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1/ Another wedge issue Russian trolls tried to amplify: the anti-vaccine debate (if you can call it a debate). Here’s a study about it ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.21…
2/ The trolls were creative. An early tweet, from Dec. 30, 2014, by a user called @darknally, set the stage: “The vaccine mafia is upping the foke stakes in its endless war against free thinking and personal choice.”
“Vaccine mafia”? Is that a thing?
“Vaccine mafia”? Is that a thing?
3/ The attack coalesced around a February 2015 tweet from @HillaryClinton:
4/ First, they amped news of her tweet (from a divisive angle) 
5/ Then, they launched their attack. For reasons beyond me, they centered it on the hashtag #VaccinateUS.
6/ Here’s the big picture. See how they were really responding to Clinton’s tweet? I think this shows that even when the trolls weren’t directly mentioning a U.S. presidential candidate, their messages still aimed to influence the election.
7/ As always, here’s our story on Russian troll disinfo campaigns from earlier this year wsj.com/graphics/russi… (Russia has denied trying to influence the election)
