Kremlin-linked ‘troll farm’ promoted anti-Clinton online game before election: report

A Russian software developer with ties to a Kremlin-linked “troll farm” reportedly created an anti-Hillary Clinton computer game and released it just weeks before her loss in the 2016 presidential election.

In the game, “Hilltendo,” the user operated an animated Clinton, helping her to delete classified emails, collect money from Arab states and “throw the Constitution as far as possible” in three different levels.

Starting in May 2016, the IP address for Hilltendo was only used for two other websites, both which have been shown to be connected to a Russian troll farm called the Internet Research Agency, according to CNN.

The domain name, which was created just two months before the election, is also registered to an individual in St. Petersburg, where the Internet Research Agency is based.

This report comes just weeks after special counsel Robert Mueller announced indictments against 13 Russian individuals and two Russian groups, including the Internet Research Agency, for their work to interfere in the election.

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The indictments accused those named of using social media and other means to sow discord in the U.S. ahead of the election, with an emphasis on promoting then-candidate Donald Trump’s campaign while disparaging Clinton’s.

The game was not shared widely on social media, according to CNN, but one of the Twitter accounts that shared the link was run by an individual who self-identified as someone with links to the Internet Research Agency. The Twitter account and the game itself have since been taken down. Hilltendo.com claimed that the game was played nearly 19,000 times when it was active, according to CNN.

Hilltendo was largely promoted on the image-sharing website Imgur, where it was included in at least two roundups of online games that were viewed more than 700,000 times and were some of the website’s top performing posts in September.

The game was also shared on Reddit by a user who also linked to other websites CNN confirmed to be part of the Russian operation to interfere with the election, as well as some Internet Research Agency websites.