Twitter Star Jenna Abrams Was Russian Fake: Fooled Thousands — Press, Celebs, Even U.S. Ambassador To Russia

Jenna Abrams was a star on Twitter and other social and online media, who was especially popular among conservatives for her many posts railing against “political correctness,” immigration, feminism and her claims that slavery was not a cause of the United States Civil War. But according to information released this week by congress, “Jenna Abrams” never actually existed. Instead, the prolific right-wing tweeter was a fictional character created in a Russian “troll factory” directly linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Jenna Abrams account boasted more than 70,000 followers and was especially successful in getting its tweets reported in the mainstream U.S. media — often thanks to celebrities, academics and even the former U.S. Ambassador to Russia who frequently responded to the provocative “Jenna Abrams” tweets, and even retweeted them to their own followers, vastly multiplying their impact, according to a report Friday by The Daily Beast online magazine.

The Jenna Abrams account was one of more than 2,700 Twitter accounts identified as Russian fakes by the social media company and released by the House Intelligence Committee earlier this week. To see the complete list, visit this link. Twitter has since deleted the fake Russian accounts, including “Jenna Abrams.”

But unlike many Russia troll accounts, which were designed simply to produce automatic responses to political posts or pump out a steady stream of inflammatory propaganda, the Saint Petersburg, Russia-based propaganda factory known innocuously as the “Internet Research Agency” carefully designed Jenna Abrams to act like a real human being, adopting the persona of a sassy, sharp, albeit extremely right-wing young American woman.

In fact, though the Internet Research Agency reportedly devoted a staff of 90 employees to directly influencing the 2016 U.S. presidential election, “Jenna Abrams” never commented directly on American electoral politics, instead focusing on political hot-button issues such as race, immigration and of course, “political correctness.”

But the Abrams character also commented on pop culture, even once tweeting about a Kim Kardashian naked selfie, and even being named to “funniest tweets” lists published in major newspapers. As a result, the fake Russian account completely fooled influential public figures ranging from comedian Roseanne Barr to Michael McFaul, the United States Ambassador to the Russian Federation from 2012 to 2014.

McFaul repeatedly engaged into Twitter arguments with “Jenna Abrams” between February if 2015 and August of 2016, according to the Daily Beast report.

A tweet from Abrams claiming that the Civil War was caused not by slavery, but “money,” drew responses from Princeton University History Professor Kevin Kruse and Center for Investigative Reporting podcast host Al Letson. Combined, their responses to the “Abrams” slavery tweet were rewteeted more than 100,000 times.

The Internet Research Agency has been busy creating fake online accounts designed to spread propaganda and influence opinion in the United States and Europe since at least 2013, according to a report by the independent Russian media outlet RBC. The troll factory is an independent company, but with direct links to the Kremlin, Putin and Russian intelligence agencies.

In fact, the owner and chief financial backer of the Internet Research Agency is 55-year-old Russian billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former restaurateur so close to Putin that he once served the Russian leader frequent meals and is known in Russia as “Putin’s chef.”

Prigozhin’s troll farm not only played what congressional hearings this week revealed to be a major role in spreading fake news, bogus online posts and other deceptive online propaganda designed to sway the U.S. election to Donald Trump, the Internet Research Agency also played a role in pushing “Brexit,” Great Britain’s vote to leave the European Union last year. And in fact, the “Jenna Abrams” account was active in promoting Brexit.

… account, which Twitter has linked to a Russian troll factory, for example, sent on day of Article 50 trigger “a new start for Britain” pic.twitter.com/k5fL46Qnu5

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) November 3, 2017

The “Jenna Abrams” Russian fake persona did not confine itself to Twitter, however. Several posts on the blogging site Medium.com are also attributed to “Jenna Abrams,” with titles such as “Why do we need to get back to segregation?” “NATO is to blame for coup in Turkey?” and “The main issue of #Feminism.” But all of the Medium.com posts from the account have now been deleted.

[Featured Image by Alexei Nikolsky/AP Images]