Russian trolls sought to inflame debate over climate change

Washington: Russian trolls used Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to inflame US political debate over energy policy and climate change, a finding that underscores how the Russian campaign of social media manipulation went beyond the 2016 president election, congressional investigators reported on Thursday.

Military veterans huddle together to hold a United States flag
against strong winds during a march to a closed bridge outside
the Oceti Sakowin camp to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline
 in Cannon Ball, ND.

The new report from the House Science, Space and Technology Committee includes previously unreleased social media posts that Russians created on such contentious political issues as the Dakota Access Pipeline, government efforts to curb global warming and hydraulic fracturing, a gas mining technique often called “fracking."

One Facebook post created by a Russian-controlled group called "Native Americans United" shows what appears to be a young girl in a braid peering out over an unspoiled prairie. "Love Water Not Oil, Protect Our Mother, Stand With Standing Rock," a reference to an Indian tribe that opposed the Dakota Access Pipeline. The post also said, "No Pipelines. No Fracking. No Tar Sands.”

Read the story in today’s Age - “Russian trolls sought to inflame debate over climate change.”