Russia-Based Influence Campaign Spanned Six Years
- Secondary Infektion attributed false posts to Rubio and Pompeo
- Group failed to go viral but has lessons for U.S. election
A Russia-based group has for the last six years peddled forged documents and used fake social-media accounts in an effort to influence elections and divide critics in the West, while mostly avoiding efforts to detect such activity, according to an exhaustive report on the operation released Tuesday.
Graphika, the social-media analytics company that produced the 150-page report, said the group created documents, tweets and blogs attributed to such well-known political leaders as Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, then seeded them into a variety of social-media forums in order to stoke division.
“Secondary Infektion is unique for the sheer range of platforms on which it posted: no other operation from any country that Graphika has studied even comes close,” the report’s authors wrote. “The operation’s lack of viral engagement also sets it apart.”