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Far from being a sophisticated propaganda campaign, it was small, amateurish, and mostly unrelated to the 2016 election.

The release of two Senate-commissioned reports has sparked a new round of panic about Russia manipulating a vulnerable American public on social media.

“The studies,” writes David Ignatius of The Washington Post, “describe a sophisticated, multilevel Russian effort to use every available tool of our open society to create resentment, mistrust and social disorder,” demonstrating that the Russians, “thanks to the Internet…seem to be perfecting these dark arts.” According to Michelle Goldberg of The New York Times, “it looks increasingly as though” Russian disinformation “changed the direction of American history” in the narrowly decided 2016 election, when “Russian trolling easily could have made the difference.”

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Quote:

The reports provide more evidence that the Russians were engaging in clickbait capitalism: targeting unique demographics to attract large audiences for commercial purposes.

Based on all of this data, we can draw this picture of Russian social-media activity: It was mostly unrelated to the 2016 election; microscopic in reach, engagement, and spending; and juvenile or absurd in its content.

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koods said:

The hacking and release of emails was brilliantly successful and won Trump the White House .

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Darn hackers. Don't you hate it when people expose you for who you are?

koods said:

The hacking and release of emails was brilliantly successful and won Trump the White House .

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Morel Guy said:

I'm convinced there was an 'attitude of collusion'. 

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XUL said:

I like Russia.

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XUL said:

I like Russia.

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