Third International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

This paper examines the Internet Research Agency (IRA)’s role in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election and in American digital media culture more broadly. The paper begins by providing a brief, historical overview of Russia’s use of both disinformation and misinformation campaigns during the Cold War before discussing its subsequent shift to social media platforms to engage in similar campaigns in the twenty-first century. The paper then summarizes our original research, which is drawn from over 25,000 Russian-backed tweets, memes, and sponsored ads, as well as from Congressional testimony. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of IRA senior employees and an interview with Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest-ranking defector from a former Soviet bloc country, who, as the deputy chief of the Romanian foreign intelligence services, engaged in numerous disinformation campaigns on Moscow’s behalf. Collectively, our paper demonstrates how, unlike their work in other countries where the Russians have sought to popularize particular ideologies and policies, in the United States, the IRA has actually peddled a plethora of often opposing ideologies to undermine citizen confidence in democratic governance, often by eroding trust between citizens and elected officials, to foment and exacerbate political tensions, often with real, on-the-ground consequences, and to create general distrust and confusion over the veracity of information sources by blurring the lines between fact and fiction.