News about Russian interference in the American election process is becoming more and more disturbing.
A new kind of “Cold War” has begun, except this one could be dubbed a “Cyber War.”
The latest revelation is that Russian propagandists distributed thousands of fake news stories via social media, such as “alt-news” sites and other means in the months and weeks leading up to the Nov. 8 presidential election.
The fake news stories were mostly aimed at candidate Hillary Clinton, especially bogus stories about her failing health, portraying her as a woman who would collapse time and again if she were elected president. Other fake stories played up her email server, her and her staff’s supposed efforts to rig the election, her supposed machinations as U.S. Secretary of State and the so-called undue influence of the Clinton Foundation. The Russian-invented stories were, of course, filled to bursting with bloated exaggerations, vicious slanders and lies, lies, lies.
An analysis by the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security and another one by PropOrNot (a propaganda tracker) identified more than 200 websites that featured Russian-made propaganda seen by 15 million Americans, with the fake stories viewed online more than 213 million times, according to a story in USA Today.
The propaganda stories were in addition to other efforts by Russian manipulators to throw tons of wrenches into American democracy and its foundation – the voting process itself. There was a steady stream of hack jobs of Democrats and Democratic organizations such as the Democratic National Committee. The hacked information was then leaked selectively, usually woefully out of context, to smear Democratic candidates. There are even charges that Russian stooges might have dickered with electronic voting machines in some places.
Some Russians have long been masters of propaganda. The Soviet Union, in fact, was founded largely on propaganda and grandiose myth-making. Vladimir Putin himself, as an officer in the Soviet Secret Police, used propaganda constantly as a threat and a weapon against supposed “enemies of the State.”
With the advent of social media, those sinister manipulators now have a new “toy” to play with. And it’s a dangerous toy that has the potential to undermine our democratic process and our faith in it. These fake news stories have also targeted some individuals and groups in the Republican Party. Ultimately, the aim of these propagandists is to undermine our democratic way of life, period.
Did the fake stories alter the election outcomes? Who really knows? It’s virtually impossible to prove.
However, the election is over; Russian attempts to whittle away our faith in the democratic process is not over. It’s only just begun. It’s something every American should worry about.
We’ve got to fight it with every means at our disposal. One of the best ways is to become educated and to learn to think critically about information and so-called “news” that has become such a big part of social media. People have to learn to become aware of where their information comes from and to be skeptical about claims that sound far-fetched.
There’s the old saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” The same holds true for this: “If it smells and tastes fishy like rotten Russian caviar, don’t eat it, and if you do bite into it, spit it out.”
Russian propaganda (and other lies) won’t “work” with people educated to be wise to their dirty tricks. Beware!
