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Russian Bot Trump Retweets Neared 500K During Campaign

Tweets from Hillary Clinton's account received 47,846 retweets from Russian bots during the same time period, Twitter tells the Senate Judiciary Committee.

 & Angela Moscaritolo Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

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In the month leading up to the 2016 Presidential election, Russian Twitter bots retweeted Donald Trump's tweets hundreds of thousands of times, Twitter revealed in a note to Congress.

As was first reported by Bloomberg, Russian-linked automated Twitter accounts retweeted Trump's tweets 469,537 times from Sept. 1 through Nov. 15, 2016, Twitter wrote in the document, which was published Friday by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Tweets from Hillary Clinton's account received 47,846 retweets from Russian bots during the same time period.

In the note, Twitter said it identified 50,258 Russian-linked accounts on the platform that generated "automated, election-related content." Those accounts pumped out approximately 2.12 million election-related Tweets, which collectively received around 454.7 million impressions.

The company downplayed the impact of this activity, noting that those 2.12 million tweets "constituted approximately one percent of the overall election-related Tweets on Twitter at the time."

Critics, however, say Twitter has not done enough. Sen. Mark Warner, ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, for example, said a September presentation Twitter gave to lawmakers was "inadequate on almost every level."

Twitter earlier this month notified the more than 677,000 people in the US who liked, retweeted, or followed Russian-linked election-meddling accounts. Those accounts included @TEN_GOP, a Republican 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. None of the accounts were real and Twitter has since suspended them.

About Our Expert

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

My Experience

I'm PCMag's managing editor for consumer electronics, overseeing an experienced team of analysts covering smart home, home entertainment, wearables, fitness and health tech, and various other product categories. I have been with PCMag for more than 10 years, and in that time have written more than 6,000 articles and reviews for the site. I previously served as an analyst focused on smart home and wearable devices, and before that I was a reporter covering consumer tech news. I'm also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade. 

Prior to joining PCMag, I was a reporter for SC Magazine, focusing on hackers and computer security. I earned a BS in journalism from West Virginia University, and started my career writing for newspapers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

The Technology I Use

My little Florida beach bungalow is brimming with smart home tech. I have a smart speaker or display in every room, allowing me to control other connected devices by voice. The Nest Hub on my bedside table lets me set wake-up alarms, control my smart light bulbs, and set the temperature on my smart thermostat. I use the Amazon Echo Show 8 on my kitchen counter to browse recipes, reorder protein powder, check the weather, and watch the news while I do dishes. 

Because I suffer from allergies, air purifiers are essential. My favorite model is the Dyson Purifier Cool TP07, which doubles as a fan and continuously sends indoor pollution data to its companion mobile app. 

My pitbull Bradley sheds, so a good robot vacuum is a must. I currently use a premium Ecovacs Deebot that can both vacuum and mop, empty its own dustbin, and wash its own mop cloth. 

For fitness, I like to mix up my routine with cycling, indoor rowing, running, and strength training in addition to yoga. I take classes on the Tonal 2 smart strength training machine, I row indoors on an Aviron machine, and track my beach runs with an Apple Watch while listening to music on my Apple AirPods Pro. On the weekends, I love riding e-bikes like the rugged, beach-friendly Aventon Aventure for fun and fitness.

My job involves a lot of virtual meetings, so a quality webcam, microphone, and ring light are important. I use the Jabra PanaCast 20 webcam, the Elgato Wave: 3 microphone, and a Yesker tripod ring light. 

As for my preferred phone platform, I'm an iPhone person, but I've also extensively used Android for product testing.

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