How Russians use social media to divide Americans

"Twitter may have been used even more extensively than Facebook in the Russian influence campaign last year," the N.Y. Times' Daisuke Wakabayashi and Scott Shane report on A1:

• What's new: "In addition to Russia-linked Twitter accounts that posed as Americans, the platform was also used for large-scale automated messaging, using 'bot' accounts to spread false stories and promote news articles about emails from Democratic operatives that had been obtained by Russian hackers."
• How it happened: "Unlike Facebook, the service does not require its users to provide their real name (or at least a facsimile of one) and allows automated accounts."
• Why it matters: "Twitter has said almost nothing about what it knows about Russia's use of its platform."
• What's next: Twitter today will brief staff of the Senate and House intelligence committees.

Be smart: Conservatives on the Hill are hungry to go after Big Tech.There's an irony: The evidence points to the platforms helping Trump. But the Russian revelations clearly add to the companies' regulatory and legislative vulnerability.

Go deeper:

• "How Russians use social media to divide Americans," by Axios' Sara Fischer and David McCabe.
• "What to expect in Twitter's Russia probe briefing," by Axios' David McCabe.

Source Axios
http://footprintsstrategies.com