google+ ads in English, though there were some written in Russian.
While the impact of the ads isn’t yet fully understood, the ads have already sparked changes that users will begin to see rolling out on social media platforms. Facebook and Twitter will soon start labeling political posts, including who paid for those posts. While ads on TV, radio, and in print are required to have that “paid for by” spiel, ads online and on social media don’t fall under the same regulations. The bi-partisan Honest Ads Act aims to bring online ads up to the same regulations, but it still needs to make it all the way through the law-making process.
While the “paid for by” label will be easy to see, social media companies are also making changes behind the scenes. During its quarterly conference call with investors, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the platform’s efforts to enhance security will cut into the company’s profitability. The company will be doubling the 10,000 employees handling safety and security, along with expanding AI programs for automatically flagging suspicious activity — though that change isn’t just for spotting inauthentic political ads.
Many of the ads had few clues indicating that they came from outside the United States. The names used were often misleading, and the largest group behind those ads is simply called the Internet Research Agency. On Twitter, where usernames can be pretty much anything, one account linked to Russian trolls pretended to be Tennessee Republicans and used the handle @Ten_GOP — and even members of the Trump administration retweeted some posts from that account. Twitter user handles among the list of known troll accounts also included regular names and misspellings of celebrities like “ashleysimpsn.”
The investigation leading to the current charges also uncovered an email where one of those 13 nationals, Irina Kaverzina, wrote, “I created all these pictures and posts, and the Americans believed it was written by their people.”
Not all of the ads targeted the 2016 election directly, but they could have had an effect nonetheless. As the New York Times points out, the Internet Research Agency created Back the Badge and Blacktivists, two groups on opposite sides of the issues during the Black Lives Matters movements. These groups weren’t necessarily election-related but could have been designed to spark chaos and unrest, the Times suggests. Others called for immigration reform and support for the second amendment.
The Internet Research Agency spent $46,000 on Facebook ads, while Trump and Clinton together spent $81 million on the platform. While it’s unclear if other Russian groups were behind some of those other ads, spending by Russian trolls was significantly less than U. S. political groups and candidates.
Advertising reach doesn’t always translate into an exact number of impressions for the same amount spent. When an ad gets more engagements in the form of likes and comments, that ad will reach more people than an ad with the same budget but fewer interactions.
Establishing a number and estimated reach is one thing, but there isn’t a way to determine if (or how many of) those ads actually swayed voters to change their candidate. While the outcome of the Russian interference may never be completely uncovered, some of those ads have already been proven to have led to reactions.
