Russia Shows the Limits of Propaganda

Will DuffieldDespite widespread concerns about the influence of English ‐​language Russian state media such as Russia Today and Sputnik, Russian claims about its invasion of Ukraine have not taken hold abroad. This failure seems puzzling.Journalists andpoliticians have alleged that potent Russian information operations tipped the 2016 American election to Trump, and the Brexit vote to “leave”. We need not assess those claims here. Instead, a closer look at the differences between 2016 and now point toward a better understanding of misinformation online, an understanding favoring “more speech” rather than speech suppression.Unlike its current efforts to sell its war, Russian information operations in the 2016 American presidential election and the UK ’s Brexit vote sought to amplify existing “wedge issues” in American and British politics. Immigration, police brutality, and elite corruption were not new issues. Russia did not create new narratives but seized upon stories and trends that had already proven divisive in the west.The most obvious limit of this approach is that it only works with what is already there. It cannot create new grievances from whole cloth. As a result, foreign propagandists may aim to deepen existing divisions, but they cannot expect to build supportfor particular policy goals. Indeed, even when this approach may seem successful, it runs the risk of simply taking credit for work done by domestic discontent. The failure o...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 8, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Will Duffield Source Type: blogs