Russian-sponsored operatives used social media to try to disrupt U.S. energy markets and influence domestic energy policy, House Republicans said in a report released Thursday.
Republican staff of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee obtained social media data and posts from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram that showed Russian agents used the platforms to try to suppress development of fossil fuels, stymie U.S. efforts to expand natural gas use, and encourage dissent about the science of climate change.
“This report reveals that Russian agents created and spread propaganda on U.S. social media platforms in an obvious attempt to influence the U.S. energy market,” said committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas. “Russian agents attempted to manipulate Americans’ opinions about pipelines, fossil fuels, fracking and climate change.”
Smith said the Russians were motivated to curtail U.S. energy production, since the United States has become a dominant producer of oil and natural gas, rivaling Moscow and threatening its market share.
The U.S. will pass Russia as the world’s top oil producer by 2019 at the latest, the International Energy Agency said this week.
“To the extent that America produces more energy of any kind, it guarantees Russia more competition,” Smith said. “Russia wants to reduce competition from the United States.”
The Russian accounts used to post the material are linked to the Internet Research Agency, a Russian company established by the government to use social and traditional media platforms to advance Kremlin propaganda.
Special counsel Robert Mueller this month issued charges against 13 Russians involved in interfering in the 2016 presidential election, including 12 people who worked for the Internet Research Agency.
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram provided Republican committee staffers with data showing that 4,334 accounts on those platforms were linked to the Internet Research Agency.
The report identifies 9,097 Russian social media posts regarding U.S. energy policy or events between 2015 and 2017.
In its posts, the Russian-linked accounts targeted pipelines, fossil fuels, climate change and other divisive issues to influence policy.
For example, the report says, Russian-sponsored agents provided money to U.S. environmental groups to portray energy companies in a negative way.
Several posts encouraged protests of pipeline construction, with many specifically targeting the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline by promoting links to online petitions opposing it.
Environmental and Native American groups stalled the construction of that pipeline with protests, but the Trump administration allowed it to begin shipping oil last year.
“The posts emphasized and exacerbated the alleged violent nature of the protests,” the report says.
But the Russians also released posts supportive of the pipeline, showing that the goal of the effort was to sow discord.
The Russian propaganda also focused on portraying America as a nation fixated on oil to the detriment of broader society.
One post, for example, highlighted the “subsidies” energy companies receive from government, and contrasted that with an apparent lack of support for public school funding.
Other posts focused on the contentious debate over climate change, seeking to exacerbate the divide by blaming severe weather events on global warming and claiming Americans ignore those ties.
The posts suggest conservatives view climate change as a “liberal hoax,” the report says.
But again, the posts also poke the other side and take positions opposing U.S. action on climate change.
One post states, “liberals tax our business not because it is in the planet’s interest, but because they are afraid of fair competition, want additional money for themselves, and wish to control [the] energy sector in this country.”
“By posting content that supports positions held by both liberals and conservatives alike, the Russians used social media to instigate and inflame discord in the United States,” the report says.
The Republican authors of the report said its findings should be taken seriously, and express hope it could push Americans to unite around energy policy.
“Regardless of one’s political or ideological views surrounding U.S. energy policy and climate change, the American people deserve to be free from foreign political interference,” the report says.
