A Twitter account that the Tennessee Republican Party tried to get suspended by the social media company had ties to Russia, according to a new report in Russian media.
A report released Tuesday by Russian business magazine RBC determined the account, known as @TEN_GOP, was created by a Russian "troll farm" dedicated to influencing Americans' political views.
Since the account appeared in late 2015, the Tennessee Republican Party sent three messages to Twitter saying the account was misleading. A picture associated with the account featured the state seal and the location was set in Tennessee.
"The account is in no way affiliated with us and it was misleading," said Michael Sullivan, executive director of the state party.
On Wednesday, Facebook said that it had discovered evidence of ad spending related to fake accounts "likely operated out of Russia" during the 2016 US presidential election. USA TODAY
Not only were party officials concerned that people might confuse its Twitter page, @TNGOP, with @TEN_GOP, the Russian-linked account frequently tweeted racist posts. At one point, the Confederate battle flag was even added to the account's official image.
"It was a very disturbing online presence throughout the 2016 election cycle," Brent Leatherwood, the former state party executive director, said Wednesday.
Leatherwood said the racist posts that often appeared on the account exploited divisions in America. Some posts featured anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim messages.
"It's a shame how quickly people fell into that trap," Leatherwood said.
Many of the posts by the account featured unusual syntax. But that didn't stop people from sharing the messages. Their posts were shared by Tennessee politicians and others outside the state, including conservative commentator Ann Coulter.
Throughout the year, the account amassed a significantly larger following than the state party's official Twitter account, eventually getting nearly 150,000 followers. The state party has about 13,000.
Around the time that Twitter finally suspended @TEN_GOP in August, state party officials were in talks with the national Republican Party about working to halt the account.
Last month President Donald Trump thanked an account thought to be associated with @TEN_GOP after the account tweeted "We love you, Mr. President."
The latest development by RBC is the first suggestion that the account had connections to Russia.
Twitter, along with Facebook, is facing scrutiny for its slow response to suggestions that social media platforms were used by Russians to influence the presidential election.
Last month Twitter said it found about 200 accounts linked to Russian groups that bought $100,000 worth of ads on Facebook in an effort to influence the election.