Months after President Trump took office, Russia’s disinformation teams trained their sights on a new target: special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. The other report was by social media research firm New Knowledge, Columbia University and Canfield Research. Social media researchers said the weaponization of these sites and services highlights the broadening challenge they face in combating the increasingly sophisticated tactics of Russia and other foreign malefactors online. Facebook executives barely discussed the role of Instagram when they testified before Congress late last year about Russian meddling. At the time, the company said that the Russian campaign reached 126 million people on Facebook and 20 million on Instagram.

Source: Washington Post December 18, 2018 00:42 UTC