But we also have oligarchs and dark money, yeah? Even if they are bots, how could someone possibly know that they’re specifically Russian bots? Have you considered the possibility that these bots could be funded by American billionaires, either true believers (because, again, there is a very old and deeply rooted mistrust of science especially in rural conservative areas) or for some ulterior motive, same as the Russians would be?
This is where, to me, to be frank, it makes more sense to treat the claim as more of a psychological coping mechanism. It has to be specifically Russian bots because the point is to externalize the problem as far as possible. American billionaires funding health misinfo would create the same psychological discomfort as if it didn’t come from bots at all.
To be clear, I don’t dispute that bots exist, or that bots have spread health misinfo. But I think the extent is exaggerrated, and I think it serves as an all too easy excuse to dismiss stuff that’s incongruent with one’s worldview. And I’m not inclined to think that people need some sort of external force to believe and spread health misinfo or distrust of science. Like, there’s a full-on creationist museum in Kentucky, this isn’t just some new online thing.
And yes, absolutely people will spread health disinformation of their own accord, but it was a deliberate pattern across Livejournal in those days. That’s all I can say. Here is an article from a few years ago about how Russian trolls were so prevalent that Facebook made a tool to identify that you had liked Russian troll content, in which Brooke is quoted. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/22/facebook-tool-russia-troll-army-internet-research-agency
Don’t think this tool exists anymore. But that’s how prevalent it is.
But we also have oligarchs and dark money, yeah? Even if they are bots, how could someone possibly know that they’re specifically Russian bots? Have you considered the possibility that these bots could be funded by American billionaires, either true believers (because, again, there is a very old and deeply rooted mistrust of science especially in rural conservative areas) or for some ulterior motive, same as the Russians would be?
This is where, to me, to be frank, it makes more sense to treat the claim as more of a psychological coping mechanism. It has to be specifically Russian bots because the point is to externalize the problem as far as possible. American billionaires funding health misinfo would create the same psychological discomfort as if it didn’t come from bots at all.
To be clear, I don’t dispute that bots exist, or that bots have spread health misinfo. But I think the extent is exaggerrated, and I think it serves as an all too easy excuse to dismiss stuff that’s incongruent with one’s worldview. And I’m not inclined to think that people need some sort of external force to believe and spread health misinfo or distrust of science. Like, there’s a full-on creationist museum in Kentucky, this isn’t just some new online thing.
I actually have driven by a sign for it, yes, when I went through Kentucky, and it’s bizarre. And absolutely there are American oligarchs funding this, that’s why the book Dark Money is so good. Hell, American millionaire William Regnery openly funded Richard Spencer’s National Policy Institute (https://calgary.citynews.ca/2021/07/17/william-regnery-who-funded-right-wing-extremism-dies-at-80/), and John Tanton has created the anti immigrant network the Tanton network (https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/john-tanton/). Literally funding racists in the US. The Koch brothers fund a great deal of dark money activity.
And yes, absolutely people will spread health disinformation of their own accord, but it was a deliberate pattern across Livejournal in those days. That’s all I can say. Here is an article from a few years ago about how Russian trolls were so prevalent that Facebook made a tool to identify that you had liked Russian troll content, in which Brooke is quoted. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/22/facebook-tool-russia-troll-army-internet-research-agency
Don’t think this tool exists anymore. But that’s how prevalent it is.