Title: The surprise Mueller indictment tells us how we've been wrong about Russian trolls - The Washington Post
Headings: The surprise Mueller indictment tells us how we've been wrong about Russian trolls
The surprise Mueller indictment tells us how we've been wrong about Russian trolls
Henry Farrell
Russian operations probably did not change voters’ minds
That does not mean Russian activities were not important
Russia has weaponized “flooding” against the U.S.
This has implications for what comes next

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American libertarians like to say the best antidote to bad speech is good speech. What Russian and Chinese rulers have discovered is that the best antidote to good speech is bad speech — and lots of it. In a description by Adrian Chen, a journalist who has done extensive research on the Internet Research Agency, the consequence of Russian activities against their own public “was not to brainwash readers but to overwhelm social media with a flood of fake content, seeding doubt and paranoia, and destroying the possibility of using the Internet as a democratic space.” What Roberts describes as “flooding” tactics make it more or less impossible to conduct ordinary democratic conversation and argument. Russia has weaponized “flooding” against the U.S.
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This is what lay behind Russian trolling tactics. Certainly, Russian trolls wanted to discredit the candidates whom they detested. However, they did not seek to change Americans’ minds, but to create enough doubt, confusion and paranoia to destabilize democracy. The Mueller investigation documents this clearly. As the indictments describe it, “By in or around May 2014, the ORGANIZATION’s strategy included interfering with the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election,” with the stated goal of “spread [ing] distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general.” By spreading rumors, flooding the zone with disinformation, stirring up protests and counterprotests, and otherwise creating confusion, Russia wanted to gravely weaken the U.S. political system.