Although experts agree that the Russian Internet Research Agency deployed trolls on Twitter to disrupt the 2016 U.S. presidential election, questions remain about the nuances of their efforts. We examined almost 350,000 original tweets made during the two-year electoral cycle to investigate the emphasis, timing, content, and partisanship of the trolls’ efforts targeting leading candidates. Despite only dedicating a fraction of their tweets to candidates, troll behavior generally tracked the relevance of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Ted Cruz during the election cycle. Trolls were significantly more likely to engage in name-calling in tweets about Trump, Clinton, and Cruz than in tweets about other topics. Name-calling peaked in tweets addressing Clinton during the general election. Right trolls were more likely to focus their attention on Trump, Clinton, and Cruz than were other partisan trolls.

中文翻译：

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评估俄罗斯巨魔在 2016 年美国大选期间在 Twitter 上挑拨离间的努力

尽管专家们同意俄罗斯互联网研究机构在 Twitter 上部署喷子来扰乱 2016 年美国总统大选，但他们的努力的细微差别仍然存在疑问。我们检查了在两年选举周期中发布的近 350,000 条原始推文，以调查喷子针对主要候选人的努力的重点、时间、内容和党派偏见。尽管他们只将一小部分推文专门用于候选人，但在选举周期中，巨魔行为通常会追踪唐纳德特朗普、希拉里克林顿、伯尼桑德斯和特德克鲁兹的相关性。与关于其他主题的推文相比，巨魔更有可能在关于特朗普、克林顿和克鲁兹的推文中进行辱骂。在大选期间，针对克林顿的推文中的谩骂达到了顶峰。