The Russian government used “thousands” of internet trolls and bots to spread fake news, in addition to hacking into political campaigns leading up to the 2016 U.S. election, according to one lawmaker. Disinformation spread on social media was designed to raise doubts about the U.S. election and the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, said Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat. “This Russian propaganda on steroids was designed to poison the national conversation in America,” Warner said Thursday during a Senate hearing on Russian election hacking. The Russian government used “thousands of paid internet trolls” and bots to spread disinformation on social media.
The groups spreading disinformation appeared to target specific swing states in the weeks leading up to the U.S. election, Warner said. He questioned whether Russian operatives would have that level of U.S. elections expertise without outside help.
Most members of the Senate Intelligence Committee expressed little doubt that Russia tried to influence the U.S. presidential election through hacking and the spread of disinformation. Senators from both parties promised to investigate alleged ties between President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Russian disinformation and hacking efforts.
Warner addressed repeated suggestions by Trump that Russian interference in the election is “fake news.”
“This is not innuendo or false allegations,” Warner said. “This is not fake news, this is actually what happened to us.”
Full Article: Senator: Russia used ‘thousands’ of internet trolls during US election | PCWorld.