Thread by @MuellerRepTweet

IRA subdivided the Translator Dept into different responsibilities, ranging from oeprations on different social media platforms to analytics to graphics and IT.

[redacted: HOM]

#MuellerReport
V1 p19-20

IRA employees also traveled to the United States on intelligence-gathering missions.

In June 2014, four IRA employees applied to the US Dept of State to enter the US, while lying about the purpose of their trip and claiming to be four friends who had met at a party.

V1 p21

[redacted: HOM]

Ultimately, two IRA employees-Anna Bogacheva and Aleksandra Krylova received visas and entered the US on June 4, 2014.

Prior to traveling, Krylova and Bogacheva compiled itineraries and instructions for the trip.

[redacted: HOM]

#MuellerReport
V1 p21

2. U.S. Operations Through IRA-Controlled Social Media Accounts Dozens of IRA employees were responsible for operating accounts and personas on
different U.S. social media platforms.

The IRA referred to employees assigned to operate the social media accounts as "specialists."

Starting as early as 2014, the IRA' s U.S. operations included social media specialists focusing on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

The IRA later added specialists who operated on Tumblr and Instagram accounts.

#MuellerReport
V1 p22

Initially, the IRA created social media accounts that pretended to be the personal accounts of US persons.

By early 2015, the IRA began to create larger social media groups or public
social media pages that claimed (falsely) to be affiliated with US political and grassroots orgs

In certain cases, the IRA created accounts that mimicked real U.S. organizations.

For example, one IRA-controlled Twitter account, @ TEN_GOP, purported to be connected to the Tennessee Republican Party.

#MuellerReport
V1 p22

More commonly, the IRA created accounts in the names of fictitious US organizations and grassroots groups and used these accounts to pose as antiimmigration groups, Tea Party activists, Black Lives Matter protestors, and other U.S. social and political activists.

The IRA closely monitored the activity of its social media accounts.

[redacted: Harm to Ongoing Matter]

#MuellerReport
V1 p22

By Feb 16, internal IRA docs referred to support for the Trump Campaign and opposition to candidate Clinton.

For example [red'd] directions to IRA operators [red'd]

"Main idea: use any opportunity to criticize Clinton and the rest (except Sanders and Trump - we support them)"

The focus on the U.S. presidential campaign continued throughout 2016.

In 2016 [redacted] internal [redacted] reviewing the IRA-controlled Facebook group "Secured Borders," the author

#MuellerReport
V1 p23

criticized the "lower number of posts dedicated to criticizing Hillary Clinton" and reminded the Facebook specialist "it is imperative to intensify criticizing Hillary Clinton."

#MuellerReport
V1 p24

IRA employees also acknowledged that their work focused on influencing the US presidential election.

[redacted: Harm to Ongoing Matter]

#MuellerReport
V1 p24

3. US Operations Through Facebook

Many IRA operations used @facebook accounts created and operated by its specialists.

[HOM]

#MuellerReport
V1 p24

IRA Facebook groups active during the 2016 campaign covered a range of political issues and included purported conservative groups (with names such as "Being Patriotic," "Stop All Immigrants," "Secured Borders," and "Tea Party News"),

#MuellerReport
V1 p25

purported Black social justice groups ("Black Matters," "Blacktivist," and "Don't Shoot Us"), LGBTQ groups ("LGBT United"), and religious groups ("United Muslims of America").

Throughout 2016, IRA accounts published an increasing number of materials supporting the Trump Campaign

and opposing the Clinton Campaign.

For example, on May 31, 2016, the operational account "Matt Skiber" began to privately message dozens of pro-Trump Facebook groups asking them to help plan a "pro-Trump rally near Trump Tower."

#MuellerReport
V1 p25

To reach larger U.S. audiences, the IRA purchased advertisements from Facebook that promoted the IRA groups on the newsfeeds of U.S. audience members.

According to Facebook, the IRA purchased over 3,500 advertisements, and the expenditures totaled approximately $100,000.

During the US presidential campaign, many IRA-purchased advertisements explicitly supported or opposed a presidential candidate or promoted US rallies organized by the IRA (discussed below).

As early as Mar 2016, the IRA purchased ads that overtly opposed the Clinton Campaign.

For example, on March 18, 2016, the IRA purchased an advertisement depicting candidate Clinton and a caption that read in part,

"If one day God lets this liar enter the White House as a president - that day would be a real national tragedy."

#MuellerReport
V1 p25

Similarly, on April 6, 2016, the IRA purchased advertisements for its account "Black Matters" calling for a "flashmob" of U.S. persons to "take a photo with # HillaryClintonForPrison2016 or # nohillary2016."

IRA-purchased ads featuring Clinton were, with very few exceptions, negative.

IRA-purchased ads referencing candidate Trump largely supported his campaign.

The first known IRA ad explicitly endorsing the Trump Campaign was purchased on April 19, 2016.

#MuellerReport
V1 p25

The IRA bought an advertisement for its Instagram account "Tea Party News" asking U.S. persons to help them "make a patriotic team of young Trump supporters" by uploading photos with the hashtag "# KIDS4TRUMP."

#MuellerReport
V1 p25

In subsequent months, the IRA purchased dozens of advertisements supporting the Trump Campaign, predominantly through the Facebook groups "Being Patriotic," "Stop All Invaders," and "Secured Borders."

#MuellerReport
V1 p25

Collectively, the IRA's social media accounts reached tens of millions of U.S. persons.

Individual IRA social media accounts attracted hundreds of thousands of followers.

#MuellerReport
V1 p26

For ex, at the time they were deactivated..

IRA's "United Muslims of America" group had > 300,000 followers,

the "Don't Shoot Us" group had > 250,000 followers,

the "Being Patriotic" group had > 200,000 followers and

the "Secured Borders" group had > 130,000 followers.

According to Facebook, in total the IRA-controlled accounts made over 80,000 posts before their deactivation in Aug 2017,

and these posts reached at least 29 million U.S persons and "may have reached an estimated 126 million people."

#MuellerReport
V1 p26

4. US Operations Through Twitter

A number of IRA employees assigned to the Translator Dept served as Twitter Specialists. [HOM]

The IRA's Twitter operations involved two strategies. First, IRA specialists operated certain Twitter accounts to create individual US persons [HOM]

Separately, the IRA operated a network of automated Twitter accounts (commonly referred to as a bot network) that enabled the IRA to amplify existing content on Twitter.

a. Individualized Accounts

[HOM]

#MuellerReport
V1 p26

The IRA operated individualized Twitter accounts similar to the operation of its Facebook accounts, by continuously posting original content to the accounts while also communicating with US Twitter users directly (through public tweeting or Twitter's private messaging).

V1 p27

The IRA used many of these accounts to attempt to influence US audiences on the election.

Individualized accounts used to influence the US presidential election included @ TEN_ GOP; @ jenn_abrams (claiming to be a Virginian Trump supporter with 70,000 followers);

@ Pamela_Moore13 (claiming to be Texan Trump supporter w/ 70000
followers); @ America:__Ist_ (an anti-immigration persona w/ 24000 followers).

In May 2016, IRA created Twitter account @ march_for_trump, which promoted IRA-organized rallies in support of the Trump Campaign [HOM]

Using these accounts and others, the IRA provoked reactions from users and the media. Multiple IRA-posted tweets gained popularity.

US media outlets also quoted tweets from IRA-controlled accounts and attributed them to the reactions of real US persons.

#MuellerReport
V1 p27

Similarly, numerous high-profile US persons, including former Ambassador Michael McFaul, Roger Stone, Sean Hannity, and Michael Flynn Jr, retweeted or responded to these IRA controlled accounts.

Multiple individuals affiliated with the Trump Campaign also promoted IRA tweets.

b. IRA Botnet Activities

[HOM]

In Jan 2018, Twitter identified 3,814 Twitter accounts associated with the IRA.

According to Twitter, in the 10 weeks before the 2016 US election, these accounts posted approx 175,993 tweets, "approximately 8.4% of which were election-related."

Twitter also announced that it had notified approximately 1.4 million people who
Twitter believed may have been in contact with an IRA-controlled account.

#MuellerReport
V1 p28

5. U.S. Operations Involving Political Rallies

The IRA organized and promoted political rallies inside the US while posing as US grassroots activists.

#MuellerReport
V1 p29

First, the IRA used one of its preexisting social media personas (Facebook groups and Twitter accounts, for example) to announce and promote the event.

The IRA then sent a large number of direct messages to followers of its social media account asking them to attend the event.

From those who responded with interest in attending, the IRA then sought
a US person to serve as the event's coordinator.

In most cases, the IRA account operator would tell the US person that they personally could not attend the event

due to some preexisting conflict or because they were somewhere else in the US.

The IRA then further promoted the event by contacting US media about the event and directing them to speak with the coordinator.

After the event, the IRA posted videos and photographs of the event to the IRA's social media accounts.

The Office identified dozens of US rallies organized by the [Internet Research Agency].

#MuellerReport
V1 p29

The earliest evidence of a[n IRA] rally was a "confederate rally" in Nov '15.

The IRA continued to organize rallies even after the US presidential election. The attendance at rallies varied. Some rallies appear to have drawn few (if any) participants while others drew hundreds.

The reach and success of these rallies was closely monitored

[HOM]

#MuellerReport
V1 p29

From June 2016 until the end of the presidential campaign, almost all of the U.S. rallies organized by the IRA focused on the U.S. election, often promoting the Trump Campaign and opposing the Clinton Campaign.

#MuellerReport
V1 p31

Pro-Trump rallies included 3 in NY; a series of pro-Trump rallies in FL in Aug 16; and a series of pro-Trump rallies in Oct 16 in PA.

The FL rallies drew the attention of the Trump Campaign, which posted about the Miami rally on candidate Trump's Facebook account.

Many of the same IRA employees who oversaw the IRA's social media accounts also conducted the day-to-day recruiting for political rallies inside the US [HOM].

#MuellerReport
V1 p31