Nonprofits Dragged Into Russian Efforts to Peddle Falsehoods on Twitter, Salvaged Data Shows

Russia dragged unwitting nonprofits into its efforts to agitate and confuse American voters online, data shows.

A New Orleans charitable-giving day, the ice-bucket challenge, and alleged corruption at the Clinton Foundation were all the subjects of tweets and retweets from Twitter accounts linked to a Russian government propaganda operation.

Twitter accounts tied to the Kremlin’s Internet Research Agency, or the IRA, tweeted about nonprofits hundreds of times, at least, from 2015 to 2017, according to a Chronicle analysis of data made available by NBC News. The nonprofit-related tweets were a tiny share of a database of 200,000 IRA-linked tweets that NBC News collected and verified even after the social-media company had deleted tens of thousands of such accounts.

U.S. national intelligence officials say the Russian government waged a mass propaganda campaign during the 2016 presidential election, including using fraudulent accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and other social-media sites to amplify highly partisan and incorrect information. In December, for example, Facebook estimated that 150 million Americans may have seen content from the IRA. Mass information manipulation by Russia is ongoing, U.S. intelligence officials say.

“Frankly, the United States is under attack,” Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month.

Foundation Fodder

Twitter accounts linked to the Russian propaganda operation tweeted and retweeted about a wide range of topics and breaking-news events including the presidential debates, Black Lives Matter, and gun control.

When it came to tweets and retweets that mentioned charities and foundations, the language and tone ranged from inane to crude to conspiratorial.

A half dozen 2015 tweets and retweets were about the ice-bucket challenge, with at least one account linking to a YouTube video compilation of goofy attempts to pour water over one’s self: “@heyits_toby: ‘I`D DO THE ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE BUT NOT AS THESE GUYS! http://t.co/UZtRB0brdH.’”

The word “charity” was mentioned 162 times in the cache of 200,000 tweets, according to the Chronicle analysis, while the word “nonprofit” was used 14 times and “philanthropy” three times. Some tweets linked to hyperpartisan websites including Breitbart.

The Clinton Foundation appeared to be the most popular nonprofit topic for tweeting and retweeting by IRA-tied accounts, appearing 622 times. One tweet called the organization “the most corrupt enterprise in political history,” while others alluded to never-substantiated claims of “pay for play” practices such as donations in exchange for invitations to White House state dinners.

“When the house is crooked, check the foundation! #Crooked Hillary #NeverHillary https://t.co/qjnYLVA8PE,” tweeted the account @ten_cop in July 2016.

An independent study published last year by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University found that alleged improprieties at the Clinton Foundation were among a handful of Clinton scandal stories that dominated media channels during the 2016 presidential election.

Other individual organizations that got specific mentions in the Russia-tied tweets included the Red Cross and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

‘His Majesty’

Foreign propagandists also used social media to stir partisanship and discord in higher education, a Chronicle analysis of the Twitter data shows. At least 129 Twitter accounts associated with the Kremlin-aligned propaganda outfit tweeted and retweeted about issues pertinent to higher education from 2015 to 2017.

Among other things, they spread coverage from Fox News and other outlets that highlighted what was characterized as liberalism run amok at colleges.

Following Election Day 2016, one account predicted college students would cheer for the raising of an ISIS flag on campuses. Another tweet from 2016 mocked the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor’s pronoun policy through a story about a conservative student’s demand that he be referred to as “His Majesty.”