Media

New Twitter Files Show Media Outlets Fell For ‘Russian Bot’ Lies

Photo by David Odisho/Getty Images

James Lynch Contributor
Font Size:

A prominent digital dashboard that claimed to track “Russian influence activities” on Twitter falsely accused hundreds of right-leaning users of being Russian bots, new documents show.

The Hamilton 68 digital dashboard, run by former FBI Agent Clint Watts, created a list of Twitter accounts it alleged were part of a Russian influence operation. Twitter executives did not find evidence of Hamilton 68’s claims and wanted to push back against the allegations, according to private communications released by veteran journalist Matt Taibbi in the latest “Twitter Files” report.

“I think we need to just call this out on the bullshit it is,” former Twitter Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth told colleagues in an Oct. 2017 email about Hamilton 68’s account list. Roth’s colleague Nick Pickles said in Aug. 2017 Hamilton 68’s account list was “hardly illuminating a massive influence operation,” Taibbi reported.

Roth warned colleagues in a Jan. 2018 email that “the Hamilton dashboard ‘falsely accuses a bunch of legitimate right-leaning accounts of being Russian bots,'” according to Tabbi. (RELATED: The Twitter Files Raised A Lot Of Questions About Twitter And The FBI. The Bureau Hasn’t Answered Any Of Them)

Media outlets frequently cited Hamilton 68 in reports about Russian bots amplifying hashtags that promoted conservative causes, Taibbi noted. Multiple outlets claimed that hashtags about former President Donald Trump, Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham, the deep state, the 2018 midterm elections, Russiagate and other news events were promoted by Russian bots, based on Hamilton 68’s findings.

Hamilton 68 said its analysis “linked 600 Twitter accounts to Russian influence activities online” when the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a national security think tank, launched the project in 2017. The list of accounts was never released to the public.

Taibbi notes that ASD’s advisory council includes several prominent figures, including “neoconservative writer Bill Kristol, former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, ex-Hillary for America chief John Podesta, and former heads or deputy heads of the CIA, NSA, and the Department of Homeland Security.”

When Twitter executives went through Hamilton 68’s list, Roth concluded in Feb. 2018 that “these accounts are neither strongly Russian nor strongly bots; they’re just generally right-leaning users. Virtually any conclusion drawn from it will take conversations in conservative circles on Twitter and accuse them of being Russian.”

The list presented an ethical challenge to Twitter, because “[r]eal people need to know they’ve been unilaterally labeled Russian stooges without evidence or recourse,” Roth said in a January 2018 email. He considered sending Hamilton 68 an ultimatum about releasing the list of accounts, according to Taibbi.

Twitter executives considered publicly refuting Hamilton 68 because “citing Hamilton 68 is being wrong, irresponsible, and biased,” a colleague said in a Feb. 2018 email to Roth. Other executives cautioned Roth against exposing the dashboard, including future White House spokesperson Emily Horne, according to Taibbi.

“[W]e have to be careful in how much we push back on ASD publicly,” Horne said to Roth in February 2018. Likewise, future Pete Buttigieg adviser Carlos Horne told Roth to “understand we have to play a longer game here” by not calling out Hamilton 68, Taibbi reported.

The Twitter accounts listed by Hamilton 68 were mostly ordinary American, Canadian and British users, according to Taibbi. The list only contained a few accounts linked to Russian propaganda network RT.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel