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points by raxxorraxor 4 days ago | 0 comments

I think this framing is pretty much disinformation itself. Sure, Russia tries to influence elections like every other country does as well, democracies or not.

Currently we see such claims resurfacing on topics like Brexit or other contemporary issues. If you look at the hard data of visibility on the attempts of Russia, they are in a similar spot as their economy. Doing decently poorly.

If any domestic news article or politician points their fingers at Russia, it is probably to distract from something else. Sure, if you are situated in Ukraine, the story is different. The latter does have to swallow the results of the moronic foreign policy of quite a few western nations for that matter and it would be served well if a bit of sensible reflection would be put on the table.

[–] abc42 3 days ago

>I think this framing is pretty much disinformation itself.

Russian troll factories etc are a documented fact, not an opinion. It goes way beyond just "influencing elections".

[–] brazukadev 3 days ago

US troll factories are just called social media. That's the one that tried to influence the Brazilian election in favor of the BolsoJr

[–] raxxorraxor 2 days ago

Yes, many countries have them in some form or another. Their existence is not proof of anything.

In fact there is no proof about any impact. As someone who is online too much already, it is highly doubtful the impact is significant and there are more studies pointing to the opposite. High school teens to more impressive online raids if you say you dislike k-pop. Some claim there is a background effect, but anyway...

Troll farms have an interest to overstate their impact. Are you a troll? Easy accusation, isn't it?

Turns out people that voted incorrectly on issues like Brexit where quite focused on Brexit as a multi-faceted political issue. For example they might have objected to be called victims of Russian propaganda. Which is a statement on the level of tea leaf reading.