अमेरिकी निर्वाचन प्रभाव पार्न रसियाले प्रमुख सोसल नेटवर्कमा हस्तक्षेप गरेको खुलासा भएको छ ।

अक्सफोर्ड विश्वविद्यालयको कम्प्युटेशनल प्रपोगाण्डा प्रजेक्ट तथा ग्राफिका नामक सोसल नेटवर्क एनालिलिस फर्मको संयुक्त अध्ययन अनुसन्धानबाट तयार पारिएको रिपोर्टमा उक्त दावी गरिएको हो ।

हिजो मात्रै अमेरिकी माथिल्लो सदन सिनेटले सार्वजनिक गरेको उक्त  रिपोर्टमा अनुसार  YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram र PayPal साथै  Facebook र Twitter जस्ता लोकप्रिय सञ्जालमा अमेरिकी निर्वाचनलाएइ प्रभावित गर्ने नियतले रसियाको हरकत बढेको थियो ।

Russia ‘meddled in all big social media’ around US election

Russia used every major social media platform to influence the 2016 US election, a report claims.

New research says YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram and PayPal – as well as Facebook and Twitter – were leveraged to spread propaganda.

The report, released today by the US Senate, exposes the scale of Russian disinformation efforts.

Its authors criticise the “belated and uncoordinated response” by tech firms.

The report was put together by University of Oxford’s Computational Propaganda Project and the social network analysis firm Graphika.

It is the first analysis of millions of social media posts provided by Twitter, Google and Facebook to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

While Facebook and Twitter have previously disclosed Russian interference,little has been known about the use of other platforms.

The report suggests YouTube, Tumblr, PayPal and Google+ were all affected, with Russia adapting techniques from digital marketing to target audiences across multiple channels.

“It’s a whole family of social media sites,” says Dr Philip N. Howard, director of the Oxford Internet Institute. “We think the goal was to make the campaigns seem more legitimate.”

• Sergei Skripal and the Russian disinformation game
• Facebook to share Russia-linked political adverts with investigators
• Russia-linked posts ‘reached 126m Facebook users in US’

The research details a vast campaign spearheaded by the Internet Research Agency (IRA) – a Russian company that has been described by the United States Intelligence Community as a troll farm with ties to the Russian government.

The report says Russia had a particular focus on targeting conservatives with posts on immigration, race and gun rights.

There were also efforts to undermine the voting power of left-leaning African-American citizens, by spreading misinformation about the electoral process.

Another report, also released today by the Senate, by the research firm New Knowledge, similarly highlights Russia’s efforts to target African-Americans.

It explains how Russia’s IRA were focused on “developing Black audiences and recruiting Black Americans as assets,” which included encouraging activists to stage rallies.

One IRA campaign highlighted in the Oxford and Graphika paper, Black Matters US, existed across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Google+, Tumblr and PayPal. These various accounts would promote each other’s posts and events.

When Facebook suspended the group on its platform, the group’s Twitter account complained about the move and accused the social network of “supporting white supremacy”

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46590890