It’s been two years since the president defeated perhaps the most corrupt presidential contender in at least the past century, Hillary Clinton. And since then, Americans have been treated to a plethora of ‘reasons’ for her loss, some of which are comical, others head-scratching, and still others conspiratorial.
One of the most oft-repeated excuses is that the campaign of Donald Trump “colluded” with Russia to “steal the election.” The collusion, we’ve been told countless times — backed up by the U.S. intelligence community assessments, no less — is that Russian troll farms engaged in social media chicanery aimed at stirring up the American electorate and turning voters against Hillary. Why? Well, because Putin hates her, of course.
Nevertheless, Democrats and their allies in the establishment media have pushed this excuse endlessly since the president’s victory as a means of undermining and de-legitimizing POTUS Trump’s victory. In the run-up to the 2018 midterms, Democrats and the media were attempting to lay the groundwork for potential losses by claiming the Russians were up to their old tricks.
But since Democrats won back control of the House, we haven’t heard much about “Russian troll farms” and online voter manipulation. Perhaps another reason why is because at least one Democratic victory in the U.S. Senate may have occurred as a result of the exact same kind of social media-driven voter manipulation the Left has pounded POTUS Trump over.
In a bombshell report that should be getting more attention than it is, The New York Times reported Wednesday that a Democrat-aligned tech firm adopted “Russia-style” manipulation techniques in a “false flag experiment” aimed at influencing a special election in Alabama to replace then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
‘False flag’ operation may have tipped the balance for the Democratic candidate
The Times reported details of the experiment, which were contained in an internal report written by the firm that conducted it, New Knowledge:
As Russia’s online election machinations came to light last year, a group of Democratic tech experts decided to try out similarly deceptive tactics in the fiercely contested Alabama Senate race, according to people familiar with the effort and a report on its results.
The secret project, carried out on Facebook and Twitter, was likely too small to have a significant effect on the race, in which the Democratic candidate it was designed to help, Doug Jones, edged out the Republican, Roy S. Moore. But it was a sign that American political operatives of both parties have paid close attention to the Russian methods, which some fear may come to taint elections in the United States.
Project operatives created a Facebook page posing as Alabama conservatives. They used the page to try to divide GOP voters and also to get them to endorse a write-in candidate over Moore, who had been implicated in teenage sexual assault by four women who spoke to The Washington Post just a few weeks before the special election was held. (Related: If Roy Moore were a Democrat, the entire media would be attacking and smearing his female accusers.)
The scheme was to link Moore’s campaign to thousands of Russian accounts that began following him on Twitter, which eventually drew national attention, the Times reported.
“We orchestrated an elaborate ‘false flag’ operation that planted the idea that the Moore campaign was amplified on social media by a Russian botnet,” the report says.
Jonathon Morgan, head of New Knowledge and a participant in the project, told the Times, “The research project was intended to help us understand how these kind of campaigns operated. We thought it was useful to work in the context of a real election but design it to have almost no impact.”
But there’s no way to know if the project had “no impact,” especially given the very thin margin of victory for Jones. An argument could be made that this ‘experiment’ was just enough to put Jones over the top in a race where Moore’s reputation was in tatters and GOP voters may have been coerced into seeking an alternative.
Or not voting at all.
Read more about Democrat vote fraud at VoteFraud.news.
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