They've found that Russian influence only reached a small number of users and that mainstream media had a much larger influence.

Abstract:

There is widespread concern that foreign actors are using social media to interfere in elections worldwide. Yet data have been unavailable to investigate links between exposure to foreign influence campaigns and political behavior. Using longitudinal survey data from US respondents linked to their Twitter feeds, we quantify the relationship between exposure to the Russian foreign influence campaign and attitudes and voting behavior in the 2016 US election. We demonstrate, first, that exposure to Russian disinformation accounts was heavily concentrated: only 1% of users accounted for 70% of exposures. Second, exposure was concentrated among users who strongly identified as Republicans. Third, exposure to the Russian influence campaign was eclipsed by content from domestic news media and politicians. Finally, we find no evidence of a meaningful relationship between exposure to the Russian foreign influence campaign and changes in attitudes, polarization, or voting behavior. The results have implications for understanding the limits of election interference campaigns on social media.

  • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Liberals love to use woke language to say that the CIA doesn't influence elections abroad. It's taking away the agency of those people. But when it's their issues? Russia. The Russians are dividing us and making us fall further to the far-right. Bernie and the squad are both Communist agitators btw that are probably on Putin's payroll too.