Russia used mainstream media to manipulate American voters

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Russia's disinformation campaign during the 2016 presidential
election relied heavily on stories produced by major American
news sources to shape the online political debate, according
to an analysis published Thursday.

The analysis by Columbia University social-media researcher
Jonathan Albright of more than 36,000 tweets sent by Russian
accounts showed that obscure or foreign news sources played a
comparatively minor role, suggesting that the discussion of
"fake news" during the campaign has been somewhat miscast.

Albright's research, which he said is the most extensive to
date on the news links that Russians used to manipulate the
American political conversation on Twitter, bolsters
observations by other analysts. Clinton Watts, a former FBI
agent who is now a disinformation expert at the Foreign Policy
Research Institute in Philadelphia, said that by linking to
popular news sources, the Russians enhanced the credibility of
their Twitter accounts, making it easier to manipulate
audiences.

"The Kremlin, they don't need to create a false narrative.
It's already there," he said. "You're just taking a narrative
and elevating it."