Russia's Influence Campaign In 2016 Caused No Changes In US Political Attitudes - Study

Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published January 09, 2023 | 09:26 PM

The alleged Russian influence campaign on Twitter in the 2016 presidential election caused to changes in political attitudes, polarization, or voting behavior in the United States, according to the results of a new study, published by Nature Communications on Monday

*WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th January, 2023) The alleged Russian influence campaign on Twitter in the 2016 presidential election caused to changes in political attitudes, polarization, or voting behavior in the United States, according to the results of a new study, published by Nature Communications on Monday.

Washington has repeatedly accused Russia of interfering in its national elections in 2016 and 2022. Moscow, in turn, has denied any meddling in US elections, saying the allegations have been invented to excuse the 2016 loss of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and deflect public attention from actual instances of election fraud and corruption.

A study by Gregory Eady et al. found that there was no "meaningful relationship" between exposure to media posts from Russian foreign influence accounts and changes in attitudes and voting behavior in 2016.

Only 1% of Twitter users accounted for 70% of alleged exposures to Russian disinformation in the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections, the data in the study showed.

Additionally, the researchers found that the foreign influence campaign was eclipsed by content from ordinary domestic political news media and US political candidates despite a large number of social media posts.

Lastly, the study found that US voters, who strongly identified themselves as Republicans, were the Primary group exposed to the campaign.

The latest batch of internal documents released earlier in January, in coordination with Twitter chief Elon Musk, shows that the social media giant had originally seen no coordinated effort by Russia to use the social media platform to launch a major campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election.