How Russia turned the internet against America

 

"The notorious Russian troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency, the document details, has been organized like a well-tuned digital marketing shop. It had a division dedicated to search-engine optimization, the art and science of persuading the algorithms that power Google and other websites to prominently feature certain content. The indictment says the Russian outfit also used data analytics to track which of their posts were proving most successful, sent private social media messages to stir up genuinely American grass-roots activists and registered accounts — with names like "staceyredneck@gmail.com" — on PayPal to pay for ads.

The organization even double-checked the content generated by its posting “specialists” to make sure it had the kind of authenticity to make it believable to Americans.

The tech companies have been reluctant to embrace the idea that their actions, or inactions, might have made life easier for the Russian actors. "

read the story by Nancy Scola​
 
How Russia turned the internet against America - POLITICO: Some who value the online world's freedoms are 'at a loss' after Friday's indictment offered new details about how trolls exploited its weaknesses.