Russian social media accounts attempted to disrupt US energy markets last year by stirring opposition to shale drilling and infrastructure projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline, a House of Representatives committee said in a report Thursday.
The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology said data from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram "confirmed that Russian agents were exploiting American social media platforms in an effort to disrupt domestic energy markets, suppress research and development of fossil-fuels, and stymie efforts to expand the use of natural gas."
The accounts were linked to the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg company indicted last month by a US grand jury in connection with cyber attacks on the 2016 presidential election.
Posts by the Russian-linked accounts targeted oil and gas pipelines including Dakota Access, Sabal Trail, Keystone XL, Colonial, Bayou Bridge and Enbridge Line 5, the report said.
But it was unclear from the report how much influence the Russian-linked posts actually had on US protests of pipelines and other infrastructure.
For example, the top anti-Dakota Access post cited by the report only drew five shares on Facebook and 1,794 likes on Instagram, whereas real opposition within the US got significantly more traction.
The House report said more than 4% of tweets by the Internet Research Agency between 2015 and 2017 related to energy or environmental issues, compared with 8% of tweets related to the election.
"America's emergency as a global energy exporter presents a significant threat to Russian energy interests," the report said. "Such competition reduces the revenue and influence generated by Russian energy exports.
"This adversely affects the Kremlin's ability to leverage Eastern Europe's reliance on their energy and their ability to carry out their geopolitical agenda. The surge of American energy into the global marketplace heightens the Kremlin's desire to eliminate or mitigate the American energy threat and to do so by influencing social media users, American voters, and public officials," the report said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called the allegations in the US indictment baseless.
