Twitter said it has notified 1.4 million people in the U.S. that they interacted with Kremlin-linked accounts spreading propaganda during the 2016 presidential election — more than double the number of users the site initially notified last week.
“We have expanded the number of people notified about interactions with Twitter accounts potentially connected to a propaganda effort by a Russian government-linked organization known as the Internet Research Agency,” Twitter said in a statement on Wednesday. “Our notice efforts are focused on certain types of interactions, and they will not encompass every person that ever saw this content.”
Twitter said it notified any user in the U.S. who directly engaged with or followed one of the 3,814 accounts identified as connected to the Russian-linked Internet Research Agency during the 2016 presidential election. The site also notified people who opt out of Twitter emails and might have missed an initial notice.
Twitter previously notified 677,775 people of their interactions with Russian propaganda.
Both Twitter and Facebook have faced heavy scrutiny for the role that fake news and propaganda on their sites played during the 2016 presidential campaign, and both have promised to take steps to combat manipulation and misinformation.
