An extensive study of the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election was published yesterday in Nature Communications, an adjunct of Nature science magazine. It shows the obvious, that there was never any meat in that sandwich.
The New York University Center for Social Media and Politics report, “Exposure to the Russian Internet Research Agency Foreign Influence Campaign on Twitter in the 2016 U.S. Election and Its Relationship to Attitudes and Voting Behavior,” concluded that such an alleged campaign had no effect at all. Co-author Josh Tucker, also a co-director of the Center, told the Washington Post: “My personal sense coming out of this is that this got way overhyped.”
The study examines the actual activity of Russia’s Internet Research Agency, which “is accused of using social media accounts impersonating U.S. users to polarize the U.S. electorate and influence the attitudes and voting behavior of ordinary Americans during the 2016 U.S. election campaign.” The study’s abstract summarizes:
