Thread by @wiczipedia

Good morning! Day 1 of my trudging through the Russian ad dump is below.

Day 2 coming soon. But first, some observations of what I've read so far:

External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @wiczipedia view original on Twitter

1. As we knew, the content sought to divide Americans on religious, racial, sexual & other social lines
2. A lot of the ads are positive and *not* divisive, seeking to build community before increasingly large asks (sharing, commenting, showing up to protests IRL)

3. In terms of "sophistication," the IRA was often very clumsy with their English & with targeting. Could they have been more effective? Undoubtedly. Did their efforts nonetheless have an impact? Absolutely. Their posts - many with a significant organic reach - reached millions.

4. The overtly political ads begin in March 2016. And that's where we begin our journey today...

#RussianAds #Facebook

This sort of ad becomes way more common beginning in Q3 2016.

#RussianAds #Facebook

Buff Bernie, in case you were wondering, didn't perform so well. 😂

A snippet from an "open letter to Hillary Clinton" from the IRA's "United Muslims of America" account. Generated a few thousand clicks; attempted to mobilize American Muslims against HRC.

#RussianAds #Facebook

Other than Buff Bernie, starting to see pro-Sanders ads pop up as we head deeper into 2016 primary season, particularly on the United Muslims of America page.

#RussianAds #Facebook

Headed into April 2016 now. A significant uptick in IRL events so far in 2016.

#RussianAds #Facebook

Lots of unfunny, unsuccessful memes from "Memopolis"

#RussianAds #Facebook

Russia's Internet Research Agency garnered 108k impressions on this Instagram post advocating for kids to be trained to use a gun.

#RussianAds #Facebook

Targeting students at seemingly random schools in CA (and WI?)

Love it when these little Russianisms come through. In Russia, a sheet of paper = лист (list).

#RussianAds #Facebook

This goes beyond even asking people to show up to protests- looking for surrogates in the US. Only one click generated; I wonder if Instagram is able to track if DMs are generated from a specific post? Conveniently, the engagement info on most of the Insta posts is not provided.

Oh my word.

#RussianAds #Facebook

Genius targeting technique: find the .001% of Americans who watched this 1997 Indian film because they clearly care about secured borders. 😂 Not one of the more successful ads.

#RussianAds #Facebook

This post about renaming schools in the South did quite well.

#RussianAds #Facebook

I'm sure this wasn't loaded with spyware or anything. 😉💁🏻‍♀️

#RussianAds #Facebook

(Happily, very few users interacted with these ads for "Facemusic," but you have to wonder what the goal was...)

External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @wiczipedia view original on Twitter

#RussianAds #Facebook

HI! sorry. I've fallen down the rabbit hole looking into something. I'll be back ... eventually.