Report: Russia-linked disinformation operation still active

A Kremlin-linked social media disinformation operation that sought to interfere with the 2016 U.S. election has continued its work to divide and discredit Western democracies, a new report finds — but its effectiveness has been limited by its own cautious tactics.

Dubbed “Secondary Infektion” by researchers, the network was part of Russia's bid to use social media to polarize Americans ahead of the 2016 elections. It's been linked to similar efforts in Ukraine, France, Britain and elsewhere. Since 2014 it has posted thousands of times on more than 300 internet platforms.

Content from Secondary Infektion includes posts denigrating Muslims and immigrants, accusing Hillary Clinton of murder and calling German Chancellor Angela Merkel an alcoholic. Some posts have used forged documents or bogus commentary, such as a fake tweet supposedly sent from U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio accusing Britain of spying on President Donald Trump.

Graphika, a New York City firm that analyzes social media, published a report Tuesday that traces the network's operations. Compared with other Russian disinformation networks operated by Russian military intelligence or the country's Internet Research Agency, Secondary Infektion worked hard to cover its tracks — even if that hindered its work, the report found.

“They were putting a lot of emphasis on staying hidden, rather than quick virality,” said Ben Nimmo, Graphika's director of investigations and one of the report's lead authors.

Many of Secondary Infektion's posts came from “burner” accounts discarded after a single use, before they have time to grow an audience. While that made it harder for analysts to track the network, it also prevented the operation from building accounts with the kind of large, legitimate audiences that are...