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Catching up: there was an interesting Kremlin reaction to the #MuellerReport on election interference.
Basic arguments:
- there was no interference;
- the interference had no effect;
- Mueller didn't provide evidence.
Analysis here for @DFRLab: medium.com/dfrlab/russian…
Basic arguments:
- there was no interference;
- the interference had no effect;
- Mueller didn't provide evidence.
Analysis here for @DFRLab: medium.com/dfrlab/russian…
On impact, first of all: it's an important question, and a complex one to answer. Discussion of the impact of interference in the link below.
But it's irrelevant to the question of whether there was an +attempt+ to interfere.
A distraction, in fact.
medium.com/dfrlab/electio…
But it's irrelevant to the question of whether there was an +attempt+ to interfere.
A distraction, in fact.
medium.com/dfrlab/electio…
Did the #MuellerReport provide evidence? Well, yes. A lot was in the redacted sections, but there's enough there to be able to check it against other sources, such as the ads @Facebook attributed to the Russian operation. 
... which means that RT's claim of "no actual evidence" fails to take into account the, um, evidence.
More broadly, there's plenty of evidence to show an attempt at election interference from Russia, including those linked to the Russian state, in the US.
Let's start with @Twitter, and over 9 million tweets that they traced back to the troll farm.
about.twitter.com/en_us/values/e…
Let's start with @Twitter, and over 9 million tweets that they traced back to the troll farm.
about.twitter.com/en_us/values/e…
On @Facebook, there's the archive of ads the troll farm ran, now released by house Democrats.
intelligence.house.gov/social-media-c…
intelligence.house.gov/social-media-c…
If you want to know about the Russian phone number which registered @TEN_GOP, allegedly the "unofficial Twitter of Tennessee Republicans," there's this:
From Russia, after the first wave of takedowns but before the accounts were publicly named, there's this list of troll factory accounts, from RBC.
On hacking, there's the work of @CrowdStrike and @ThreatConnect, plus internal investigations by Facebook (which identified "Alice Donovan" as an important node) and Bitly.
cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/image…
cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/image…
Worth bearing in mind that the platforms have access to data which open-source researchers don't, ranging from IP address and phone number to the currency of ad payments, so their attributions carry weight.
Upsum: there's plenty of evidence for the attempt at interference, from multiple sources, both in the US and in Russia (h/t @Soshnikoff).
You can debate how much it achieved, but denying it happened goes against the evidence.
You can debate how much it achieved, but denying it happened goes against the evidence.
