The election trolls have logged on. Except, despite the cleanup efforts of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube following the 2016 campaign, they never really logged off, with coordinated disinformation campaigns still trying to sow confusion on social media during the 2018 midterms. But now they’re getting ready for the big show. With 12 Democratic candidates already vying for the White House and more to come, memes and misinformation that appear to be coordinated and possibly connected to foreign propaganda efforts are already afflicting the race. According to a report Wednesday in Politico, Democratic contenders have been the targets of online propaganda aimed at sensationalizing missteps and promoting falsehoods. If these troll campaigns share a goal with the efforts of 2016 and 2018, then the point may be to widen societal divisions already prominent in American life and, in particular, weaken the Democratic Party. In particular, they seem intent on weaponizing a productive moment in our politics in which public figures are finally being held to account for their past actions, and Democrats are sometimes asking other Democrats to resign. The trolls want Democrats to eat each other.
from Stories from Slate https://ift.tt/2BL6mND
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