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Article snippet: Special counsel MORE’s new indictment against Russians accused of meddling in the 2016 presidential race revealed a highly organized, sophisticated operation aimed at manipulating voters, stealing identities and sowing discord among social media users. Robert Mueller delivered charges against the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian “troll farm,” as well as 13 foreign nationals affiliated with the organization. Mueller’s indictment doesn’t assess whether the group was successful in swaying the election for MORE, but the allegations do illustrate the sophisticated effort that went into their campaign. According to the filing, IRA employees created hundreds of fake social media accounts, including Facebook and Twitter pages organizedto appeal to specific political, religious and ethnic groups. Other fake accounts impersonated real Americans. The indictment alleges that the accounts were used “to develop certain fictitious U.S. personas into ‘leader[s] of public opinion’ in the United States.” The group tried to use that influence to rally voters around Trump and Sen. MORE (R-Texas); and to convince minority voters to either not vote or back a third-party candidate like Green Party candidate Jill Stein. The Russian organization had dedicated day- and night-shifts to allow them to target different time zones in the U.S., as well as separate departments for graphics, data analysis, search engine optimization, IT and finance. Beginning in 2014, the indictment alle... Link to the full article to read more