--- title: How to Spot a Russian Troll description: TIME spoke to activists who have been duped by trolls, the Russian trolls themselves, and cyber warfare experts, to gain insight on trolls. canonical: https://time.com/5274785/how-to-spot-a-russian-troll/ author: Arpita Aneja article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-11T23:05:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T11:33:21.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: How to Spot a Russian Troll og:description: A few important signs for spotting a troll social media account og:url: https://time.com/5274785/how-to-spot-a-russian-troll/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd086f8f3d90123b4/69893034096a9471336a2613/template-for-29-97-00_00_26_17-still002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1920 og:image:height: 1080 og:image:alt: TEMPLATE FOR 29.97.00_00_26_17.Still002 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Spot a Russian Troll twitter:description: A few important signs for spotting a troll social media account twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd086f8f3d90123b4/69893034096a9471336a2613/template-for-29-97-00_00_26_17-still002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How to Spot a Russian Troll > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Arpita Aneja](https://time.com/author/arpita-aneja/) and [Sandra Ifraimova](https://time.com/author/sandra-ifraimova/) Updated: Jan 24, 2024 11:33 AM UTCPublished: May 11, 2018 11:05 PM UTC  by [Arpita Aneja](https://time.com/author/arpita-aneja/) and [Sandra Ifraimova](https://time.com/author/sandra-ifraimova/) Updated: Jan 24, 2024 11:33 AM UTCPublished: May 11, 2018 11:05 PM UTC Spreading false information as a military strategy dates back to the Cold War, when so-called _Spetzpropaganda_ was used as a tactic to confuse and destabilize opponents. Today the job is even easier thanks to the Internet, and Russia continues to plant seeds of doubt and mistrust in the American government to add to a general feeling of chaos and unrest in the U.S. How can American citizens and civic-minded individuals recognize trolls? What should be done to prevent attacks on US democracy? In this video, TIME spoke to political activists who have been duped by trolls, cyber warfare experts and Russian trolls themselves to gain insight into how the U.S. election season was infiltrated. David Patrikarakos, author of _War in 140 Characters: How Social Media Is Reshaping Conflict in the Twenty-First Century_, says that recognizing trolls is becoming increasingly difficult, as propaganda efforts become more sophisticated. But he also offers a few important signs for spotting a troll social media account: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5274785/how-to-spot-a-russian-troll/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5274785/how-to-spot-a-russian-troll/"},"headline":"How to Spot a Russian Troll","datePublished":"2018-05-11T23:05:52.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-24T11:33:21.000Z","description":"A few important signs for spotting a troll social media account","url":"https://time.com/5274785/how-to-spot-a-russian-troll/","keywords":["Tech","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd086f8f3d90123b4/69893034096a9471336a2613/template-for-29-97-00_00_26_17-still002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Arpita Aneja","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/arpita-aneja/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Sandra Ifraimova","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sandra-ifraimova/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd086f8f3d90123b4/69893034096a9471336a2613/template-for-29-97-00_00_26_17-still002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TEMPLATE FOR 29.97.00_00_26_17.Still002","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5274785/how-to-spot-a-russian-troll/","name":"How to Spot a Russian Troll"}}]}] ```