Internet Research Agency
Russian company engaged in online propaganda
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| 2024 | An investigation by multiple media outlets uncovered leaked documents from the 'Agency of Social Design', revealing their involvement in large-scale disinformation campaigns. The agency produced approximately 40,000 content units (including memes, images, and comments) over a 4-month period, targeting governments of France, Poland, Germany, and Ukraine. |
| July 1 2023 | The Internet Research Agency was announced to be shut down following the aftermath of the Wagner Group rebellion. |
| February 2023 | Yevgeny Prigozhin publicly admits to founding, creating, and managing the Internet Research Agency, following his previous admission of Russian interference in U.S. elections. |
| March 12 2020 | CNN reports that Russia and IRA are running 'troll factories' in Nigeria and Ghana to disrupt the 2020 US presidential campaign. |
| October 2018 | Russian accountant Elena Khusyaynova was charged with interference in the 2016 and 2018 U.S. elections, allegedly working with the Internet Research Agency and managing a $16 million budget for their operations. |
| March 23 2018 | Tumblr banned 84 accounts linked to IRA after leaked documents revealed their use of the platform for spreading misinformation. |
| March 15 2018 | President Trump imposed financial sanctions under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act on the 13 Russian individuals and organizations indicted by Mueller, effectively preventing them from entering the United States to respond to the charges. |
| February 16 2018 | The Internet Research Agency was indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for charges related to obstructing and impairing government functions. |
| February 16 2018 | A United States grand jury indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities, including the Internet Research Agency, on charges of interfering with U.S. elections and political processes. |
| February 1 2018 | The Internet Research Agency relocated its office from 55 Savushkina Street to a new location at Optikov street, 4, building 3, in the Lakhta-2 business center in Saint Petersburg. Following this move, they became known as the 'Lakhta Trolls'. |
| 2017 | A whistleblower revealed details about employee compensation, indicating that salaries with bonuses and long working hours could reach up to 80,000 Russian rubles. |
| September 9 2017 | Trump responds to a tweet from an IRA Twitter account, expressing gratitude for support. |
| 2016 | The Internet Research Agency attempted to influence the United States presidential election through social media manipulation. |
| November 12 2016 | BlackMattersUS organized a 'Trump is NOT my President' protest in Manhattan, attracting 5,000 to 10,000 participants who marched from Union Square to Trump Tower. |
| August 25 2016 | IRA organized 17 'Florida Goes Trump' rallies across Florida using the 'Being Patriotic' Facebook group and 'march_for_trump' Twitter account. |
| August 20 2016 | IRA organizes 17 'Florida Goes Trump' rallies across Florida, using Russian trolls to coordinate the events. |
| June 25 2016 | IRA organizes the 'March for Trump' rally and a candlelight vigil for Pulse nightclub shooting victims in Orlando, Florida, via their LGBT United Facebook group. |
| May 29 2016 | IRA hires an American to pose in front of the White House holding a sign wishing a happy birthday to Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, referred to as 'Boss'. |
| April 23 2016 | IRA heavily promoted a white-power rally called 'Rock Stone Mountain' at Stone Mountain Park, Georgia, which resulted in violent clashes between demonstrators and counter-protesters. |
| April 19 2016 | IRA purchases its first pro-Trump ad through the 'Tea Party News' Instagram account, encouraging young Trump supporters to upload photos with the hashtag #KIDS4TRU. |
| April 16 2016 | IRA's 'Blacktivist' Facebook group promoted and organized a rally in Baltimore protesting the death of Freddie Gray. |
| April 4 2016 | IRA's 'Blacktivist' Facebook account organized and promoted a rally in Buffalo, New York protesting the death of India Cummings in police custody. |
| February 10 2016 | IRA instructs workers to criticize Hillary Clinton while supporting Sanders and Trump in online communications. |
| 2015 | The agency reportedly employed over 1,000 employees working in a single building, focused on creating fake social media accounts to promote Kremlin interests. |
| 2015 | The Internet Research Agency was first publicly exposed through an investigative article by Adrian Chen in The New York Times, detailing its online propaganda operations. |
| December 2015 | The agency started advocating for candidate Trump in December, according to the United States Intelligence Community report. |
| March 2015 | A service is launched in Ukraine to censor sources of anti-Ukrainian propaganda in social networks. |
| December 13 2014 | The IRA launches two separate disinformation campaigns: first, spreading a hoax about an Ebola outbreak in Atlanta using Twitter and a fabricated YouTube video of medical workers in hazmat suits; second, creating a false narrative about a purported police shooting of an unarmed black woman in Atlanta, accompanied by a blurry video. |
| September 2014 | IRA used bots and trolls on Twitter to spread disinformation about vaccine safety, amplifying polarizing pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine messages. |
| September 21 2014 | The Material Evidence art exhibition begins at the Art Beam gallery in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood, portraying conflicts in Syria and Ukraine from a pro-Russian perspective. The exhibition is partly funded by the IRA and promoted through Twitter accounts involved in previous disinformation campaigns. |
| September 11 2014 | IRA conducted the Columbian Chemicals Plant explosion hoax, creating a false narrative of an explosion in Centerville, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana. |
| June 2014 | Internet trolls massively post pro-Russian comments in broken English across news media sites. |
| June 2014 | Anonymous International uncovers and makes public Vyacheslav Volodin's strong support for Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Internet Research Agency trolls. |
| June 4 2014 | Two IRA employees, Aleksandra Krylova and Anna Bogacheva, travel to the United States to collect intelligence on election interference. A third employee, Maria Bovda, is denied a visa for the trip. |
| May 2014 | The IRA begins its election interference campaign aimed at spreading distrust towards political candidates and the overall political system. |
| May 2014 | The hacker group Anonymous International begins publishing documents from hacked emails of Internet Research Agency managers. |
| May 2014 | Fontanka.ru published an investigative report describing budget manipulation schemes related to the Internet Research Agency's funding and operations. |
| April 2014 | The Internet Research Agency creates a department called the 'translator project', specifically focused on interfering in the U.S. election. |
| March 2014 | Polish Newsweek suspects Russia of employing people to flood websites with pro-Russian comments about Ukraine, which was later confirmed by Poland's governmental computer emergency response team during the early stages of the Russo-Ukrainian War. |
| 2013 | According to Novaya Gazeta, the North-Western Service Agency was recruiting employees for disinformation projects in Moscow and other Russian cities. |
| 2013 | The Internet Research Agency is founded in Saint Petersburg, with its office located in the Olgino district. |
| August 16 2012 | Forbes magazine reveals the Medialogia website and Prisma terminals system capable of tracking and analyzing social media and blog platforms in near real-time. |
| December 4 2011 | After the Russian legislative elections and subsequent Snow revolution, Vyacheslav Volodin begins using Prisma terminals to counter dissidents in Russia. |
This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia article Internet Research Agency, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.