When Facebook posts and tweets blamed Ukrainian rebels for downing a Malaysian jet there last year, U.S. spies studied social media trend lines to gauge public opinion of the Kiev-Moscow conflict.
The number of Facebook "likes"; statistics on retweets and "favorited" tweets; and other social media analytics told one story.
But intelligence officials know that, increasingly, autocracies are deploying "trolls" -- robotic feeds or paid commentators -- to sway social media trends. So officials say they were cautious when compiling situation assessments.
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