Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Bots Haven't Divided America

Robert Mueller released an indictment of 13 Russians for crimes related to their social-media campaign to meddle in our internal affairs in the run-up to and aftermath of the 2016 election.

In the context of a hugely expensive, obsessively covered, impossibly dramatic presidential election, the Russian contribution on social media was piddling and often laughable.

The Russians wanted to boost Trump, but as a Facebook executive noted, most of their spending on Facebook ads came after the election.

If you read the Mueller indictment, you might think the Russians were everywhere, not only advertising on Facebook but organizing rallies around the country.

The biggest Russian rally success appears to have been an anti-Trump event in New York after the election; it drew 10,000 people.

The New York Times ran a report the other day on Russian bots, in the immediate aftermath of the Parkland school shooting, posting on Twitter about gun control.

In a better world, Trump would be less defensive about the Russian investigation, and his opposition would be less obsessively invested in it.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/02/the-russian-bot-hysteria/

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