Internet Research Agency campaign

Case summary

The St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) ran networks of fake accounts producing polarising content, most prominently around the 2016 US election cycle. The operation was documented in extraordinary detail by the Mueller indictment, Senate Intelligence Committee reports and platform data releases, making it the reference case of disinformation research.

Timeline

1. 2013-07IRA operations were established at 55 Savushkina Street, St. Petersburg.
2. 2015-06Adrian Chen's investigation 'The Agency' ran in NYT Magazine.
3. 2016-11Fake-account networks peaked ahead of the US election.
4. 2018-02-16The Mueller inquiry indicted the IRA and 13 individuals.
5. 2018-12Independent analyses for the Senate (New Knowledge, Oxford) laid the platform data open.
6. 2023-07After Prigozhin's death the IRA was reported shut; successor networks remain tracked.

People and connections

• Internet Research Agency

  The 'troll factory'; the indictment's main corporate subject.

• Yevgeny Prigozhin

  Charged as financier; acknowledged the operation in 2023.

• Savushkina 55

  The operation's documented address.

• Blacktivist / Heart of Texas

  Examples of the highest-engagement fake pages.

• Yevgeny Prigozhin to Internet Research AgencyFunding via Concord companies (indictment)
• Internet Research Agency to Blacktivist / Heart of TexasOpposing-identity pages run from the same operator pool

Findings

• The IRA's existence, address, staffing and content volume are verified by the indictment and platform data.

  Assessment: VerifiedSource: DOJ and Senate reports2018–2019

• Records show that the campaign produced content for both sides, including opposing rally calls from the same office.

  Assessment: VerifiedSource: Senate report, Vol. 22019-10

• The campaign's net effect on the election result is unmeasured; the reach-versus-impact distinction is debated in the literature.

  Assessment: ContestedSource: Academic literature2023

• Claims of one-to-one continuity between successor networks (e.g. Doppelgänger) and IRA staff are partly documented, partly analytic inference.

  Assessment: ProbableSource: EU DisinfoLab and platform reports2024

Documents

• DocumentMueller indictment (full text)Contains operator names and quoted internal correspondence.
• DocumentPlatform datasetsIRA account archives released to researchers by Twitter/Meta.
• PhotographPhotographs of 55 SavushkinaThe office building documented by journalists.

Sources

1. 01

   United States v. Internet Research Agency (indictment)

   US Department of Justice, 2018, Official indictment

   Open
2. 02

   Senate Intel Committee Report, Volume 2: Russia's Use of Social Media

   US Senate, 2019, Official committee report

   Open
3. 03

   The Agency

   NYT Magazine (Adrian Chen), 2015, Field investigation

   Open
4. 04

   The Tactics & Tropes of the IRA

   New Knowledge / Senate, 2018, Data-analysis report

   Open

Locations

• 55 Savushkina St, St. Petersburg59.99°, 30.24°

Researcher's note

Interpretation: the core skill this file teaches is reading scale: millions of impressions look impressive, but impact analysis demands a different kind of evidence. No conclusion sentence should bridge the gap between reach figures and behavioural change without data.