Russian interference in the US elections: if it quacks and walks like a duck…

Two independent reports, one by Oxford University and another by US company New Knowledge about interference in the 2016 US presidential elections by the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) reveal the extent of tactics used to try to secure a win for Donald Trump, using every available platform and particularly social networks, exacerbating racism and trying to generate as much polarization as possible, especially among black and right wing voters.

The reports, commissioned by the US Senate, detail the use of Instagram andFacebook, showing the key role they played, thanks to the use of organic content supposedly created by users, rather than paid-for advertising. The reports are not “opinions” or “media coverage”, but instead are rigorous, scientific studies based on the analysis of hard evidence collected from log files. Basically, the Russians created a parallel reality through thousands of false accounts using people’s identities and non-existent organizations in the United States, creating a non-existent scenario that managed to skew the vote of millions of Americans as part of a strategy to benefit Donald Trump.

The two independent reports contrast with arguments that allegations of manipulation are only made by the losers in elections. Instead, the evidence overwhelming points to the use of text-book psychological warfare to divide the electorate, effectively creating the conditions whereby a free and fair vote is impossible. The reports highlight how individuals were targeted that belonged to specific sociodemographic groups in key swing electoral districts. In short, the outcome of the 2016 elections was not the result of democracy, but instead that of a carefully planned and coordinated theater. Many of those who voted for Donald Trump were not protesting against the liberal elites or expressing their dissatisfaction by voting for a maverick candidate: instead, they were duped into taking part in a process outside the margins of democracy, manipulated to respond to messages that would not have been allowed had the election campaign been carried out with proper oversight.

The combination of complicit social networks reluctant to admit the extent to which they were used by Russia, along with the public’s ignorance of how social networks can be manipulated, has led to what is possibly the most. worrying and tense political situation of recent times, helping create methods that are now used in many other scenarios. The “surprising” results of the US elections, the Brexit referendum or the yellow vests in France are not simply a reflection of widespread voter dissatisfaction or crises of aging democracies, but are in large part the result of calculated use of the social networks and the internet to change how we think. When people vote after being subjected to intense manipulation, when they do so influenced by fake scenarios, they do not vote freely, and the values of democracy are corrupted.

We have to get real about the threat we face, which is the most important crisis ever experienced by our democracies, because the social networks themselves have shown no inclination to take any action to protect us. Such problems are not solved by playing down the danger and ignoring the evidence before our eyes. This is one of those occasions when the evidence shows that we really do have a major problem on our hands.

(En espa?ol, aquí)