The officials say Russia intends to use social media to manipulate US public opinion in favor of Trump

  • @ReallyActuallyFrankenstein
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    4 months ago

    Russia is not a superpower, but they are absolutely kicking our asses on information warfare. They spent probably in the order of low single-digit millions of dollars in 2015 and 2016 to influence that election.

    Though we’ve all read headlines that there’s “no proof” they succeeded, I think that’s a statement about how difficult it is to prove, not how likely it is that they affected the election. With how narrow Trump’s victory was and how gullible so much of the voting public is, it’s impossible to think they didn’t have an effect. Trump is still here just barely not leading in the polls in 2024, 9 years later, a sword of Damocles hanging over the nation’s democracy.

    I don’t doubt for a second that they’re going to throw everything possible at us, and that they may succeed, given that return-on-investment and previous success.