Throughout the 2016 campaign, the "specialists" created thematic groups on social media, touching on topics such as immigration, the Black Lives Matter movement and religion to sow discord in the election, the indictment said. The accounts were primarily used to disparage Clinton while supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton's opponent in Democratic primary, and Trump. They were also used to push false allegations of voter fraud and boost certain hashtags: #Trump2016, #IWontProtectHillary, #TrumpTrain and #Hillary4Prison.
During the latter half of 2016, the Russians also made a concerted effort to encourage minority voters not to vote in the 2016 election, or to vote for a third-party candidate. As an example, the indictment cites a specialist-run Instagram account "Woke Blacks," which posted in October 2016 that a "particular hype and hatred for Trump is misleading the people and forcing Blacks to vote for Killary. We cannot resort to the lesser of two devils. Then we'd surely be better off without voting AT ALL."