Democratic Primaries
In reply to the discussion: I was manipulated by the Russians, and we must assume everyone was. [View all]betsuni
(25,372 posts)and botnets to push out disinformation and fake news at a high volume, focusing this material onto your Twitter and Facebook feeds and flooding our social media with misinformation,' he said. 'This fake news and disinformation was then hyped by the American media echo chamber and our own social media to reach and potentially influence millions of Americans.' ... According to Time magazine, the Russians targeted propaganda to undecided voters and to 'soft' Clinton supporters who might be persuaded to stay home or support a third-party candidate ... . ... We know the swing voters were inundated. According to Senator Warner, 'Women and African Americans were targeted in places like Wisconsin and Michigan.' One study found that in Michigan alone, nearly half of all political news on Twitter in the final days before the election was false or misleading propaganda. Senator Warren has rightly asked, 'How did they know to go to that level of detail in those kinds of jurisdictions?'
"Interestingly, the Russians made a particular effort to target voters who had supported Bernie Sanders in the primaries, including by planting fake news on pro-Sanders message boards and Facebook groups and amplifying attacks by so-called Bernie Bros. Russian trolls posted stories about how I was a murderer, money launderer, and secretly had Parkinson's disease. I don't know why anyone would believe such things, even if you read it on Facebook ... but if you're angry enough, you'll accept anything that reinforces your point of view. As the former head of the NSA, retired General Keith Alexander, explained to Congress, the Russian goal was clear: 'What they were trying to do is drive a wedge within the Democratic Party between the Clinton group and the Sanders group and then within our nation between Republicans and Democrats.' Perhaps this is one reason why third-party candidates received more than five million more votes in 2016 than they had in 2012. That was an aim of both the Russians and the Republicans, and it worked."
Hillary Clinton, "What Happened."
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden