“THE SECOND AMENDMENT IS MY GUN PERMIT. ISSUE DATE: 12/15/1791 EXPIRATION DATE: NONE #VETS #NRA #CCOT #TCOT #GOP.” (@Pati_cooper, Aug. 18, 2016)
If you use Twitter, you might have seen tweets like these during the 2016 election cycle. You might have agreed or not. You might have forwarded, commented or retweeted — or not. You might have wondered who was writing these tweets — or not. But, I am guessing that you did not realize these tweets were from a Russian “troll” farm known as the Internet Research Agency (IRA).
Based in St. Petersburg, Russia, this “agency” reportedly went beyond trolling and actively orchestrated subversive political social media activities.