this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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But they claim it's Russia interfering in our elections to deflect from the real problem (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 days ago by K1nsey6@lemmy.world to c/latestagecapitalism@lemmy.world
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[–] tyler@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The wikipedia article has over 600 hundred references, including a section specifically on the disinformation campaign.

Russian use of social media to disseminate propaganda content was very broad. Facebook and Twitter were used, but also Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest, Medium, YouTube, Vine, and Google+ (among other sites). Instagram was by far the most used platform, and one that largely remained out of the public eye until late 2018.

Advertisements bought ... are estimated to have reached 10 million users. But many more Facebook users were contacted by accounts created by Russian actors. 470 Facebook accounts are known to have been created by Russians .... Of those accounts six generated content that was shared at least 340 million times, ... The most strident Internet promoters of Trump were paid Russian propagandists/trolls, ...

In continued analysis ... researchers found the most prominent methods of misinformation were ostensibly "organic posting, not advertisements"

Facebook originally denied that fake news on their platform had influenced the election and had insisted it was unaware of any Russian-financed advertisements but later admitted that about 126 million Americans may have seen posts published by Russia-based operatives.

There is more, but I think the 600+ sources in the wikipedia article do a better job than I ever will.

[–] plyth@feddit.org 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

The Mueller Report found the IRA spent $100,000 for more than 3,500 Facebook advertisements from June 2015 to May 2017,[63] which included anti-Clinton and pro-Trump advertisements.[55] In comparison, Clinton and Trump campaigns spent $81 million on Facebook ads, but the IRA "likely was able to squeeze more impressions and engagement out of each dollar of spend than Trump and Clinton’s ads"

The value of the Russian influence comes from viral stories.

Of those accounts six generated content that was shared at least 340 million times

Those 340 million shares are impressive, but that's one exposure while 1000 views for ads cost $10 so Russia gifted $4 million to Trump.

On the other hand, Clinton had $2 billion to spend.

Through 2016, the foundation had raised an estimated $2 billion from U.S. corporations, foreign governments and corporations, political donors, and various other groups and individuals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_Foundation

But which content was shared?

A total 30 Facebook pages targeting Black Americans and 10 YouTube channels that posted 571 videos related to police violence against African Americans.

If they exposed 340 million Americans to police violence then that can't have been good for republicans.

To me it looks like an excuse. Clinton was in office. She must have had access to secret information that warned about the risk.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation of Russian interference in July 2016

Around the same time as Russia's attempt to hack the 2014 elections, the Obama administration received a report suggesting that the Kremlin was building a disinformation program which could be used to interfere in Western politics.

The United States Department of State planned to use a unit formed with the intention of combating disinformation from the Russian government, but it was disbanded in September 2015 after department heads missed the scope of propaganda before the 2016 U.S. election.

If Clinton knows that there was manipulation and she disbanded the defence and exposed her mails then that looks like a honey pot to me.

[–] tyler@programming.dev -1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I do not understand your point. Russia was intent on sowing discord and chaos, which they did. They spread millions of lies and disinformation, and succeeded in making people distrust the election system. A decade later and you can see the situation we are now in.

And this is just the publicly known stuff.

[–] plyth@feddit.org -2 points 16 hours ago

The US pushed Jelzin's election which led to Putin with the intent to avoid a Communist victory which is keeping Russia stuck where it is now since then. What Russia did was at most par for the course. However I think the influence is hugely exagerated. The claim is that Putin managed to compensate a $2 billion budget

Trump had a budget of $500 million.

but

, he received free media attention valued at about $5 billion.

https://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/candidate?id=N00023864

Those $5 billion are the elephant in the room. The election wasn't won on the internet but by established media companies. Those 340 million shares aren't worth that much.

Voting machines, registration processes, weekday voting and gerrymandering - that all originated in the US. A Russian blogger who points that out is not to blame for the current mess.

Russia was involved but that involvement is used to distract from who else was involved even more.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 20 hours ago

No reply from the "hurr durr Wikipedia isn't a source" people after 22h