Early on in the scandal of Russian interference in the 2016 election I saw figures that showed just how insignificant were the ads that Russia bought through Facebook. They were few — compared with the genuine ads of the Dems and GOP — and they were unprofessional.
In this article in the Wall Street Journal Curt Levy (lawyer, computer scientist, president of the Committee for Justice) makes the same case.
I wonder why there continues to be such paranoia as if they really did have major influence (as Hillary and Co claim) when logic and facts show that they cannot have. Or at most, a tiny influence, indistinguishable from that of either Party. Note that the ad messages were split Right and Left, by no means all of them aimed at promoting Trump's candidacy, or now the GOP in the mid-terms.
/Snip:
Ironically, some of the overreaction can be traced to the similarities between Russian ads and domestic political discourse. We don't like the divisiveness, name-calling, wild accusations and other heated rhetoric that increasingly dominate that discourse. Blaming the Russians is seductive because the unpleasant alternative is to blame ourselves.
