Twitter alerts nearly 700,000 users exposed to Russian trolls during 2016 race

Twitter has begun notifying nearly 700,000 users who engaged with accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian “troll farm” accused of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election as part of an alleged state-sponsored interference campaign.

“As part of our recent work to understand Russian-linked activities on Twitter during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, we identified and suspended a number of accounts that were potentially connected to a propaganda effort by a Russian government-linked organization known as the Internet Research Agency,” Twitter said in an email sent to certain users Saturday.

“Consistent with our commitment to transparency, we are emailing you because we have reason to believe that you either followed one of these accounts or retweeted or liked content from these accounts during the election period,” the notice said. “This is purely for your own information purposes, and is not related to a security concern for your account.”

Twitter on Friday said it would send the notice to 677,775 users in the United States.

Precisely one year after President Trump entered office, Twitter’s warning came as social media companies continue to examine how their platforms were exploited prior to his election as part of a multi-faceted interference campaign allegedly authorized by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Russian government used professional hackers, propagandists and paid social media users or “trolls” to disrupt the 2016 race, U.S. officials concluded previously, and social-media companies including Twitter and Facebook subsequently determined that the IRA used their platforms to peddle disinformation.

Twitter last year identified and suspended 2,752 accounts operated by the IRA, but Democratic lawmakers investigating Russia’s involvement in the race have pressed the company for additional information in recent weeks with merely 10 months to go until the 2018 midterms.

In an update Friday, Twitter said it recently discovered an additional 1,062 troll accounts that have since been suspended, bringing the grand total of IRA-linked accounts to over 3,800.

“In total, during the time period we investigated, the 3,814 identified IRA-linked accounts posted 175,993 Tweets, approximately 8.4 percent of which were election-related,” Twitter said.

Twitter did not specify which accounts were flagged, and their content is no longer publicly available since the accounts were suspended.

Additionally the investigation identified 13,512 additional automated Twitter accounts, or “bots,” linked to Russia’s alleged election meddling, for a total of 50,258, Twitter said.

“Even as we continue to learn from the events of the 2016 U.S. election, we are taking steps every day to improve the security of our platform and stay one step ahead of those who would abuse it,” Twitter said in a statement. “We are committed to ensuring that Twitter is safe and secure for all users and serves to advance healthy civic discussion and engagement. Our work on these issues will never be done, and we will continue in our efforts to protect Twitter against bad actors and networks of malicious automation and manipulation.”

Russia has denied meddling in the 2016 race.

Twitter was hardly the only social media platform exploited by professional trolls during the 2016 election; Facebook previously found that the IRA was responsible for some 80,000 posts published between 2015 and 2017, including over 3,000 advertisements addressing various social and political issues.

Last week, meanwhile, Facebook said it was reconsidering whether Russian trolls used its platform to influence the results of last year’s so-called “Brexit” referendum.