Senate report finds millions of social media posts by Russians aimed at helping Trump, GOP

William Cummings, USA TODAY Published 7:55 a.m. ET Dec. 17, 2018 | Updated 8:13 a.m. ET Dec. 17, 2018

WASHINGTON – The Senate intends to publicly release a report Monday that found Russia engaged in an all-out social media campaign on Donald Trump's behalf during the 2016 election and continued to support him after he took office.

The Senate report, compiled by Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project and a social media analysis firm called Graphika, looked at millions of posts on every popular social media platform from Facebook to Pinterest that were provided to the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Washington Post.

The report said those posts used text, videos, memes and pictures in a targeted effort to boost Trump at important moments in the campaign like the debates and conventions, the Post reported. The newspaper said the posts were from "several years up to mid-2017," but more recent activity was not covered by the report.

"What is clear is that all of the messaging clearly sought to benefit the Republican Party – and specifically Donald Trump," the report says, according to the Post. "Trump is mentioned most in campaigns targeting conservatives and right-wing voters, where the messaging encouraged these groups to support his campaign. The main groups that could challenge Trump were then provided messaging that sought to confuse, distract and ultimately discourage members from voting."

more
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/12/17/russia-social-media-senate-report/2334382002/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatodaycomwashington-topstories