TRACKING RUSSIAN INFLUENCE OPERATIONS ON TWITTER
Top Themes
Updated on September 22, 6:22 PM
Top Themes
Between September 16th and September 22nd, we examined 80 stories listed among the Top URLs on the dashboard. Of those stories, over 25% had a primary theme of anti-Americanism. Hillary Clinton was the target of 15% of the stories, with themes ranging from Benghazi and her purported funding of Antifa to her daughter’s use of Twitter. Nine stories (11%) focused on wiretapping and the federal investigation into Paul Manafort; seven of those stories had either a theme of vindication for President Trump’s earlier wiretapping claims and/or a repudiation of the “deep state” (the other two URLs were the original CNN story). Five stories focused on Morgan Freeman and the launch of the Committee to Investigate Russia, and another four stories pushed the narrative of China and Russia joining forces to bypass the dollar in global markets. Other topics that were carry-overs from previous weeks were: Syria (nine stories); anti-immigration or anti-DACA (four); and anti-Protest/Antifa (three). Among trending topics, a thread of pro-secession movements was visible, including support for Kurdistan, Catalonia, and, more subtly, a travel guide for Crimea.
