Reddit discloses possible Russian campaign, bans dozens of accounts

Reddit has disclosed what it believes may have been a 'campaign from Russia,' the social platform has announced. The discovery took place after Reddit became aware of a post containing leaked political documents from the United Kingdom. That post itself followed an alert Reddit said it received about suspicious accounts on its platform.

Reddit detailed its findings on the 'Announcements' subreddit on Friday. In its post, the company pointed toward the 'Secondary Infektion' Russian campaign first discovered by Facebook in May. Reddit says it recently received a report of 'suspect accounts' on its platform; a subsequent probe showed 'a pattern of coordination,' according to the company.

The identified accounts led to the discovery of additional accounts, with Reddit explaining, 'This group provides us with important attribution for the recent posting of the leaked UK documents, as well as insights into how adversaries are adapting their tactics.'

A series of discovered accounts, including the one that posted the leaked documents and others that manipulated the votes on the post, 'have the same shared pattern as the original Secondary Infektion group,' Reddit said in its disclosure.

The company says that most of the accounts' posts were either removed by moderators or swept up by the platform's content manipulation system. The posts that remained didn't get much attention from users. Overall, Reddit has banned 61 accounts, as well as the "UKWhistleblower" subreddit, which remains visible as a temporary archive.