How Russia's 'troll factory' promotes free arms sales to the United States

The Russian “troll factory,” which Washington believes was active in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, promoted a consensus on gun rights in America—a rare example of consistency in a scheme that largely sought to exacerbate disagreements between opponents.

Фото: Depositphotos

On everything from race to health care, women's rights to police brutality, gay marriage to global warming, Twitter accounts associated with the so-called Internet Research Agency have tried to amplify the controversy, writes National public radio. Except when it came to weapons and the National Rifle Association of the United States.

All of this found a new analysis of millions of recently deleted Twitter messages, conducted by the National Public Radio in collaboration with an external analyst firm. Last year, Twitter notified the Senate Commission of thousands of accounts associated with the Internet Research Agency; The social network has deleted millions of tweets associated with these accounts.

But Clemson University professors Darren Linville and Patrick Warren found out that one of Clemson's research laboratories had accidentally archived tweets. This made it possible to keep an archive of Russian online operations for the period from 2012 to 2018 a year, most of the tweets were published from 2015 to 2017 a year.

They provided National Public Radio with a list of publications made by the Agency related to guns and the National Rifle Association.

Scale

Of the accounts that talked about guns, 60% were pro gun control and the National Rifle Association, while only 15% were against it. In content produced by The Agency that mentioned firearms, pistols, the Second Amendment or the National Rifle Association, 77% of tweets were also in favor of allowing free sales.

To illustrate the reach of posts, analysts calculated total potential engagement—the number of followers an account has multiplied by the number of tweets. Pro-Association and gun posts received more than 32,4 million potential “impressions,” while anti-gun posts received less than 6,7 million. The difference is almost five times.

All parties for weapons

Linville and Warren classified accounts associated with the "Agency" as "left" and "right." The left has hailed former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick as a hero, for example, for taking a knee during the national anthem to protest police treatment of African-Americans. Or they supported the Black Lives Matter movement and corresponded about Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.

Right-wing accounts spoke of Kaepernick as an unpatriotic citizen, supported pro-police messages like #BlueLivesMatter, and praised Trump's ability to "drain the swamp." However, many accounts that purported to represent leftists who supported Black Lives Matter or were anti-police also supported gun rights.

Close associations

Analysis of the data showed that the Internet Research Agency literally copied propaganda publications of the National Gun Association. Additionally, these accounts generated tweets that mentioned @NRA, @NRANEWS, or @NRAILA a total of 199 times.

Photo: Twitter

A clear semantic relationship was established between the messages of the “Agency” and the Association - they wrote on the same topics, regularly raising the issue of legalizing weapons, scaling it within a state or even a city, criticizing local laws, especially in areas with strict restrictions. Both have often noted that strict bans do not prevent shootings in America.

Local look

According to the court, the Agency's propaganda campaign was carried out by the Russians from an office in St. Petersburg. How did they know exactly how to define their political strategy and properly direct criticism of gun issues in places like Tehama County, California?

“The detail would be much more precise and effective if you had someone in the United States,” says Steve Hall, the retired head of the CIA's Russian operations division. “If I were a Russian intelligence officer, I would immediately tell my colleagues: “Listen, we need some Americans to advise us on what to do and how to exert influence.”

Personal contacts were also established between the Russian government and the National Shooting Association of the United States. Russian woman Maria Butina and her mentor, Russian politician Alexander Torshin, worked to develop connections at the highest levels of the Association. Butina is arrested and charged with being an unregistered foreign agent; Torshin came under sanctions and cannot return to the United States.

Some Internet Research Agency accounts corresponded with Torshin on Twitter. At least 10 tweets from eight accounts were sent to him. In some cases, Torshin wrote himself. In one of the messages, the “Agency” sent him holiday congratulations, in another he quoted a poem by Mikhail Lermontov in Russian: “An oak leaf has torn off from its native branch. And he rolled off into the steppe, driven by a fierce storm.”

Read also on ForumDaily:

The Atlantic: Russia recruits neo-Nazis, radicals and bikers for sabotage in the US and Europe

Russian 'troll factory' accused of fueling controversy over the dangers of vaccinations in the United States

How do trolls and bots associated with Russia take advantage of the closure of the US government 

Washington Post told how the Russian "factory of trolls" covered the annexation of the Crimea

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