This morning, NBC News published a database of 200,000 tweets that it says Twitter has tied to a campaign by a Russia-linked propaganda group called the Internet Research Association. The tweets were intended to disrupt the United States’ presidential election, according to the report.
Twitter has scrubbed the tweets from its site, and most are not backed up by organizations that archive online content. Some were boilerplate political posts boosting Donald Trump and criticizing Hillary Clinton. But several appear to be impersonating Black Lives Matter activists, which was a way of blending in on Twitter to make their nefarious activity less noticeable. Links and images that were in the tweets are now removed, making the context of some unclear (this also means they can't be embedded or screenshotted, which is why some are in plain text).
Twitter had previously informed 1.4 million of its users that they had interacted with accounts associated with the Internet Research Agency. The list of tweets published by NBC News was assembled from a list of accounts provided to Congress by Twitter, according to the report.
Here are the the 20 most-shared tweets in the release, which we reconstructed from the NBC data:
Archive Link, Date: 2016-10-20 05:40:07, Retweets: 10,467, Favorites: 10,437.
Archive Link. Date: 2016-10-17 19:24:44, Retweets: 7071, Favorites: 5430.
User: @trayneshacole
Tweet: “go all the way off https://t.co/QtScy6u8I7”
Direct Link , Date: 2016-11-17 20:27:21, Retweets: 20494, Favorites: 26655.
User: @gloed_up
Tweet: “#AnthonyCage was bloodied at St. Louis Trump rally. Spread this like wild fire #TrumpRallyChi #BlackToLive https://t.co/ChJGHtOVa2"
Direct Link, Date: 2016-03-12 19:50:32, Retweets: 18,209, Favorites: 7,252.
Archived Link, Date: 2016-10-10 22:55:10, Retweets: 13,636, Favorites: 12,815.
Archived Link, Date: 2016-10-11 02:11:02, Retweets: 12,078, Favorites: 10,867.
User: @ten_gop:
Tweet: “RT the hell out of it: Dem party operatives: 'We've been bussing people in.. for 50 yrs and we're not going to sto… https://t.co/tO0NKGEJE2”
Direct Link, Date: 2016-10-18 18:44:14, Retweets: 12042, Favorites: 7953.
User: @crystal1johnson
Tweet: “Muhammad Ali, the only person whose Hollywood Walk of Fame Star is hanging on a wall, not for anyone to step on https://t.co/OLw89EDEIU”
Direct Link, Date: 2016-06-04 01:06:58, Retweets: 11,616, Favorites: 8,969.
User: @jenn_abrams
Tweet: “Some guy right in Hillary's face: HILLARY FOR PRISON Hillary: LET'S MAKE IT HAPPEN I almost feel sorry for her https://t.co/CKfdSuASHB”
Direct Link, Date: 2016-09-18 16:42:48, Retweets: 11,363, Favorites: 16,068.
Archive Link, Date: 2016-10-09 01:27:00, Retweets: 10,823, Favorites: 10,340.
Archive Link, Date: 2016-09-21 15:37:27 Retweets: 10,310 Favorites: 8,495.
User: @pamela_moore13
Tweet: “65 Top “Journalists” from MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS & Politico have been submitting their work to Hillary for approval b… https://t.co/zlVtNwZHaR”
Direct Link, Date: 2016-10-30 21:24:45, Retweets: 9,739, Favorites: 6,895.
User: @trayneshacole
Tweet: “White boyfriend shows true colors on his Black girlfriend over Trump & #BlackLivesMatter Girl, you should've punch… https://t.co/pNFAyDZdoC”
Direct Link, Date: 2016-11-10 22:50:19, Retweets: 9,432, Favorites: 9,265.
User: @pamela_moore13
Tweet: “I would rather take care of TEN homeless US Veterans, than 50,000 migrants/illegal aliens.. How About You? https://t.co/Fa3H2Krxix”
Direct Link, Date: 2016-06-16 23:35:47, Retweets: 9,348, Favorites: 9,242.
Archive Link, Date: 2016-07-29 18:02:58, Retweets: 9,003, Favorites: 6,508.
User: @ten_gop
Tweet: “BREAKING🚨 Thousands of names changed on voter rolls in Indiana. Police investigating #VoterFraud. #DrainTheSwamp https://t.co/JdLzKTt4cC"
Direct Link, Date: 2016-10-19 00:08:20, Retweets: 8,707, Favorites: 7,501.
Archive Link, Date: 2016-11-02 18:59:01, Retweets: 8,177, Favorites: 5,224.
User: @ten_gop
Tweet: “OMFG! This is EXPLOSIVE!
THE MOST IMPORTANT VIDEO OF THE ELECTION!
Retweet! Takes 2 sec but will change everythin… https://t.co/18PtBuQr2h”
Direct Link, Date: 2016-10-18 00:05:15, Retweets: 7,457, Favorites: 5,032.
User: @cyrstal1johnson
Tweet: "There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder. -- Colin Kaepernick… https://t.co/ltDtnlBx9O”
Direct Link, Date: 2016-09-19 23:03:10, Retweets: 7,094, Favorites: 6,909.
