Yes, Russia Abused Facebook. But Did It Work?

Russia's propaganda operations during the 2016 U.S. presidential election were broader than previously thought, according to two recently published studies. But they don't provide proof the influence campaign was as effective as the Kremlin may have hoped. Both reports, based on data provided by social networks, combine a distrust of the companies' disclosures and a naive trust in the metrics they tout.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google have handed over data on the activities of the Internet Research Agency, a Russian troll farm that’s the subject of an indictment obtained by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, to the U.S. Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence. Two teams, one from the University of Oxford's Computational Propaganda Project and social network analysis firm Graphika, the other from disinformation protection outfit New Knowledge, have combed through this data. Both allege the social networks were selective in their disclosures when the Russian influence campaign first came to light.