“You just want us to repeat again that we have nothing to do with the U.S. elections,” Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Facebook, which had not seen Kim’s report, had no immediate comment, though the company has insisted that it is getting better at responding to the evolving tactics of foreign and domestic actors.

‘Inauthentic’ actors

After getting caught off guard with Russia’s 2016 election interference attempts, Facebook, Google, Twitter and others put safeguards in place to prevent it from happening again. This includes taking down posts, groups and accounts that engage in “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” and strengthening verification procedures for political ads.

Cindy Otis, a disinformation expert and former CIA officer who was not involved in the research, said that while disinformation messaging has not changed much, the technology used to disseminate the bad information is evolving and improving.

“Certainly with the Russians, they know what kinds of narratives work in the U.S.,” Otis said. “The whole system of disinformation is very effective, and they know that it is.”