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Jewish Dems: Russian Trolls Manipulated Public Opinion on Israel

August 8, 2018

As reported in The Times of Israel, researchers have recently uncovered tens of thousands of social media posts disseminated by Russian trolls focused on Israel during the 2016 election. These posts, aimed at manipulating the way Americans viewed President Trump’s relationship with Israel, demonstrate that Russian meddling in the U.S. election targeted specific demographics and focused on specific issues, such as Israel.

The content of the posts came from the Internet Research Agency, or IRA, which is a Russian troll farm based in St. Petersburg. Of the tens of thousands of IRA-originated posts focused on Israel, the majority positively depicted President Trump’s approach to Israel and negatively depicted Secretary Clinton and President Obama’s approach.

The Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) is deeply concerned about Russian meddling in our democratic institutions and processes, including the manipulation of information online. More must be done by Congress and the White House to counter Russian interference in our democracy, especially in advance of the midterms. Join with JDCA today and tell Congress it’s time to TAKE ACTION to protect our democracy and hold Russia accountable.