For Russian misinformation-mongers, 2017 was the year of Instagram. As Facebook and Twitter cracked down on foreign influence campaigns amid media scrutiny, the Kremlin’s Internet Research Agency (IRA) found unprecedented success in shifting its disinformation efforts to the photo-sharing app, according to a new report commissioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee. On Instagram, the IRA waged memetic warfare against millions of users by creating a robust and sophisticated network of accounts related to key social justice and political issues. These profiles weren’t crude or poorly managed but, rather, part of a well-oiled influence machine designed to weaponize the social clout wielded by power users on Instagram.

“Instagram was perhaps the most effective platform for the Internet Research Agency,” concludes the report, written by cybersecurity firm New Knowledge. The IRA created just 133 Instagram accounts. But a dozen of these attracted more than 100,000 followers, commonly viewed as a threshold to mark an account an “influencer;” approximately 50 surpassed the “micro-influencer” milestone of 10,000 followers. Like many American influencers, the IRA monetized its digital popularity by pushing custom-made merchandise—giving it access to the purchasers’ personally identifying information, and promoting partnerships with brands.

On Instagram, the IRA aggressively targeted black Americans as well as the left and right with a coordinated, multi-level influence campaign powered by networks of related and opposing profiles, which worked in consort to envelop users in a highly controlled ecosystem of the Kremlin’s design. The most successful accounts were focused on black culture, feminism, LGBTQ+ issues, Christianity, veterans, and gun rights, and garnered more than 10 million interactions---likes and comments---each. Others impersonated news outlets and journalists in the hopes of exacerbating distrust in the the actual media among target audiences. The goal, as with much of the Russians’ online activity, was to exacerbate divisions and stoke resentments in the US.

On Instagram, IRA accounts mocked the idea of IRA accounts on Instagram. In the wake of the 2016 election, over 70 posts on Facebook and Instagram targeting right-wing audiences downplayed the existence of Russian interference.

A post by the Kremlin's Internet Research Agency mocking the idea of Russian interference in a post targeted to right-wing audiences. SSCI

Starting in 2015, the period analyzed by the report, IRA-controlled accounts distributed 116,205 Instagram posts, nearly twice as many as the 61,483 posts on Facebook, which until now have garnered far more attention. The Instagram posts received more than 183 million likes and 4 million comments, generating significantly more interactions from users than comparable Russian operations on Facebook, which collectively received about 76 million engagements. The report also suggests that Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, downplayed the outsized role of the photo sharing platform in Russian efforts to sow division. Instagram’s role was “something that Facebook executives appear to have avoided mentioning in Congressional testimony,” the report says.

TOP ACCOUNTS These were the 10 most popular IRA accounts on Instagram: @blackstagram__

@american.veterans

@sincerely_black_

@feminism_tag

@rainbow_nation_us

@_american.made

@afrokingdom_

@army_of_jesus

@mericanfury

@pray4police

Though the IRA’s 133 Instagram accounts were largely created in early to mid 2015—well before most of the group’s Facebook profiles—the platform wasn’t a primary focus for Russian operatives until 2017. As media attention turned to Facebook and Twitter, the report says, the IRA ramped up its presence on Instagram, with post totals more than doubling from roughly 2,600 posts a month in 2016 to almost 6,000 in 2017.