British officials probe 2,800 Russian bots that 'spread confusion' after Salisbury nerve agent attack on former spy

[*]Thousands of robotic accounts sowed doubt about attempted murder of Skripal 
[*]The campaign may have reached as many as 7.5million people in Great Britain 
[*]More than one in four of the suspect posts identified by UK officials were created by just six accounts 

Russia mounted a huge disinformation campaign online in the wake of the Salisbury spy attack, British officials believe. Thousands of robotic accounts were involved in sowing doubts about the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, reaching at least 7.5million people in the UK.

‘We have seen the Russian state deploy an extensive disinformation campaign around the Salisbury incident,’ a British official told the Times.

‘This campaign curiously began before the prime minister announced that Russia was behind the attack.’

The so-called ‘bot’ accounts on sites such as Twitter numbered an estimated 2,800, and their messages were interacted with 75million times.

The automated accounts are computer programs which can post on social media hundreds of times a day.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5538699/Officials-probe-2-800-Russian-bots-spread-confusion.html#ixzz5Ag35JdY6
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