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80 Twitter, "Update on Twitter's Review of the 2016 US Election" (updated Jan. 31, 2018). Twitter also reported identifying 50,258 automated accounts connected to the Russian government, which tweeted.
related."80 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.81
81 Twitter, "Update on Twitter's Review of the 2016 US Election" (updated Jan. 31, 2018).
82 8/20/16 Facebook Message, ID 100009922908461 (Matt Skiber) to IDHarm to Ongoing Matter
83 See, e.g., 7/21/16 Email, joshmilton024 gmail.com toHarm to Ongoing Matter 7/21/16 Email, [email protected] toHarm to Ongoing Matter
5. U.S. Operations Involving Political Rallies
The IRA organized and promoted political rallies inside the United States while posing as U.S. grassroots activists. 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 U.S. person to serve as the event's coordinator. In most cases, the IRA account operator would tell the U.S. person that they personally could not attend the event due to some preexisting conflict or because they were somewhere else in the United States. 82 The IRA then further promoted the event by contacting U.S. media about the event and directing them to speak with the coordinator.83 After the event, the IRA posted videos and photographs of the event to the IRA's social media accounts.84
84 @march_for_trump 6/25/16 Tweet (posting photos from rally outside Trump Tower).
85 Instagram ID 2228012168 (Stand For Freedom) 11/3/ 15 Post ("Good evening buds! Well I am planning to organize a confederate rally[ ... ] in Houston on the 14 of November and I want more people to attend.").
The Office identified dozens of U.S. rallies organized by the IRA. The earliest evidence of a rally was a "confederate rally" in November 2015.85 The IRA continued to organize rallies even after the 2016 U.S. 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 Harm to Ongoing Matter