In 2016, 13 Russians were indicted for interfering with the election by stealing American identities of political activists and using them to rile up citizens on controversial topics to influence them to vote for Trump. Recently a Russian woman, Elena ALekseevna Khusyaynova, was charged trying to interfere with the midterm elections. She managed the budget that was created to "'sow division and discord' in the American political system. Khusyaynova worked for many entities under the ownership of Yevgeny V. Prigoshin, a wealthy business leader that has a lot of political influence, who was one of the 23 Russians that were meddling with the election prior.
It was shown during the indictment in 2016, that the Russians were already trying to promote discord in the United States since 2012. But the ways they try to run a muck are about the same. Through creating or taking American identities and their social media accounts they are able to influence people’s views on controversial issues, such as guns, women’s rights, immigration, and more. Through these posts, Russians are able to effect the way people vote, which impact the polls and our government.
Social media can influence a lot of citizens especially young citizens and the upcoming generations that will be voting soon. Many political campaigns are now promoting themselves to get through to the younger generation. We have more and more police departments, governors, and presidents on twitter, and other social media platforms.
What do you think about what the Russians did?
Knowing that more people are getting on social media, how much do you think does social media really influence the polls? Why?
Resources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/us/politics/russia-interference-midterm-elections.html?module=inline
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/us/politics/the-issues-that-russian-operatives-used-to-divide-americans-in-their-own-words.html?action=click&module=inline&pgtype=Homepage
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/us/politics/russians-indicted-mueller-election-interference.html?module=inline
If one is interested in taking action against the interference of other nations in one's elections, should one look to limit the power of social media as a government?
ReplyDelete-Yev
I think what the Russians did was wrong. Social media really influences our current politics because it allows communication between people in different locations almost instantly.
ReplyDeleteI think social media can greatly interfere with the government’s doings. It does take a great number of people to influence the polls, which is likely since this generation breathes and functions and off of social media and technology.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this situation can be related back to fake news or propaganda, as they are using media to influence our political stances.
ReplyDelete- Jerry
I think that there needs to be more awareness on how the Russians have been influencing the US political system, because many people still believe that the Russian interference is just 'liberal propaganda'
ReplyDeleteI think that social media plays a big role in influencing people. I think that the Russians should stay out of it because this doesn't regard their government.
ReplyDelete-lea
I think that there should be more action taken against the Russians for their actions and holding them accountable. Since they have taken to social media to affect the outcome of elections in the U.S., it shows us how heavily influenced we are by politics via online sources, social media and the news.
ReplyDeleteI think the U.S government need know whether or not Russians have influenced the country and in what ways. The government also need to have ways to prevent any future interferences to ensure the elections are fair and open.
ReplyDeleteI do think that social media has affect the public, especially teens, on different political issues since that's where we get information from.
It is frustrating that the Russians continue to interfere in US elections because then there is no way of knowing if our someone got elected based off of foreign interference or because they were elected through a fair vote. I think that this will become more of an issue the more that social media impacts our thoughts/ lives.
ReplyDelete