There's a good thread on how the trolls also silenced certain narratives so particular viewpoints weren't heard as much:
Chris HayesVerified account
@chrislhayes
This whole discussion about whether the Russian operation impacted the outcome of the election is ridiculous because it is in a deep sense unknowable, and also very much not the point.
Leah McElrath 🗽
@leahmcelrath
More Leah McElrath 🗽 Retweeted Chris Hayes
One thing NO ONE seems to be exploring, @chrislhayes, is the extent and impact of the use of Twitter to attack, intimidate, and thereby silence Clinton supporters.
In particular women and minorities (especially Black Americans).
Which DEFINITELY had an effect in my experience.
I’ll be honest (and I am ashamed to admit it):
The harassment I received when I tweeted something in support of Hillary Clinton caused me to do so less and less often.
I had only ~ 10K followers then. But I’d still get abusive name-calling and threats of violence EVERY time.
I’m already receiving confirming replies to this short thread.
And I’ve had countless conversations with friends who had the same experience.
(Cropped out names to protect them.)
Given how many journalists rely on Twitter to read what’s happening, just imagine how the COERCED SILENCE of Clinton supporters combined with the FLOOD of fake Trump supporter “MAGA” accounts influenced their perception of “enthusiasm.”
And that’s just on Twitter.
On Facebook, Clinton supporters had to create “secret” groups - those accessible by invitation only - to feel safe.
We were forced to hide - literally HIDE - our enthusiasm for Clinton to avoid being targeted for abuse.
It strains credulity to think that didn’t affect turnout.
My mentions right now are a testament to how many people the targeted harassment - and resulting silencing - affected.
Yet neither @Twitter nor @Facebook has released ANY information about the accounts who engaged in THIS part of Russia’s active measures.
Why not?
To the best of my knowledge, this aspect of Russian active measures has not been investigated by any of the Congressional inquiries or by any mainstream journalists.
(I’ve written about it.)
Which is bizarre because journalists (especially women) were subjected to it too.
I never stopped tweeting supportively of Clinton - because I’m strong-willed that way.
But I did less - and showed MUCH less excitement than I felt.
For me, the name-calling and rape/death threats were easier to tolerate than the mockery - hence my displaying less “enthusiasm.”
Which brings me to a point even more important than our being able to determine “impact” in 2016:
We NEED information about this form of active measures because the entire U.S. electorate needs to educate ourselves about the ways we EACH are vulnerable, individually.
For ex:
Once I realized the accounts (whether they were sock-puppet trolls or AI controlled bots) were adjusting their tactics (which also isn’t talked about but definitely happened) and mockery was more effective with me...mockery became easier to ignore and LESS effective.
I said this earlier today, and I’ll repeat it:
We are in a NEW kind of war.
We need as much information and education as possible about the tactics and strategies being used against us if we are to have ANY chance of winning.
(Fwiw, this thread was NOT meant to be an attack on @chrislhayes. He’s a journalist who has been addressing related issues in an affirmative way for quite a while. I used his tweet as a jumping off point for what had turned out to be a much-needed and validating discussion.)
I wrote this piece almost a year ago about my realization that many of the abusive "Bernie bro" Twitter accounts were likely Russian bots.
(This is NOT saying ALL Sanders supporters on Twitter were bots – because of course they weren't.)
shareblue.com/watching-the-hearings-i-learned-my-bernie-bro-harassers-may-have-been-russian-bots/