Communications of the ACM
Russian Twitter Campaigns in 2016 Presidential Race Largely Limited to Strongly Partisan Republicans
The study also concluded there was no relationship between exposure to the Russian foreign influence campaign and changes in attitudes, polarization, or voting behavior.
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Analysis of a survey of nearly 1,500 U.S. respondents by an international team of researchers found that Russian Twitter campaigns during the 2016 presidential race primarily reached a small subset of users, most of whom were highly partisan Republicans.
The study, which examined social media users' behaviors and attitudes in both April and October of 2016, also found that despite Russia's influence operations on the platform, there were no measurable changes in attitudes, polarization, or voting behavior among those exposed to the campaigns.
Yet the researchers cautioned of other effects.
Said University of Copenhagen's Gregory Eady, "It would be a mistake to conclude that simply because the Russian foreign influence campaign on Twitter was not meaningfully related to individual-level attitudes that other aspects of the campaign did not have any impact on the election, or on faith in American electoral integrity."
From New York University
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