Remember every time we find Putin backed propaganda outside of Russia in the wild, it’s nearly always boosting predominantly conservative viewpoints versus anything else.
Outside of their borders they’re more interested in people fighting with each other than anything like coming together. Right wing politics is how they do that
Sorry, but this is wrong. They’re also actively sponsoring “left wing” propaganda, to further sow discord. Depending on which group you yourself belong to, it’s just easier to spot “the others”.
There seem to be plenty of other papers that more or less reach those same conclusions with a good number of citations, but I can’t find anything really at all on Google Scholar concluding the opposite with a quick search, let alone something also credible.
The closest some papers come is saying that they try groups all over the political spectrum, as their goal is disunity ultimately, but they seemingly don’t really have any kind of continued success with misinforming those groups anywhere near as effectively. They more or less all end up concluding that most of the propaganda targets conservatives, because they’re the ones that fall for it.
I think one of the problems with citing that first study as evidence Russian disinfo is targeted at conservatives more than liberals is that it only studied one case, and Russian disinformation campaigns tailor their disinfo to different demographics, often through brute force/trial and error. So it is quite possible that the particular case they studied happens to be tailored to (or more successfully resonated with) conservatives, while another specific case would have resonated with liberals more thus resulting in more liberal exposure by their metrics.
Rumors and smears are part of free speech. To the extent that right-wing trolls and their audience are actual voters, it’s essentially just a coarse form of ordinary political speech.
The extent to which a foreign government acting coverly is either creating or artificially boosting such content is scandalous.
You presented it as proof that Russia is supporting misinformation on the left. To be that, it has to both include all three parts of the claim – that there is disinformation on the left, that Russia is covertly supporting disinformation, and that some of the disinformation on the left was supported by Russia.
If your wife sleeps around, and I engage in casual sex, it does not necessarily follow that I slept with your wife.
A common suspicion in America is that Vladimir Putin believes that Trump as POTUS is good for Russia, and that Putin interferes with US politics with a specific goal of helping Trump.
If you have some reporting that directly links Russia to left-wing disinformation I’d love to read it. But the BBC article I read after following your link didn’t have any such link.
Absolutely and utterly false. They try and promote fighting, anger, and distrust of government to everyone.
They target leftists with things that will upset them, make them angry at the right and the government and other leftists and sow further discord and polarization.
Less extreme Leftists generally aren’t nearly as likely to be control freaks as the right (although there are always exceptions), so getting them (as a group) angry enough to fight takes much more effort than it does the right.
Remember every time we find Putin backed propaganda outside of Russia in the wild, it’s nearly always boosting predominantly conservative viewpoints versus anything else.
Outside of their borders they’re more interested in people fighting with each other than anything like coming together. Right wing politics is how they do that
Sorry, but this is wrong. They’re also actively sponsoring “left wing” propaganda, to further sow discord. Depending on which group you yourself belong to, it’s just easier to spot “the others”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-39592010
Primary sources tend to disagree
Here’s a study from 2019 about it that backs up my assertion that more is conservative https://academic.oup.com/joc/article/69/2/168/5425470
And of that propaganda being created, that conservative inclined people are most likely to fall for it: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20563051231220330
There seem to be plenty of other papers that more or less reach those same conclusions with a good number of citations, but I can’t find anything really at all on Google Scholar concluding the opposite with a quick search, let alone something also credible.
The closest some papers come is saying that they try groups all over the political spectrum, as their goal is disunity ultimately, but they seemingly don’t really have any kind of continued success with misinforming those groups anywhere near as effectively. They more or less all end up concluding that most of the propaganda targets conservatives, because they’re the ones that fall for it.
I think one of the problems with citing that first study as evidence Russian disinfo is targeted at conservatives more than liberals is that it only studied one case, and Russian disinformation campaigns tailor their disinfo to different demographics, often through brute force/trial and error. So it is quite possible that the particular case they studied happens to be tailored to (or more successfully resonated with) conservatives, while another specific case would have resonated with liberals more thus resulting in more liberal exposure by their metrics.
Both sides fall for it, just not equally.
Oh you think they just stopped? Did you bother to verify for yourself?
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00207020241257635
Your article doesn’t seem to mention Russia once.
Rumors and smears are part of free speech. To the extent that right-wing trolls and their audience are actual voters, it’s essentially just a coarse form of ordinary political speech.
The extent to which a foreign government acting coverly is either creating or artificially boosting such content is scandalous.
Feel free to read any other article that does, if you somehow have managed to avoid learning about russian influence campaigns over the last decade.
You presented it as proof that Russia is supporting misinformation on the left. To be that, it has to both include all three parts of the claim – that there is disinformation on the left, that Russia is covertly supporting disinformation, and that some of the disinformation on the left was supported by Russia.
If your wife sleeps around, and I engage in casual sex, it does not necessarily follow that I slept with your wife.
A common suspicion in America is that Vladimir Putin believes that Trump as POTUS is good for Russia, and that Putin interferes with US politics with a specific goal of helping Trump.
If you have some reporting that directly links Russia to left-wing disinformation I’d love to read it. But the BBC article I read after following your link didn’t have any such link.
Absolutely and utterly false. They try and promote fighting, anger, and distrust of government to everyone.
They target leftists with things that will upset them, make them angry at the right and the government and other leftists and sow further discord and polarization.
Less extreme Leftists generally aren’t nearly as likely to be control freaks as the right (although there are always exceptions), so getting them (as a group) angry enough to fight takes much more effort than it does the right.
Leftist movements are literally known for infighting and falling apart, it’s the subject of countless memes.