Russian trolls sought to inflame debate over climate change

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This was published 6 years ago

Russian trolls sought to inflame debate over climate change

By Craig Timberg and Tony Romm

Washington: Russian trolls used Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to inflame US political debate over energy policy and climate change, a finding that underscores how the Russian campaign of social media manipulation went beyond the 2016 president election, congressional investigators reported on Thursday.

The new report from the House Science, Space and Technology Committee includes previously unreleased social media posts that Russians created on such contentious political issues as the Dakota Access Pipeline, government efforts to curb global warming and hydraulic fracturing, a gas mining technique often called "fracking."

One Facebook post created by a Russian-controlled group called "Native Americans United" shows what appears to be a young girl in a braid peering out over an unspoiled prairie. "Love Water Not Oil, Protect Our Mother, Stand With Standing Rock," a reference to an Indian tribe that opposed the Dakota Access Pipeline. The post also said, "No Pipelines. No Fracking. No Tar Sands."

Military veterans huddle together to hold a United States flag against strong winds during a march to a closed bridge outside the Oceti Sakowin camp to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, ND.

Military veterans huddle together to hold a United States flag against strong winds during a march to a closed bridge outside the Oceti Sakowin camp to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, ND.Credit: AP

The 21-page report drew from documents submitted in the fall by Twitter and Facebook, which owns Instagram, for congressional investigations into the social media influence campaign during the 2016 presidential election. Those probes focused on the efforts by the Internet Research Agency, a troll farm in St Petersburg that Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted this month for disrupting and influencing US politics.

The committee's report found that, between 2015 and 2017, more than 9000 posts and tweets dealt with US energy policy produced by 4334 Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts controlled by the Internet Research Agency. Twitter told the committee that more than 4 per cent of tweets produced by the Russians dealt with energy and climate issues.

"This report reveals that Russian agents created and spread propaganda on US social media platforms in an obvious attempt to influence the US energy market," said committee Chairman Lamar Smith in a statement that accompanied the release of the report Thursday morning. "The American people deserve to know if what they see on social media is the creation of a foreign power seeking to undermine our domestic energy policy."

Smith is a longtime advocate for increased oil and gas drilling in the United States and counts the industry as one of his biggest political benefactors. It has contributed more than $US772,000 to his re-election campaigns, according to data compiled by the Centre for Responsive Politics.

The lawmaker, who has announced plans to retire after this congressional term, has questioned the veracity of climate science. During a particularly contentious, March 2017 congressional hearing, Smith charged that much of that science "appears to be based more on exaggerations, personal agendas and questionable predictions than on the scientific method."

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Facebook declined to comment on the report.

People walk along a snowy hillside in a storm at the Oceti Sakowin camp where people have gathered to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, ND.

People walk along a snowy hillside in a storm at the Oceti Sakowin camp where people have gathered to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, ND.Credit: AP

Twitter issued a statement seeking to minimise the reach of the Russian disinformation campaign. "In our report to Chairman Smith we noted that a small subset (413) of these accounts participated in conversations related to energy, that their total volume of Tweets was relatively small (5594 original Tweets, 2223 Retweets), and that these Tweets represented an extremely small portion of the broader discussion of energy issues on Twitter."

The report underscores how Russians worked on both sides of contentious American political issues. The Facebook posts - which typically were accompanied by identical posts shared by affiliated Instagram accounts - appeared designed to specifically appeal to either liberal or conservative audiences. There were posts, for example, expressing concern about climate change and others mocking it.

Workers unload pipes for the proposed Dakota Access oil pipeline.

Workers unload pipes for the proposed Dakota Access oil pipeline.Credit: AP

This tracks previous reports about how the Russian disinformation campaign worked to inflame other sensitive political issues - and worked both sides - on racial and religious matters, immigration policy and gay marriage.

One post from the Facebook account "Blacktivist" - an IRA-tied account that had sought to stoke racial tensions online - included an apparent image of law enforcement battling protesters at the Dakota Pipeline. "We're about to celebrate thanksgiving and tell schoolchildren we made peace w Native Americans while DAPL protesters are being tear gassed," the post read. It was shared 497 times on Facebook, according to the committee.

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Smith's investigation also contends that Russian trolls advocated for "the complete abandonment of specific fuel sources, such as fossil fuels, by touting exaggerated claims about alternative energy sources." One such post from the IRA account "Born Liberal" - appearing on both Facebook and Instagram - highlighted how oil giants reaped billions of dollars in profits last year as public schools lacked funding.

Republicans on the House's top science panel say Russian posts sought to link climate change to catastrophic weather events, claiming that the IRA aimed to "generate further domestic controversy" about the environmental issue.

Other online accounts tied to the Internet Research Agency sought to promote drilling and to question climate science, including in Smith's home state of Texas.

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