Evan Urquhart on Twitter: "Maybe? Russia has also managed to insinuate itself with NRA (who they're highly motivated to defend) and social conservatism/evangelicals. It reminds me of the situation on the left 30 yrs ago, where the left had a sort of awkward half-tie to the USSR.… https://t.co/vDWru67rE2"

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Will Oremus‏Verified account @WillOremus 25 Nov 2019

For the first time, a peer-reviewed study has looked at whether Russian influence operations on Twitter actually changed Americans' minds. The answer appears to be no, and the reason why is interesting. My story:https://onezero.medium.com/russian-trolls-arent-actually-persuading-americans-on-twitter-study-finds-d8fd6bcacaba …

62 replies 253 retweets 568 likes

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Will Oremus‏Verified account @WillOremus 25 Nov 2019

One reason Russian agents may struggle to influence Americans' politics via Twitter, it turns out, is that the people they reach turn out to be the ones whose partisan views were the most entrenched to begin with. https://onezero.medium.com/russian-trolls-arent-actually-persuading-americans-on-twitter-study-finds-d8fd6bcacaba …pic.twitter.com/4QZRSbyT6c

6 replies 21 retweets 89 likes

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Will Oremus‏Verified account @WillOremus 25 Nov 2019

Some important caveats to the finding that the IRA's Twitter campaign had no discernible impact. - It looked only at 2017 - It may have had impacts the study couldn't discern - The sample of those who engaged with IRA tweets was small - Twitter is not the same as Facebook

2 replies 12 retweets 51 likes

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Will Oremus‏Verified account @WillOremus 25 Nov 2019

Will Oremus Retweeted Josh Russell

Another good caveat, although I wouldn't use it to write off the study altogether.https://twitter.com/josh_emerson/status/1199087595122241536 …

Will Oremus added,

Josh Russell @josh_emerson

Yea this is not gonna work, it's inherently flawed from the start. The study doesn't take into account any secondary interactions, embedded tweets in news articles, screenshots of tweets posted to other social media, links posted to Reddit. https://twitter.com/WillOremus/status/1199083417884749824 …

4 replies 5 retweets 28 likes

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Will Oremus‏Verified account @WillOremus 26 Nov 2019

Will Oremus Retweeted Johan Farkas

Here is another critique of the Twitter IRA study that’s worth considering. (ht @justinhendrix) https://twitter.com/farkasjohan/status/1199280558095900672?s=21 …https://twitter.com/farkasjohan/status/1199280558095900672 …

Will Oremus added,

Johan Farkas @farkasjohan

(Thread) This new study concludes that disguised Russian propaganda likely did not influence US attitudes via social media. There is a long history of such findings but also of profound critique. I will let a book from the 1960s by Jacques Ellul explain some key problems: https://twitter.com/chris_bail/status/1199058772515262466 …

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Will Oremus‏Verified account @WillOremus 26 Nov 2019

Will Oremus Retweeted Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D

Good points also here from @RVAwonk. A theme in each of these critiques is that Russia may influence US political discourse in ways that aren't captured by surveys of the political attitudes of the individuals who interact directly with IRA tweets.https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/1199326417756000257?s=20 …

Will Oremus added,

Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D @RVAwonk

This study is a good contribution to the field, but there are some major limitations. Ex: This study measured impact of interactions w/IRA accounts, yet prior research suggests a key avenue of influence was not interaction, but agenda-setting via amplification of certain voices. https://twitter.com/WillOremus/status/1199083417884749824 …

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Will Oremus‏Verified account @WillOremus 26 Nov 2019

Will Oremus Retweeted Chris Bail

And here is a detailed thread from the study's lead author, @chris_bail, acknowledging some of its limitations and explaining what conclusions he thinks we can safely draw.https://twitter.com/chris_bail/status/1199058772515262466 …

Will Oremus added,

Chris Bail @chris_bail

1/n Did Russian trolls actually influence the attitudes and behaviors of U.S. social media users? Our Polarization Lab’s new article suggests the answer might be “no” https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/11/20/1906420116 …

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6 replies 5 retweets 20 likes

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Will Oremus‏Verified account @WillOremus 26 Nov 2019

A common misreading I'm seeing is that the study looked only at whether people changed their vote or party affiliation as a result of Russian tweets. In fact, the study looked at several measures of political attitudes, including intensity of partisanship, finding no effect.pic.twitter.com/O9yFyUiL8h

4 replies 3 retweets 9 likes

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Evan Urquhart‏ @e_urq 27 Nov 2019

Replying to @WillOremus @justinhendrix and

What I've seen that in American politics is conservative partisans becoming very positive/charitable/enabling towards RUSSIA. It doesn't sound like this study looked at that, but it's a big, weird, recent change that seems hard to explain without success of Russian propaganda?

1 reply 0 retweets 1 like

Will Oremus‏Verified account @WillOremus 27 Nov 2019

Replying to @e_urq @justinhendrix and

Isn't that mostly just because Trump is linked to Russia and they're highly motivated to defend Trump from any charges against him?

1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes

Evan Urquhart‏ @e_urq 27 Nov 2019

Replying to @WillOremus

Maybe? Russia has also managed to insinuate itself with NRA (who they're highly motivated to defend) and social conservatism/evangelicals. It reminds me of the situation on the left 30 yrs ago, where the left had a sort of awkward half-tie to the USSR.

8:09 AM - 27 Nov 2019

1 Like

1 reply 0 retweets 1 like

1. Evan Urquhart‏ @e_urq 27 Nov 2019
  Replying to @e_urq @WillOremus
  
  And, I guess, the point there is that it was hard or maybe impossible to be a leftist without also hearing and (probably) repeating defenses of the USSR. You couldn't fully separate the two. To be exposed to leftism was to be exposed to USSR propaganda efforts.
  
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