Kremlin Twitter accounts get a boost thanks to Elon Musk

Russia is reaping the benefits of Twitter under Musk's leadership.

As Elon Musk launches attacks against news outlets like The New York Times, NPR, and BBC, at least one media outlet is reaping the benefits of Musk’s ownership of Twitter. Russian state propaganda arm RT — which has been compared to the ministry of defense and described as an “information weapon” by its own editor-in-chief — has recently experienced sharp growth in its follower count as well as increased engagement with its tweets, coinciding with Musk’s decision to lift the restrictions that were placed on Kremlin-linked accounts in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

According to The Telegraph, Kremlin-linked accounts have not only had restrictions on their accounts lifted, but they’ve actually been getting algorithmically boosted and pushed into people’s “For You” feeds, as well as appearing in lists of recommended accounts to follow.

I took a closer look at how this move is impacting engagement with Kremlin-linked accounts, using RT’s Twitter account as a case study. The results of this case study show that Musk’s decision to lift visibility restrictions on Kremlin-linked accounts has resulted in a significant increase in followers, as well as a corresponding increase in engagement with tweets from the previously-restricted accounts.

As seen in the chart below, @RT_com was losing followers on a near-daily basis until the beginning of April, when Musk lifted restrictions on Kremlin-linked accounts. At that point, the trend saw a dramatic reversal, such that RT’s Twitter account started consistently gaining followers every day.

The follower count for RT’s Twitter account shows a dramatic turnaround, going from losing followers daily to gaining followers every day. The change corresponds with Elon Musk lifting restrictions on Kremlin-linked Twitter accounts. (Screenshot: Social Blade/Caroline Orr Bueno).

Similar trends can be observed when looking at engagement with @RT_com’s tweets. As seen in the screenshots below, RT’s Twitter account has received significantly more engagement in the form of both “likes” and retweets since the start of April, when Musk reversed the restrictions placed on their account last year. The number of “likes” received per day nearly doubled from its base rate of less than 10,000 to well over 15,000, while the number of retweets more than doubled from approximately 2,000 to nearly 5,000 retweets per day.

The number of “likes” received daily by RT’s Twitter account nearly doubled at the beginning of April, corresponding with Musk lifting the restrictions on their account. (Screenshot: @conspirator0).

The number of daily retweets received by RT’s Twitter account also increased dramatically at the beginning of April, going from an average of around 2,000 to nearly 5,000 retweets per day. (Screenshot: @conspirator0).

The restrictions that Musk lifted at the start of the month were initially placed on Kremlin-linked accounts last year, after Russia invaded Ukraine. In February 2022, Twitter announced that it was limiting the visibility of Russian state media accounts like RT and Sputnik. Two months later, in April 2022, Twitter responded to Russia’s attempts to restrict and manipulate information about the war by saying it would “not amplify or recommend government accounts belonging to states that limit access to free information and are engaged in armed interstate conflict.” These restrictions were applied to all official Russian government accounts as a way of sanctioning the Kremlin for its serial violations of international norms and laws.

It’s unclear why Musk chose to lift these restrictions now, as Russia is still in Ukraine and still committing horrific war crimes against troops and civilians alike. As recently as this week, a gruesome ISIS-style propaganda video surfaced purporting to show Russian soldiers beheading a still-alive Ukrainian prisoner of war. The video — a type of psychological warfare meant to instill terror in the public — spread on numerous social media platforms, including Twitter.

So despite continuing its reprehensible and illegal behavior, the Russian government’s Twitter accounts — and associated propaganda arms — are not only being given a platform to spread terroristic content, but they’re actually getting amplified by Twitter’s algorithm.

All of this is happening just as Musk is waging war on credible news outlets like The New York Times, NPR, and BBC. Last week, Musk referred to The New York Times as “propaganda” and then singled them out, making them the first and only (thus far) news outlet to lose their blue verification checkmark. A few days later, he erroneously decided to label NPR as “state-affiliated media,” putting them in the same category as RT, Sputnik, and state-run media controlled by autocratic regimes.

As I explained on BBC, this decision was so flawed that even Elon Musk couldn’t defend it. (And as I also explained on BBC, this move will only serve to help autocratic regimes like Putin’s). Musk later backtracked slightly and changed the label to “government-funded,” but it was too little, too late. NPR announced on Wednesday that it was leaving Twitter because it had (understandably) lost confidence in Musk’s leadership. Later that day, PBS also announced that it would no longer be using Twitter due to Musk’s poor decision-making around the application of “state-affiliated media” and “government-funded media” labels. It remains to be seen whether BBC will do the same.

In the course of just a week, Musk’s erratic leadership resulted in two major, credible news organizations leaving the platform just as Russia’s “information weapon” RT got a boost from Twitter’s algorithm, leading to a surge in engagement and followers for an account linked to a regime that is actively committing war crimes. If you had any doubt that Twitter under Musk’s leadership is a national security threat, this should put an end to that.

I would like to extend a special thanks to my friend @conspirator0 for assisting with the analysis of engagement and producing the graphs pictured in this article.