It would appear that the Russian election trolls are very much more silly than we’ve been giving them credit for. They expended actual effort in trolling Tumblr in their attempts to make sure that Hills went down and The Donald won. Really, that’s not going to be a productive use of anyones’ time, is it?
That the entire social media trolling argument is false is another matter of course. Whatever influence was created was trivial. It wasn’t particularly anti-Hills nor pro-Trump. And when Obama did very much the same thing 4 and 8 years previously it was held up as a masterpiece of electioneering. So, yes, the entire thing is hypocrisy based on the simple fact that the wrong person won.
But still, why bother with Tumblr:
The blogging platform Tumblr has unmasked 84 accounts that it says were used by a shadowy Russian internet group to spread disinformation during the 2016 US election campaign.
Tumblr said it uncovered the scheme in late 2017, helping an investigation that led to the indictment in February of 13 individuals linked to the Russia-based Internet Research Agency (IRA).
The announcement adds Tumblr to the list of internet platforms targeted in a social media campaign that US officials said sought to disrupt the 2016 election and help boost Donald Trump’s bid to defeat Hillary Clinton.
To be honest with you I’ve not heard of or about Tumblr since Yahoo had to write off the billion(s) it paid for it. All of which leads to a certain suspicion about this story. It’s actually nothing at all to do with elections, Russians or tampering. It’s really an excuse to issue a press release reminding us that Tumblr is still an internet platform.
Regarding “the Russians”. About 45 years ago I read a book, “Are the Russians Ten Feet Tall?”.
Briefly, it questioned whether Russia (aka the USSR) could really be to blame for anti-West sentiment, Cuban communism, or anything else we didn’t like. They simply aren’t that powerful.
Still applies.
Not only are Russian trolls silly, the entire Russian Collusion narrative is silly. It is maintained ONLY to perpetuate the notion that we didn’t deliberately elect Trump President. Hillary in India continued finger-pointing about her defeat and continued stating that the big red blob in the middle of the nation is backward and, yes, a basket of deplorables – already used in a campaign ad in Missouri. Putin profits from chaos in America. He does not profit from the election of a President who would assemble Mattis and now Pompeo and Bolton, versus a cabinet of gadflies and racists. He… Read more »
PS – Tumblr may indeed be assembling #FakeNews as it watches Snapchat and Facebook compete to become the next CompuServe.