Political Desperation Fuels Spy Agencies Latest Russia Conspiracy Theory

NBC News and CNN reported yesterday that Russia is trying to interfere in this year s presidential election using information warfare. Russia is engaging in covert influence operations to help former president Donald Trump, just like it did in 2016, and is targeting swing states in particular, CNN and NBC News claim.

But the intelligence community (IC) has not presented any evidence of this alleged Russian election interference. NBC News and CNN simply cited an anonymous official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, whose claims are vague and unsubstantiated.

It s true that Russia and other countries may try to influence Americans on social media. On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced that Russian actors had created a social media bot farm that spreads disinformation and uses artificial intelligence. The Associated Press reported that U.S. officials described the internet operation as part of an ongoing effort to sow discord in the U.S. through the creation of fictitious social media profiles. This, IC officials and the news media imply, is a repeat of 2016.

Yet there is no evidence that the Russian bot farm had sown discord or that any significant number of people were reached by the ostensibly dangerous sock puppet accounts. The Justice Department said it took control over two domain names and searched 968 accounts on X. Those numbers suggest the internet operation had no measurable reach.

via www.public.news

Michael Shellenberger and Alex Gutentag.