Operatives working for the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) infiltrated social media with the goal of disrupting the 2016 U.S. presidential election. We investigate how these operatives or “trolls” leveraged partisan political identities in discussing presidential candidates and parties on Twitter. Adopting a social identity lens, we conceptualize retweeting troll content as a form of identity performance and examine the message properties that led troll tweets to resonate among Twitter users. The findings highlight the importance of partisan trolls’ persistence in tweeting about candidates and parties as well as their discussion of the political outgroup and incivility in the form of name-calling. The results collectively indicate that Twitter users were sensitive to messages generated by IRA trolls and responded in a manner consistent with identity performance.

中文翻译：

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2016 年美国总统大选期间与党派俄罗斯巨魔推文的互动：社会认同视角

为俄罗斯互联网研究机构 (IRA) 工作的特工渗透社交媒体，目的是扰乱 2016 年美国总统大选。我们调查这些特工或“巨魔”如何利用党派政治身份在 Twitter 上讨论总统候选人和政党。采用社会身份视角，我们将转发巨魔内容概念化为一种身份表现形式，并检查导致巨魔推文在 Twitter 用户中产生共鸣的消息属性。调查结果强调了党派巨魔坚持在推特上发布有关候选人和政党的重要性，以及他们以辱骂形式讨论政治外团体和不文明行为的重要性。