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Credit to Author: Paris Martineau| Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2018 18:13:11 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n For Russian misinformation-mongers, <\/span>2017 was the year of Instagram. As Facebook and Twitter cracked down on foreign influence campaigns amid media scrutiny, the Kremlin\u2019s Internet Research Agency (IRA) found unprecedented success in shifting its disinformation efforts to the photo-sharing app, according to a new report<\/a> commissioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee. On Instagram, the IRA waged memetic warfare against millions of users by creating a robust and sophisticated network of accounts related to key social justice and political issues. These profiles weren\u2019t crude or poorly managed, but rather a well-oiled influence machine designed to weaponize the social clout wielded by power users on Instagram.<\/p>\n \u201cInstagram was perhaps the most effective platform for the Internet Research Agency,\u201d concludes the report, written by cybersecurity firm New Knowledge. The IRA created just 133 Instagram accounts. But a dozen of these attracted more than 100,000 followers, commonly viewed as a threshold to mark an account an \u201cinfluencer<\/a>;\u201d approximately 50 surpassed the \u201cmicro-influencer\u201d milestone of 10,000 followers. Like many American influencers<\/a>, the IRA monetized its digital popularity by pushing custom-made merchandise\u2014giving it access to the purchasers\u2019 personally identifying information, and promoting partnerships with brands.<\/p>\n On Instagram, the IRA aggressively targeted black Americans as well as the left and right with a coordinated, multi-level influence campaign powered by networks of related and opposing profiles, which worked in consort to envelop users in a highly controlled ecosystem of the Kremlin\u2019s design. The most successful accounts were focused on black culture, feminism, LGBTQ+ issues, Christianity, veterans, and gun rights, and garnered more than 10 million interactions\u2014likes and comments\u2014each. Others impersonated news outlets and journalists in the hopes of exacerbating distrust in the the actual media among target audiences. The goal, as with much of the Russians\u2019 online activity, was to exacerbate divisions and stoke resentments in the US.<\/p>\n On Instagram, IRA accounts mocked the idea of IRA accounts on Instagram. In the wake of the 2016 election, over 70 posts on Facebook and Instagram targeting right-wing audiences downplayed the existence of Russian interference.<\/p>\n A post by the Kremlin’s Internet Research Agency mocking the idea of Russian interference in a post targeted to right-wing audiences.<\/p>\n Starting in 2015, the period analyzed by the report, IRA-controlled accounts distributed 116,205 Instagram posts, nearly twice as many as the 61,483 posts on Facebook, which until now have garnered far more attention. The Instagram posts received more than 183 million likes and 4 million comments, generating significantly more interactions from users than comparable Russian operations on Facebook, which collectively received about 76 million engagements. The report also suggests that Facebook, Instagram\u2019s parent company, downplayed the outsized role of the photo sharing platform in Russian efforts to sow division. Instagram\u2019s role was \u201csomething that Facebook executives appear to have avoided mentioning in Congressional testimony,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n These were the 10 most popular IRA accounts on Instagram:<\/p>\n @blackstagram__<\/p>\n @american.veterans<\/p>\n @sincerely_black_<\/p>\n @feminism_tag<\/p>\n @rainbow_nation_us<\/p>\n @_american.made<\/p>\n @afrokingdom_<\/p>\n @army_of_jesus<\/p>\n @mericanfury<\/p>\n @pray4police<\/p>\n Though the IRA\u2019s 133 Instagram accounts were largely created in early to mid 2015\u2014well before most of the group\u2019s Facebook profiles\u2014the platform wasn\u2019t a primary focus for Russian operatives until 2017. As media attention turned to Facebook and Twitter, the report says, the IRA ramped up its presence on Instagram, with post totals more than doubling from roughly 2,600 posts a month in 2016 to almost 6,000 in 2017.<\/p>\n The bulk of the IRA\u2019s disinformation efforts on Instagram served to reinforce cultural divisions by embedding users in a particular in-group, often tied to their race, political beliefs, or gender. The top 10 most popular accounts each targeted a particular audience and collectively garnered over 120 million engagements.<\/p>\n The most popular account, @blackstagram__, had 303,663 followers, generated over 28 million total interactions, and targeted the black community. As of 2017, the account regularly received upwards of 10,000 likes on its posts. The IRA\u2019s other popular Instagram accounts centered around veterans, LGBTQ+ issues, feminism, and hot-button political topics such as police brutality, gun rights, and Christianity. On June 11, 2017, @blackstagram__ posted a meme featuring eight female-presenting legs ranging from pale to dark-skinned with a caption \u201cAll the tones are nude! Get over it!\u201d The photo received over 250,000 likes and nearly 7,000 comments, and was originally accompanied by the hashtag-laden text: \u201c\u201cWhat is your color? @expression_tees @kahmune #blackexcellence #blackpride #blackandproud #blackpower #africanamerican #melanin #ebony #panafrican #blackcommunity #problack #brownskin #unapologeticallyblack #blackgirl #blackgirls #blackwomen #blackwoman\u201d<\/p>\n The majority of the IRA\u2019s most successful accounts targeted the black community, and black cultural issues. The accounts created their own interlinked media ecosystem, across more than a dozen different platforms. One of the smaller Instagram accounts, @blackmattersus, which had nearly 30,000 followers on Instagram and garnered nearly 2 million engagements, also cross-promoted its content on Twitter and Facebook, published nearly 100 videos on YouTube, created two Facebook events and launched related ads on the platform, and ran both a Soundcloud and Tumblr by the name of SKWAD55. Russian operatives used the Black Matters network to both sow division and build community, frequently posting job listings for real Americans to help create content for the website. The Black Matters accounts interacted with and promoted content from the IRA\u2019s dozens of other similar networks of accounts in the black media scene. Black Matters content was also shared by high-profile influencers and groups unassociated with the IRA, such as, Color of Change, Unapologetically Black, and YourAnonNews.<\/p>\n \u201cAn individual who followed or liked one of the Black-community-targeted IRA Pages would have been exposed to content from dozens more, as well as carefully curated authentic Black media content that was ideologically or thematically aligned with the Internet Research Agency messaging,\u201d the report reads.<\/p>\n This meme, posted on March 2, 2016 by @army_of_jesus_ received nearly 90,000 likes on Instagram, making it the most-liked Instagram content uploaded by the group before the 2016 election.<\/p>\n This intricate network of linked content across a variety of platforms allowed the IRA to grow the audiences of multiple accounts simultaneously by drawing upon the cross-promotional tools built into platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The integrated nature of the network also served to boost the accounts\u2019 legitimacy among real black Americans.<\/p>\n Once these networks of accounts gained critical mass, they were used to promote narratives that exacerbated tensions between groups and hijack the conversation among target audiences by presenting potential topics of discussion or opinions from a trusted source. One particularly potent example of this tactic identified in the report centers around a real-life human interest story. The IRA heavily promoted the story<\/a> of an 11-year-old black boy who made national news after inventing a device to prevent hot car deaths. IRA-run Instagram accounts and Facebook pages reframed the story to reinforce racial in-groups: \u201cWhite people invent tools for killing, this Black child is inventing a tool for saving lives,\u201d read one post. \u201cthese are stories of Black children the media don\u2019t want you to see,\u201d read another. Black Matters created an article about the subject on its website, which it claimed had well over 100,000 subscribers.<\/p>\n One of the triptych and 5-panel pieces of art the Internet Research Agency tried to sell to conservatives using its influence networks on Instagram and other platforms.<\/p>\n These ecosystems of disinformation also served to promote merchandise, including t-shirts with polarizing or inflammatory statements \u201cdesigned to spark controversy in the real world,\u201d LGBT-positive sex toys, and patriotic wall art. Much like actual influencers, IRA accounts on Instagram partnered with brands to offer promotions for their products without adequately disclosing their financial relationships. One promo post by IRA account @black4black offered followers a \u201cgood discount\u201d from a skincare company in exchange for sharing three of either their posts or posts by Black Matters.<\/p>\n The report notes that while there is no data available regarding the revenue the IRA received from these endeavors, there are two unsettling reasons for the Russians to hawk merch: transaction data, and ad targeting. Transactions could have given the IRA access to a wealth of personal data about the purchaser, including their name, address, email and phone number, and perhaps even payment details\u2014all of which could have been used to further target divisive ads and more IRA content in the future.<\/p>\n