Russian Twitter Disinformation Campaigns Reach Across the American Political Spectrum

Deen Freelon, Tetyana Lokot

Harvard Kennedy Misinformation Review

(In)Equity, Digital Infrastructures

Identity, Race, Twitter

Political content from Russian trolls appears crafted to exploit intergroup distrust and enmity - on both sides of the aisle

Evidence from an analysis of Twitter data reveals that Russian social media trolls exploited racial and political identities to infiltrate distinct groups of authentic users, playing on their group identities. The groups affected spanned the ideological spectrum, suggesting the importance of coordinated counter-responses from diverse coalitions of users.