Re:Foreign Actors Likely to Spread Disinformation Regarding ...
by quickthrowman on Tuesday September 22, 2020 @07:09PM
(#24561083)
> What was the single most impactful piece of disinformation spread during the last election cycle? I think the answer to that question would obviously be the Steele Dossier.
You mean the dossier that Buzzfeed News published on January 10th, 2017[0], which was over two months after the election? This would’ve been the first time voters had a chance to see it, which I remind you was after they already voted in the election.
How then, did it influence the 2016 election?
[0]https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kenbensinger/these-repo...
I'm much less concerned about foreign actors directly spreading disinformation than domestic actors amplifying disinformation that happens to align to their beliefs.
The "Russian troll on social media" seems like a total boogeyman to me. I'm not saying it doesn't happen at all, but that it's so negligible that the level of hand-wringing around it becomes its own kind of disinformation.
The Steele Dossier was mainly based on Russian sources, but amplified by a national media blinded by their hunger for anything to attack Trump. But I have a hard time laying the blame for this on "the Russians". I blame the people with a large national audiences that lent credence to the conspiracy.