They’re the work of bots and trolls, and one of the most skilled countries at deploying them is Russia. During the 2016 presidential election, suspected Russian operators created bots on Twitter to promote hashtags like #WarAgainstDemocrats. Facebook is one common platform for Russian trolls and bots, which, in 2016, used fake accounts to influence U.S. elections. Facebook believes that ads on divisive issues created by Russian trolls were shown to Americans over four million times before the elections. Federal investigators and experts believed Russian trolls created Facebook groups like Blacktivist, which reposted videos of police beatings, or another, Secured Borders, which organized anti-immigrant rallies in real life.

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Persons: Ludmila Savchuk, Ben Nimmo, Savchuk, Hillary Clinton, Melvin Redick, ”, Vladimir Putin Organizations: Twitter, Internet Research Agency, Facebook, Federal, Borders Locations: Russia, St, Petersburg, London, Russian, “, St . Petersburg