Russian Troll Account Classification with Twitter and Facebook Data

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether categories of Russian troll accounts identified on Twitter also appear in Facebook ads, aiming to understand cross-platform tactics and replicate existing Twitter classifications.

Contribution

It extends prior Twitter-based troll classification to Facebook ads, exploring shared tactics and categories across social media platforms.

Findings

Categories from Twitter data are partially present in Facebook ads.

Replicated Twitter troll categories in new dataset.

Insights into cross-platform disinformation tactics.

Abstract

In this analysis, we work with the data set that was compiled by Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren, along with a representative sample of Facebook ads that were released by the House Intelligence Committee Minority. The goal of this analysis is to use the categories defined by Linvill and Warren in the Twitter data and investigate if these categories exist in Facebook ads. This begin to give us insights to the tactics used between the two social media services. Further, we try to replicate Linvill and Warren's original categorization of the Twitter data. Lastly, we investigate what categories may exist in the Facebook data.