Devin Nunes asked Russian bots to help make an article discrediting the Russia investigation 'go viral'

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February 21, 2018 11:16 PM

His sarcastic tweet mocked the well-documented existence of Russian operatives on Twitter.

Rep. Devin Nunes, the author of a controversial memo on alleged misconduct at the FBI and Department of Justice, sent a tweet asking Russian bots to help him get a tweet to go viral.
In his tweet he linked to an article from The Federalist that claimed to debunk a number of alleged conspiracy theories about the Russia investigation.
Russian bots tied to the Russian Internet Research Agency had previously helped boost the Twitter hashtag #ReleaseTheMemo, which called on the House Intelligence Committee to release Nunes memo.

Sign up for the latest Russia investigation updates.Rep. Devin Nunes, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, sent a tweet on Wednesday in which he sarcastically called on Russian bots to help an article he had linked to go viral.

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The Russian bots Nunes is referring to are Twitter accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian organization that stood at the center of the multifaceted effort by groups close to the Russian state and President Vladimir Putin to interfere in the 2016 US election. Special counsel Robert Mueller handed down a detailed indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities last week, including the IRA, for "violating US criminal laws in order to interfere with US elections and political processes."

Multiple US intelligence agencies that investigated Russian meddling in the US election have concluded that the interference did take place. Mueller's indictment casts further light on this interference operation, and points specifically to the IRA as a hub from which hundreds of fake accounts were used to divide the American public and sow political discord online.

Although the article argues that #ReleaseTheMemo was not pushed by IRA-linked Russian bots, data from Hamilton 68, a website launched last year that says it tracks Russian propaganda in near-real time, seems to suggest otherwise — during a two-day period in January, the frequency with which these bots tweeted the hashtag skyrocketed by 233,000%. The article though also casts doubt on Hamilton 68's methodology, and points to the fact that the site does not disclose which specific accounts it is tracking.

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