Mueller Report: Russian Trolls Stoked Divisions on Energy, Climate, Coal April 19, 2019

In advocating for your preferred energy future, bear in mind that we are all being targeted by a sophisticated campaign aimed at enflaming divisions among all sectors of Americans.

That is all.

Grist:

The U.S. is divided over coal: Coal plants and mines have been shuttering, with miners held up as the casualties of environmental regulation, despite the fact that it’s cheap natural gas and automation that’s been siphoning most coal jobs. Still, it’s an issue that captures the growing chasm between Americans, with one side holding up the economic loss in coal towns and the other desperate to ditch the fossil fuel in the face of dangerous climate change.

Trump used this friction as a campaigning technique, but according to special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, so did the Russians.

About a third of Mueller’s long-awaited report, released on Thursday, has been redacted. But enough is left to determine that Russia tried to exploit America’s mixed feelings about coal in order to tip the election in Trump’s favor.

In the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, a Saint Petersburg-based group called the Internet Research Agency employed hundreds of people to post divisive messages and pro-Kremlin propaganda using American aliases on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Coal was one of many issues used by the Russian trolls to drive a wedge between American voters, the report says. The group was indicted by Mueller in 2018 for conspiring to influence the election. And a report by the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee found that the trolls also posted about pipelines, fossil fuels, fracking, and climate change between 2015 and 2017.

But the Russians didn’t stick to social media alone. The Internet Research Agency also organized a number of 2016 pro-Trump events in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, the report says. One of the rallies featured a “miners for Trump” poster: “How many PA workers lost their jobs due to Obama’s disruptive policies? Help Mr. Trump fix it.”

The Hill:

Russian social media accounts focused on U.S. division over coal jobs as part of an effort to sway the 2016 presidential election, according to the newly released report from special counsel Robert Mueller.

The report cites a series of pro-Trump rallies organized by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian organization charged with interfering in the U.S. election, included one in Pennsylvania with a poster featuring a coal miner reading “bring back our jobs.”

“How many PA workers lost their jobs due to Obama’s disruptive policies?” the poster read. “Help Mr. Trump fix it.”

The rallies were hosted in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in October 2016.

Several portions of Mueller’s report that reference the rallies are redacted, citing “harm to ongoing matter” if the information were publicly released.

Coal was not the only energy topic targeted in an attempt to sway voters toward President Trump.

A report in March 2018 by the House Science, Space and Technology Committee concluded that about 4 percent of IRA tweets and posts were about energy and environment issues in an attempt to disrupt U.S. energy markets.

Those posts focused on pipelines, fossil fuels, fracking and climate change.

Looking at information provided to them by U.S. social media companies, the committee determined that between 2015 and 2017 there were about 9,097 Russian posts or tweets about U.S. energy policy and events on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Important point- Russian trolls played both sides of the issue – inflaming partisans on both left and right to create divisions.

Lesson: Take a breath before being triggered. A new election is coming.

Washington Post:

Russian trolls used Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to inflame U.S. political debate over energy policy and climate change, a finding that underscores how the Russian campaign of social media manipulation went beyond the 2016 presidential election, congressional investigators reported Thursday.

The new report from the House Science, Space and Technology Committee includes previously unreleased social media posts that Russians created on such contentious political issues as the Dakota Access pipeline, government efforts to curb global warming and hydraulic fracturing, a gas mining technique often called “fracking.”

One Facebook post created by a Russian-controlled group called “Native Americans United” shows what appears to be a young girl in a braid peering out over an unspoiled prairie. “Love Water Not Oil, Protect Our Mother, Stand With Standing Rock,” a reference to an Indian tribe that opposed the Dakota Access pipeline. The post also said, “No Pipelines. No Fracking. No Tar Sands.” – The report underscores how Russians worked on both sides of contentious American political issues. The Facebook posts — which typically were accompanied by identical posts shared by affiliated Instagram accounts — appeared designed to specifically appeal to either liberal or conservative audiences. There were posts, for example, expressing concern about climate change and others mocking it.

This tracks previous reports about how the Russian disinformation campaign worked to inflame other sensitive political issues — and worked both sides — on racial and religious matters, immigration policy and same-sex marriage.

One post from the Facebook account “Blacktivist” — an Internet Research Agency-tied account that had sought to stoke racial tensions online — included an apparent image of law enforcement battling protesters at the Dakota Access pipeline. “We’re about to celebrate thanksgiving and tell schoolchildren we made peace w Native Americans while DAPL protesters are being tear gassed,” the post read. It was shared 497 times on Facebook, according to the committee.