U.S. Operations Through IRA-Controlled Social Media Accounts

Dozens of IRA employees were responsible for operating accounts and personas on different U.S. social media platfonns. The IRA refe1Ted to employees assigned to operate the social media accounts as "specialists."42 Staiiing as early as 2014, the IRA's U.S. operations included social media specialists focusing on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.43 The IRA later added specialists who operated on Tumbfr and Instagram accounts. 44

Initially, the IRA created social media accounts that pretended to be the personal accounts of U.S. persons.45 By eai·ly 2015 , the IRA began to create lai·ger social media groups or public social media pages that claimed (falsely) to be affiliated with U.S . political and grassroots organizations. In certain cases, the IRA created accounts that mimicked real U.S. organizations. For example, one IRA-contrnlled Twitter account, @TEN_GOP, pmpo1i ed to be connected to the Tennessee Republican Paiiy. 46 More commonly, the IRA created accounts in the names of fictitious U.S. organizations and grassroots groups and used these accounts to pose as anti-immigration groups, Tea Paiiy activists, Black Lives Matter protesters, and other U.S. social and political activists.

The IRA closely monitored the activity of its social media accounts. For example, a September 2014 Excel file contained extensive notes about the IRA employees assigned to Facebook and Twitter operations, the employee accounts, the number of posts made through the , [Redacted: (b) (7)(E)]1

[Redacted: (b) (7)(A), (b) (7)(E), (b) (3)] [Redacted: (b) (7)(A), (b) (7)(E)]

¶[Redacted: (b) (7)(A), (b) (7)(E)]

See, e.g. , Facebook ID 100011390466802 (Alex Anderson); Facebook ID 100009626173204 (Andrea Hansen); Facebook ID 100009728618427 (Ga1y Williams); Facebook ID 100013640043337 (Lakisha Richardson).

The account claimed to be the "Unofficial Twitter of Tennessee Republicans" and made posts that appeared to be endorsements of the state political party. See, e.g., @TEN_GOP, 4/3/ 16 Tweet ("Tennessee GOP backs @realDonaldTmmp pe1i od #makeAmericagreatagain #tngop #tennessee #gop").

¶accounts and the target for each account, the size of the audiences, and other metrics. IRA employees also used Facebook's audience tools to monitor the impact and viewership of their accounts, including total number of page likes, total "[p]eople reached" by individual posts, and engagement (collllllents, likes, sharing, and clicks on posts). Specialists monitored the viewership for eve1y post on the IRA-controlled accounts and repo1ied these metrics to management in weekly repo1is, such as the image below (which tracked the weekly engagement of one IRA-controlled Facebook page for a one-week period in late 2015).⁴⁷⁴⁷ 5/9/16 Email, [Redacted: (b) (7)(A), (b) (7)(E), (b) (3)] (attachment). These figures, in turn, were collected by IRA management and presented dming meetings with Prigozhin at Concord's offices.⁴⁸⁴⁸ See, e.g. , SM-2230634 serial 131 (analysis of IRA documents).

¶Screenshot ofFacebook Metrics Pertaining to IRA Account

¶By Febmaiy 2016, internal IRA documents refe1Ted to suppo1i for the Tnnnp Campaign and opposition to candidate Clinton.⁴⁹⁴⁹ The IRA posted content about the Clinton candidacy before Clinton officially announced her presidential campaign. IRA-controlled social media accounts c1i ticized Clinton's record as Secreta1y of State and promoted various critiques of her candidacy. The IRA also used other techniques. For example, in eai·ly 2015, employees from the U.S. desk (including Aslanov) fabricated and published (on online adult video sites) a purpo1ted adult film involving Clinton. See SM-2230634, serial 70. so [Redacted: (b) (7)(A), (b) (7)(E)]Show full note For example, one document contained directions to IRA operators infonning them that the " [t]heme of the week" was "US political life." At the top, the document read, "Main idea: Use any opportunity to criticize Hillaiy [Clinton] and the rest (except Sanders and Tmmp - we support them)." 50 The document provided different talking points and considerations for the different social media accounts operated by the IRA, broken into the following categories: "Black Community," "Don 't Shoot," "Patriotic," "Texas," "LGBT," "Muslims," and "Refugees."

¶The focus on the U.S . presidential campaign continued throughout 2016. In a May 2016 internal IRA document reviewing the IRA-controlled Facebook group "Secured Borders," the author criticized the "lower number ofposts dedicated to criticizing Hillaiy Clinton" and reminded th e Facebook specialist "it is imperative to intensify criticizing Hillaiy Clinton." 51

IRA employees also acknowled ed that their work focused on influencin - - election. UIIIIEAl~~E.&