The Russian reality show that put Donald Trump in the White House
The investigation of US special prosecutor Robert Mueller about the relationship between the election campaign of Donald Trump and the Russian government indicates that what at first seemed to be little more than conspiracy theories were not only well founded, but underestimated the relationship between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
We now know that the Russian government, taking advantage of the fact that more and more Americans get their news and form their opinions via the social networks, staged campaigns on Facebook, Google, Instagram and Twitter with ads that deliberately overplayed issues such as white supremacism or hatred of foreigners, as well as producing huge amounts of false news that reached at least 70 million Americans, creating hundreds of bogus profiles of alleged activists and groups willing to spread them and discuss them on the social networks, as well as publishing documents about the Democrats’ campaign, some of them true, others false. We also know that some of Barack Obama’s social networks advisors for his two election campaigns warned Facebook, which played down the issue.
Now Americans know, even if they have not fully digested the implications, that they did not have an election campaign, but a reality show produced in part by Russia in which the image of the candidates was constantly manipulated, in which extremist views were spread via the social networks, eventually leading to the outcome very few expected, but that was in fact carefully planned: Donald Trump’s occupation of the White House. This was political maneuvering of an unprecedented level, although previously tested in elections in several former Soviet republics, and that significantly influenced the elections of what until then, was the most powerful country in the world.
Obviously, such a campaign cannot be carried out solely through the social networks. Trump’s success was due to a combination of factors, among them a Democratic candidate with little charisma and who gave the impression she believed the outcome was a foregone conclusion because her rival had no real hope of being elected, along with fears of terrorism and foreigners that were played up by racists and white supremacists, and of course an electoral system that does not reflect the popular vote. With these ingredients, astute use of the social networks contributed to the most polarized, bitter and hyperbolic election campaign in recent US history, favoring Trump.
Robert Mueller’s investigation is now focusing on the White House, and will surely reveal the true magnitude of what took place during the presidential election campaign: the manipulation of millions of gullible American voters who, in a carefully edited version of Big Brother unexpectedly voted for the least likeable, and more importantly, dangerous, candidate.
(En español, aquí)
