If you wrote out a list of the most important factors in the 2016 election, I'm not sure that Russian social media memes would be among the top 100. The scale was quite small and there's not much evidence that they were effective.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4157862&forum_id=2#37423911)

Timothy Burke

@swarthmoreburke

Replying to

@swarthmoreburke

and

@NateSilver538

As far as effectiveness goes, don't send a statistical thinker to do a humanities and psychology job. This was about meaning and cognition and about how messages pass around in paratexts and affect people. You can't measure it using your usual instruments, so don't try

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4157862&forum_id=2#37423968)

she'll have to update her book.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4157862&forum_id=2#37424581)

@swarthmoreburke

23h23 hours ago

More

Into the Spider-Verse might be the best pure comic-book movie ever. It's got a unique visual style that is a cinematic valentine to comics (on multiple levels) but it's also a fun and moving script with tons of great character work. What a great, enjoyable film.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4157862&forum_id=2#37424363)

https://www.washingtonblade.com/content/files/2017/11/Bernie_Sanders_in_speedo_insert_courtesy_House_Intelligence_Committee.jpg

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4157862&forum_id=2#37424205)

“The most prolific I.R.A. efforts on Facebook and Instagram specifically targeted black American communities and appear to have been focused on developing black audiences and recruiting black Americans as assets,” the report says. Using Gmail accounts with American-sounding names, the Russians recruited and sometimes paid unwitting American activists of all races to stage rallies and spread content, but there was a disproportionate pursuit of African-Americans, it concludes.

The report says that while “other distinct ethnic and religious groups were the focus of one or two Facebook Pages or Instagram accounts, the black community was targeted extensively with dozens.” In some cases, Facebook ads were targeted at users who had shown interest in particular topics, including black history, the Black Panther Party and Malcolm X. The most popular of the Russian Instagram accounts was @blackstagram, with 303,663 followers.

The Internet Research Agency also created a dozen websites disguised as African-American in origin, with names like blackmattersus.com, blacktivist.info, blacktolive.org and blacksoul.us. On YouTube, the largest share of Russian material covered the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality, with channels called “Don’t Shoot” and “BlackToLive.”

The report does not seek to explain the heavy focus on African Americans. But the Internet Research Agency’s tactics echo Soviet propaganda efforts from decades ago that often highlighted racism and racial conflict in the United States, as well as recent Russian influence operations in other countries that sought to stir ethnic strife.

Renee DiResta, one of the report’s authors and director of research at New Knowledge, said the Internet Research Agency “leveraged pre-existing, legitimate grievances wherever they could.” As the election effort geared up, the Black Lives Matter movement was at the center of national attention in the United States, so the Russian operation took advantage of it, she said — and added “Blue Lives Matter” material when a pro-police pushback emerged.

“Very real racial tensions and feelings of alienation exist in America, and have for decades,” Ms. DiResta said. “The I.R.A. didn’t create them. It exploits them.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4157862&forum_id=2#37424251)

You obviously know they didn't influence you at all, so why think they influenced others? And the answer is not that you are so much smarter than all the other voters. I think the answer is that these memes didn't matter compared to actual things, like Hillary sucking shit.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4157862&forum_id=2#37424463)

@tradeformula

1h1 hour ago

More

I campaigned for Hillary but then I saw a meme online written in Cyrillic with Trump and Jesus hugging one another, and suddenly I knew all my work for Hillary was in vain. I voted for Trump. I will now regret that decision for the rest of my life. Why, Russian hackers, why?!?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4157862&forum_id=2#37424491)

Author: \"\"\"\'\'\'\'\'\'\'\'\"\'\'\'( )

This is stupid. A more apt criticism is that very few people understand Russian information warfare or the concept of proximate causation

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4157862&forum_id=2#37424539)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4157862&forum_id=2#37424584)

By any metric - volume, dollars, personnel - the Russian operation was absolutely dwarfed by the Trump campaign itself, which was half of what the Hillary campaign's output was. This idea that Russia found a way to use social media with a room full of 15 people that the MILLIONS of Clinton volunteers could not is straight up delusional.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4157862&forum_id=2#37425318)