PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.

Twitter Notifies 677k Users of Russian Election Propaganda

The fake Twitter accounts were likely under the control of the Internet Research Agency, a Russian company with ties to the Kremlin.

 & Michael Kan Principal Reporter

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

Our Expert
LOOK INSIDE PC LABS HOW WE TEST
65 EXPERTS
43 YEARS
41,500+ REVIEWS

Over 677,000 people in the US liked, retweeted or followed Twitter accounts possibly tied with Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Twitter revealed the finding on Friday. It's been investigating how Russian trolls managed to create and exploit fake accounts over the service to sway public sentiment during the election.

So far, the company has found 3,814 Twitter accounts that were likely under the control of Internet Research Agency, a Russian company many believe is backed by the Kremlin.

The accounts include @TEN_GOP, a Republicans group in Tennessee that pushed pro-Donald Trump tweets, @Pamela_Moore13, a conservative personality, and @crystal1johnson, a black woman who was critical of US police.

However, none of the accounts were real and Twitter has suspended them. The company is now sending out emails to the 677,000 people who fell for the deception.

Twitter Internet Research Agency

Twitter has been working with US congressional investigators to determine the full scale of Russian attempts to exploit social media during the election. On Friday, the company said the 3,814 accounts linked with the Internet Research Agency posted 175,993 tweets, with only 8.4 percent election-related.

Another 50,258 Russian-linked Twitter accounts were found automatically spamming tweets about the election.

In total, the Russian-created content amounted to a "very small fraction" of overall Twitter activity in the ten weeks prior to the actual vote. "However any such activity represents a challenge to democratic societies everywhere, and we're committed to continuing to work on this important issue," Twitter said.

The company has been improving its systems to automatically stop and detect abuse. The service currently blocks about 523,000 suspicious logins everyday. Since last June, Twitter has also removed 220,000 applications on the platform that were abusing its rules and spamming tweets.

For the upcoming 2018 election, the company is verifying the Twitter accounts of all major party candidates for statewide and federal offices as a way to hinder account impersonation.

About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

  • My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
  • I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
  • The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
  • Xbox 360 FTW
  • The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
  • The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

Read full bio