Cyber Smears Against 2020 Dems Begin

Social media was a major tool employed by Russia in the 2016 elections to harm Hillary Clinton and boost their asset, Donald "Rump" Trump. False narratives, conspiracy theories, innuendo and other means were used to discredit Clinton, who was seen by Moscow as a threat to their expansionist plans. As a consequence of their assistance to him, Rump has no interest in countering Russian cyber interference in the 2020 elections, and Politico reports that Russia's interference has already begun to target Dem candidates for the 2020 nomination:

"A POLITICO review of recent data extracted from Twitter and from other platforms, as well as interviews with data scientists and digital campaign strategists, suggests that the goal of the coordinated barrage appears to be undermining the nascent candidacies through the dissemination of memes, hashtags, misinformation, and distortions of their positions. But the divisive nature of many of the posts also hint at a broader effort to sow discord and chaos within the Democratic presidential primary. [snip]  

Not all of the activity is organized. Much of it appears to be organic, a reflection of the politically polarizing nature of some of the candidates. But there are clear signs of a coordinated effort of undetermined size that shares similar characteristics with the computational propaganda attacks launched by online trolls at Russia’s Internet Research Agency in the 2016 presidential election, which special counsel Robert Mueller accused of aiming to undermine the political process and elevate Donald Trump." (our emphasis)

The four candidates noted are Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, with Harris receiving the most attention. And it's not just candidates being slimed with false information, it's false information about voter fraud and immigration:

"A separate Guardians.ai study that looked at the 200-account group’s focus on voter fraud and false and/or misleading narratives about election integrity — published just before the midterm elections and co-authored by Horvath, Zach Verdin and Alicia Serrani — reported that the accounts generated or were mentioned in more than 140 million tweets over the prior year.

That cluster of accounts was the driving force behind an effort to aggressively advance conspiracy theories in the 2018 midterms, ranging from misinformation about voter fraud to narratives involving a caravan coming to the United States, and even advocacy of violence."  (our emphasis)

The linked article is well worth a read. The findings in this report should be pursued by the FBI, if it's not already on the case, and the House Intelligence Committee. Russia clearly hasn't learned lessons from its interference in 2016, and Rump won't be teaching them any. It's time for a look at increased sanctions.