Acting on a tip from the FBI, Facebook and Twitter said on Tuesday they had identified Peace Data as the center of a Russian political influence campaign targeting left-wing voters in the United States, Britain and other countries. Email correspondence reviewed by Reuters and interviews with six journalists commissioned by the website show how the writers were approached on social media, paid up to $250 per article and some times encouraged to insert political angles into their work. A person who identified themselves as Bernadett Plaschil, an associate editor at Peace Data, told Reuters via email: "We're really confused by these accusations and deny all of them." The person declined to speak via phone or video call. Russia has repeatedly denied those allegations and the Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Peace Data on Wednesday. While some of the authors said there was no overt political direction from the Peace Data staff, others said the website's editorial line made them uncomfortable. "It rapidly stopped being a news article as they kept asking for more focus on political topics with a particular spin," the person added. As efforts to catch online influence operations have increased since 2016, "defaulting back to some of the old school tactics appears to be what they are doing to try to stay hidden," he said. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. faux saint laurent bag