The Senate Intelligence Committee published two reports on Russian interference in the 2016 election in mid-December, detailing how Russian trolls are spreading propaganda on virtually every social media site: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, Vine (RIP), and even Google Plus. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who released a paper describing 20 different ways to regulate social media companies in July, called the reports on Russian propaganda “a wake-up call,” and said, “I hope these reports will spur legislative action in the Congress and provide additional clarity to the American public about Russia’s assault on our democracy.”
But Russian social media trolls did nothing more than hold a mirror to the American public.
For example, four of the most popular Russian-backed posts, selected by the New York Times from the report and shown below, look like typical posts from popular American social media accounts.
Check out this September 2016 post from a Russia-backed Facebook page called “Being Patriotic.”
With its compassion-inducing image and fervent message, the post garnered 640,390 shares on Facebook. But, the veterans vs. refugees or veterans vs. immigrants theme is not at all uncommon on conservative-leaning pages. Patriotic clothing brand Cloyd Rivers’ Facebook page contained two similar posts from 2015.
Is Russia providing new imagery? So it seems. But it’s not really pulling this theme from thin air or spreading new ideas.
Check out this March 2016 post from Instagram:
The idea that this is impactful, democracy-threatening content is truly laughable. The Internet equivalent of “Honk if you love Jesus,” these posts are so common that they’ve spurred the creation of counter-memes and blog posts about their unbiblical nature. Yet again, Russia is merely showing us the ridiculous state of our own public discourse — which we created before Trump stepped on that escalator to announce his presidential bid.
While the Russians did exploit our differences on refugees and religion, they really did their best to inflame racial tensions, according to the newly-released reports. Some of the most popular social media posts reflect this.
For example, in late November 2016, a Russia-backed page on Facebook, Blacktivist, shared a video of three white police officers holding down and accosting a black man. The viral video was a repost from Instagram account “wheeliewayne,” and Blactivist’s post received 539,012 shares. But videos of racially-charged police violence have been going viral since at least 2014, when an online video of Eric Garner’s death and a video captured just after Michael Brown’s death spread across the Internet, catalyzing the rise of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
Russia didn’t start the fire, so to speak. Their pages simply joined a patchwork of activist accounts dedicated to increasing awareness of police violence.
But Russian accounts didn’t just share police-related videos to influence the black community. They also shared more tame black pride imagery, such as this:
Shared on the Instagram account @blackstagram__ in June 2017, this photo received 254,179 likes. The account tagged shoe brand Kahmune in its description of the photo, and the original photo, without the tagline, “All the tones are nude! Get over it!” was posted on Kahmune’s Instagram account in February 2017. Kahmune is one of several shoe brands that offers nude shoes in a variety of shades to match all skin tones. Similar visually satisfying imagery has been featured in ad campaigns for Christian Louboutin’s nude shoe line or Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty lingerie.
A row of sandal-clad feet is far less emotionally intense than a video of police violence, but the image serves the same purpose: to call attention to racial differences.
We know with certainty that the Russian-backed Internet Research Agency successfully shared posts that received millions of engagements on social media. American citizens interacted with content created by foreign agents to influence our political sphere. Russian content is often referred to as “propaganda,” but it is, in truth, hardly differentiated from content posted by Americans.
Truly protecting our democracy requires hard work. It requires solid civic education and knowledge of logical fallacies. It requires us to resist impulsive Facebook-sharing of emotional imagery and videos. It requires each of us to break down barriers between ourselves and those we disagree with. Russian social media trolls have only exploited our toxic political culture. Politicians can try to regulate away the problem, but it is only us, regular citizens, who can truly solve it.
Amelia Irvine (@ameliairvine3) is a Young Voices contributor studying economics at Georgetown University.
