From my point of view, the most interesting and balanced part is hidden 3/4 of the way to the article: > Russia’s social media campaign ultimately played a mar

From my point of view, the most interesting and balanced part is hidden 3/4 of the way to the article: > Russia’s social media campaign ultimately played a marginal role, according to Benkler, but the media was elevating both its importance and its messaging. “The media is taking all the remaining trust and authority it has not yet lost to Putin, and using it to say exactly what he wants” It is intriguing how well that echoes with what Grugq said almost two years ago.[0] It's not that the disinformation campaigns on social media have been necessarily effective by themselves, but the US (and to a slightly lesser degree, UK) media is amplifying them far beyond the original reach. An incendiary, uncorroborated piece of "news" draws attention. Any corrections, if such ever emerge, are shoved out of the way, to the bottom corner of page B7. Rinse and repeat. Media gets to source free material, and the eyeballs keep coming back. 0: https://www.vice.com/en/article/qv7wmv/former-exploit-broker-the-grugq-talks-election-interference-and-disinformation https://www.vice.com/en/article/qv7wmv/former-exploit-broker... ; don't bother with the text on that page, listen to the podcast episode in full