In March, former FBI agent Clint Watts testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

"Part of the reason active measures have worked in this U.S. election," Watts told Congress, "is because the Commander-in-Chief [Donald Trump] has used Russian active measures, at times, against his opponents."

The blockbuster testimony led to Watts trending on Twitter. But he understood something that millions of Americans didn't: News that promotes American interests is often overwhelmed on the popular social-media platform by information that seeks to undermine it -- most notably from Russian agents and bots.

To help combat this threat from abroad, Watts has helped created a new website that tracks some 600 Twitter accounts that push Russian propaganda and disinformation.

The website, a project of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, is called Hamilton 68 -- a reference to the Federalist Papers No. 68, in which Founding Father Alexander Hamilton warned of "the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils."

The website's objective is to make Americans who use Twitter aware of Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to guide U.S. political discourse. "We're not deciding what news and stories to highlight," extremism expert and Hamilton 68 co-developer J.M. Berger told Business Insider. "We're just showing what accounts linked to Russian influence operations are tweeting about."

Hamilton 68's listing of trends and links shows that it's not unusual for conservative media outlets such as Fox News to pick up on and spread Russian propaganda.

During the last week of July, Hamilton 68 states, Russian propaganda has focused on President Trump, U.S. sanctions against Russia, the Syrian civil war and Robert Mueller, the special council who is investigating the Trump team's connections to Russian agents. Hamilton 68 highlights, for example, the Twitter account for the Russian-sponsored news service Sputnik. A recent Sputnik headline: "'Flawed' #sanctions law: how #Trump can gain the upper hand over Congress."

Hamilton 68 also notes that during the last week of July Russian propaganda efforts "targeting Robert Mueller and his investigation were uniformly hostile." Sputnik has focused recently on "#Trump's aides investigat[ing] #RussiaGate Chief #Mueller's team."



Watts' new website even surfaces some quirky tweets, such as this headline that seeks to obscure the rise in white supremacy in the U.S.: "Man who trained dog to make Nazi salute denies hate crime saying 'whole purpose was to annoy my girlfriend.'"

Top hashtags used by Russian trolls and bots right now include #MAGA, #Syria, #Trump and #SethRich.

Seth Rich was a Democratic National Committee staffer who was murdered last summer in Washington, D.C. His death, which police believe was a botched robbery attempt, has been used by right-wing conspiracy theorists such as Fox News' Sean Hannity to attack Hillary Clinton and conceal links between controversial anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks and Russia's efforts to influence the election.

Watts and his fellow Hamilton 68 developers say they hope that by exposing Russian propaganda and disinformation accounts, fewer Americans will take such messages at "face value."

That's a lot to ask of an obscure new website, but it's a start.

-- Douglas Perry