Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say - The Washington Post

["DAVID FARBER" <dfarber () me com>]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/2016/11/24/793903b6-8a40-4ca9-b712-716af66098fe_story.html

The flood of “fake news” this election season got support from a sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign that created 
and spread misleading articles online with the goal of punishing Democrat Hillary Clinton, helping Republican Donald 
Trump and undermining faith in American democracy, say independent researchers who tracked the operation.

Russia’s increasingly sophisticated propaganda machinery — including thousands of botnets, teams of paid human 
“trolls,” and networks of websites and social-media accounts — echoed and amplified right-wing sites across the 
Internet as they portrayed Clinton as a criminal hiding potentially fatal health problems and preparing to hand control 
of the nation to a shadowy cabal of global financiers. The effort also sought to heighten the appearance of 
international tensions and promote fear of looming hostilities with nuclear-armed Russia.

Two teams of independent researchers found that the Russians exploited American-made technology platforms to attack 
U.S. democracy at a particularly vulnerable moment, as an insurgent candidate harnessed a wide range of grievances to 
claim the White House. The sophistication of the Russian tactics may complicate efforts by Facebook and Google to crack 
down on “fake news,” as they have vowed to do after widespread complaints about the problem.



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