Mr. Dickerson declined to comment and Ms. Hudson did not respond to queries. The Alabama project got started as Democrats were coming to grips with the Russians’ weaponizing of social media to undermine the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton and promote Donald J. Trump. Mr. Morgan reached out at the time to Renée DiResta, who would later join New Knowledge and was lead author of the report on Russian social media operations released this week. “I know there were people who believed the Democrats needed to fight fire with fire,” Ms. DiResta said, adding that she disagreed. “It was absolutely chatter going around the party.”But she said Mr. Morgan simply asked her for suggestions of online tactics worth testing.

Source: New York Times December 20, 2018 00:00 UTC