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U.S. NEWS Monday 5 noveMber 2018

Here's what they say the the mainstream media. is no longer available on
Russians have been up to: Its Russian roots aren't hard Twitter itself.
___ to find. Its Russian chief edi- In August, Facebook and
FUNDING TROLLS tor, Alexander Malkevich, security firm FireEye re-
One Russian has been is openly critical of Demo- vealed influence cam-
charged so far by U.S. of- crats and says "America paigns on the social net-
ficials of interference in won" when Donald Trump work originating in Russia
2018 election campaign: became president. and Iran. Experts say Rus-
Elena Khusyaynova, a Its readership remains small, sia's alleged actions in the
bookkeeper with the Inter- in the tens of thousands, 2016 U.S. election may
net Research Agency, the which Malkevich blames have encouraged Iran to In this handout photo taken from the Federal News Agency
"troll factory" accused of on "censorship" by Face- follow suit. website on Monday, Oct. 22, 2018, Elena Khusyaynova, an
manipulating the 2016 U.S. book and Twitter. It is trying ___ accountant poses for a photo.
campaign. to amplify its voice via links PROBING CANDIDATES Associated Press
Khusyaynova is accused on other media. Microsoft executives said
of a covert social media In recent days, its focus has recently that the company and Senate sites. an attempt to steal the
campaign for both the been on the migrant cara- had detected attempts by One attempt involved password of at least one
2016 and 2018 votes in the van weaving through Latin Russia's GRU military intel- Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill staffer through
United States. The criminal America, on tight congres- ligence agency to hack McCaskill of Missouri, who a fake Senate login web-
complaint says she began sional races — and on an into the campaigns of two is seeking re-election in site, in the most notable in-
buying social media ads effort to recruit Megyn Kel- senators, and disabled a state that voted over- stance of attempted cam-
in 2015, including on Face- ly, whose show on NBC was Russian-launched websites whelmingly for Trump in paign meddling by Russia
book and Instagram, and canceled amid controver- disguised as U.S. think tanks 2016. Microsoft identified made public this year.q
spent on internet services sy over her comments on
including VPNs, which help blackface Halloween cos-
mask online activity. Khusy- tumes.
aynova also purchased so- ___
cial media analytics prod- TRICKY TWEETS
ucts, which gauge the per- Even after the February in-
formance of online post- dictment by U.S. authorities
ings, and paid bloggers of a dozen Russians linked
and U.S.-based activists. to the Internet Research
The proposed operating Agency, it continued to
budget she oversaw was work on tricking U.S. audi-
more than $35 million from ences — including seeking
January 2016 through June to mobilize activists to par-
2018 — including $10 million ticipate in street demon-
for the first half of this year, strations.
the complaint says. Twitter last month released
It is unclear how many millions of tweets and other
Americans saw postings fi- content targeting Ameri-
nanced by Khusyaynova's cans that it said came
activity. from the IRA, both from
___ the 2016 race and continu-
FAUX-AMERICAN SITES ing through the summer of
The Russian troll factory's 2018, well into the U.S. mid-
owners, the Federal News term campaign.
Agency, registered three Examples of tweets include
domain names in April those from the account @
aimed at the U.S. market, TEN_GOP, which pretend-
according to the SPARK- ed to be Tennessee's Re-
Interfax database. The publican party, and posted
websites all lead readers a photo of then-FBI Direc-
to a site called USAReally, tor James Comey with the
aimed at showing Ameri- words "resign now."
can audiences news that It's unclear how many peo-
has been "hushed up" by ple saw the content, which