President Donald Trump talks via speakerphone to Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to announce a deal to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) at the White House in Washington, August 27, 2018. Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

A report compiled on online influence operations in the 2016 elections points to an "aggressive" effort by Russia to inflame sentiments on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter, with efforts dating back to as early as 2009. Russia increased those efforts as campaigning for the 2016 U.S. presidential election heated up, with the intention of boosting the candidacy of Republicans and then-candidate Donald Trump, the report says. "What is clear is that all of the messaging clearly sought to benefit the Republican Party — and specifically, Donald Trump," the report says. The research was conducted for the Senate Intelligence Committee by Oxford University's Internet Institute. It describes an effort by Russia's Internet Research Agency (IRA) to sow discord and polarize voters in the United States by creating and promoting news and opinion meant to amplify the most extreme views held by organizations on both the right and left of the political spectrum.

The report also emphasizes that it is difficult to tell whether these campaigns genuinely persuaded individuals to vote one way or another. "Understanding precisely how social media platforms impact public life is difficult," the report says. The report gives a unique look into how the IRA was used to sow discord long before Donald Trump's candidacy, announced in June 2015, and then solidified around themes that would eventually send him to the White House. "These attacks against our country were much more comprehensive, calculating and widespread than previously revealed," said Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va. The IRA campaign began as early as 2009 in Russia, according to the report, with early tweets written in Russian and apparently tested on a domestic Russian audience, according to the report. "English language tweet activity increased somewhat in early 2014, before ramping up dramatically at the end of 2014 into 2015," the report states. The report says the IRA created Facebook posts that frequently "expressed tolerance of extremist views," by calling immigrants "parasites," and pitting groups such as veterans and immigrants against one another. The IRA also used paid Facebook and Instagram posts that mostly targeted African-Americans, followed by white voters divided into liberal and conservative segments, Latin American voters and Muslim voters, with smaller targeted campaigns.