How My Conservative Friends Were Duped by Russian Bots
by John Lawrence
During the buildup to the 2016 election some of my conservative friends sent me cartoons that were downright derogatory towards Hillary Clinton. Russian bots created hundreds if not thousands of ads for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram that were then circulated all over the internet and sent by email to people like me. I now ask my conservative friends, "How does it feel to have been duped by Russian bots?" Ads depicting Hillary as a servant of the devil, ads depicting her as being unpatriotic, not caring about dead US veterans, ads vilifying the Clinton Foundation. The following is a sampler:
I'm not Hillary's greatest fan. There's a lot I can find to criticize about her support for wars in the Middle East, her taking big donations from Wall Street bankers etc. But compared to Trump's turpitude, Hillary is a paragon of moral righteousness. Compared to Trump's knowledge of and experience with government in all its aspects, Hillary is a veritable genius.
Should Facebook, Twitter et al ban these kinds of cartoons and ads? Absolutely. They are meant simply to emotionally inflame the situation. At the very least the person or organization which placed the ad should be identified. But more to the point, any respectable news outlet shouldn't traffic in this rubbish. Any demeaning image should be suspect. Whether or not a Russian bot created it or a red blooded American, stuff like this should not be published and circulated around on the internet. If you want to call this censorship, so be it. First of all, the First Amendment only forbids government from suppressing free speech. Any private entity can censor all they want. If you don't believe it, try handing out politically motivated pamphlets in a shopping mall. You will be asked to leave the premises.
Material on social media or any media regarding political elections or issues should be home grown or clearly labeled by the foreign entity that created it. That way if someone in some other country wants to have an opinion about American politics or issues, it can be taken with a grain of salt if it is clearly labeled where it came from.
