A dataset of more than 10 million Tweets released by Twitter Wednesday included a detailed picture of Russia’s attempt to influence voters away from Hillary Clinton and, eventually, toward Donald Trump.
Twitter said in a blog post that it was releasing the data in an effort to maintain transparency and fulfill a promise to keep both Congress and the public abreast of the findings of its “investigation into foreign interference in political conversations” on the platform.
The company has provided “a small group of researchers with specific expertise in these issues” early access to the data in the hope that independent analysis will promote a shared understanding of threats.
“We are making this data available with the goal of encouraging open research and investigation of these behaviors from researchers and academics around the world,” said the post, penned by Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of site integrity.