MPs to investigate Russian ‘troll factories’ that rallied support for Brexit hours before referendum
Parliament's intelligence and security committee will investigate whether the Kremlin tried to sway the Brexit vote
MPs are set to investigate whether Russian 'troll factories' tried to sway the Brexit vote.
Prime Minister Theresa May said parliament's intelligence and security committee 'is being established 'to probe whether the Kremlin looked to influence British democracy via social media.
However, she backed Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in saying there is currently no evidence of Russian interference.
The committee has previously conducted an inquiry into Edward Snowden's leaks about mass surveillance and could hold its first meeting as soon as next week.
It comes following reports Russian accounts bombarded Twitter with more than 40,000 posts about Brexit in the run-up to last year's vote to leave the EU.
More than 150,000 accounts based in Russia appeared to fire out thousands of tweets in the two days before the vote.
Research by Swansea University and the University of California, Berkeley, showed many of the messages came from bots or 'cyborg' accounts.
Bots are entirely automated accounts whereas cyborg accounts have some human involvement.
Most of the tweets reportedly encouraged people to vote for Brexit and were seen millions of times.
The report states: "A massive number of Russian-related tweets was created a few days before the voting day, reached its peak during the voting and the result and then dropped immediately afterwards.”
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh also examined 2,752 accounts suspended by Twitter in the US.
They identified 419 accounts operating from the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) and attempting to influence UK politics.
Professor Laura Cram, director of neuropolitics research at the University of Edinburgh, told The Guardian at least 419 of those accounts tweeted about Brexit a total of 3,468 times.
She said: "(The content was) quite chaotic and it seems to be aimed at wider disruption. There's not an absolutely clear thrust.
"We pick up a lot on refugees and immigration."
Russian president Vladimir Putin has previously denied any attempts by his country to interfere in US or UK politics through 'fake news' and social media.
A Twitter spokesman said the company "recognises that the integrity of the election process itself is integral to the health of a democracy. As such, we will continue to support formal investigations by government authorities into election interference as required".
