The Russian social media tricks/attacks spread farther and wider than Facebook and Google…

Why it matters: Policymakers have been public about efforts to understand how big platforms can be weaponized, but they’ve failed to address how widespread these campaigns are on other platforms, as well as the systemic problems fueling them.

Details:

• The rise of Instagram: A report from the nonprofit think tank New Knowledge found that in 2017, the Russian troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency (IRA) moved the bulk of its misinformation efforts to less-policed platforms, primarily Instagram, after more surveillance practices took hold on Facebook and Twitter.
• Offline manipulation: It also suggests that the Russians used other platforms, like fake websites and PayPal accounts, to manipulate users to participate in hyper-political behavior offline, like protests or marches.
• Luring “assets”: The report details how the IRA tried to lure people into doing tasks for them, like soliciting videos or legal requests, by using information against people with personal struggles around things like their sexuality.
• Selling merchandise: They also set up accounts to promote socially-divisive merchandise, like “LGBT-positive sex toys” on Instagram and Facebook.

Be smart: These findings demonstrate how quickly and easily bad actors are able to move manipulation efforts to new platforms when one site clamps down on malicious behavior. They also suggest how severely some features on these platforms, like messaging, can be abused by actors with bad intentions.

Between the lines: Some of the most eye-opening findings from the new reports are the ones that show how Russians exploited existing divisions around key moments or movements in the U.S. without being fully noticed at the time….

More…

Image…Rebecca Zisser/Axios