13 Russian nationals, 3 entities indicted in sweeping case
Social media, contacts with campaign and staging rallies
U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller announced an indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities, accusing them of interfering in the 2016 presidential election and operating fake social media accounts.
[Click here to read the indictment]
The indictment announced on Friday was the first criminal case to accuse Russians of seeking to influence the outcome of the U.S. election.
The Internet Research Agency, a Russian organization, and the defendants began working in 2014 to interfere in U.S. elections, according to the indictment in Washington. They used false personas and social media while also staging political rallies and communicating with “unwitting individuals” associated with the Trump campaign, it said.
The goal was to disparage Hillary Clinton and to assist the election of Donald Trump.
Mueller’s office said that none of the defendants was in custody.
U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller announced an indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities, accusing them of interfering in the 2016 presidential election and operating fake social media accounts.
If this is the standard of a crime, then the US gov has been committing crimes by interfering in elections in numerous other countries.
It's hand's down hypocritical and I hope it's pointed out abundantly by foreign countries.
How many millions of Americans have fake social media accounts? 20 million? 50 million?
Maybe not that many.
But there are companies that create fake users on these platforms and sell services to companies and individuals like politicians and media figures so they can just buy big numbers of "followers" to make themselves look more popular than they really are.
And those companies are not illegal. So I'm trying to understand why it's wrong for Russians to have fake accounts to peddle whatever but it isn't wrong for pols and celebs and libmedia figures to flack #FakeNews with their own fake Twitter/Facebook accounts.
