Reddit discovers organized Russian information campaign to influence UK

Reddit says it has discovered an organized Russian operation on its platform, which appears to be aimed at influencing the British elections. Documents about the negotiations between the United Kingdom and the United States appeared on the site.

Documents recently leaked via Reddit about the British health care system and the negotiations with the United States about access to it. The company behind the social networking site then launched an investigation, which found dozens of accounts with links to Russia. It concerns a total of 61 accounts, which have since been banned. It is also not clear whether the leaked documents are genuine or not; neither the British nor the American governments would confirm that.

Although it cannot be said with certainty who is behind the influence campaign, the fingers seem to be pointing at the Russian government. This is because of the scale of the operation, and because the setup and style is similar to an operation on Facebook, called Secondary Infektion.

There are regular reports of Russian influence campaigns. Recently, Microsoft accused Russian state hackers of attacking the systems of anti-doping authorities. Facebook removed a number of troll networks from Russia from its website.