A number of US national security officials, including Dan Coats, the Director of National Intelligence, agree that Russia worked to interfere in the 2016 American Presidential election through social media ads in order to promote the election of Donald Trump. The ongoing competition between the United States and Russia goes back to the days of the Soviet Union and the Atomic Age. The still tense nature of the relationship has caused Putin to pursue a personal vendetta against the United States and to reestablish Russia’s hegemony as a world power. The influence of social media has become increasingly present in the United States, ads and marketing project negative images in order to influence the consumer, or in this case the voter. The combination of the competition between Russia and the U.S along with the influence that social media has on voters aided Donald Trump in his 2016 election victory.
Historically the U.S and Russia have been in a competition for political power since the Cold War, when Russia was still the Soviet Union. There were many competitions for geopolitical dominance and the acceptance of political ideas, such as communism, as demonstrated through the Arms Race and the Space Race. The tension between the wartime allies was increasingly high in the aftermath of WWII with the detonation of the first Soviet nuclear weapon in 1949. The perceived threat that communism posed to the United States’ democratic system and the rapid spread of Communism to smaller, newly independent countries intensified the tension. The formation of NATO in 1949 was another spite to the Soviet Union that was countered by the Warsaw Pact in 1955. Other events during the 50s and 60s like the Space Race and the Cuban Missile Crisis signified the height of tension between the nations. In 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev announced the dissolution of the Soviet Union and resigned as Soviet premier leaving Boris Yeltsin as the leader of a newly independent Russia.
Since the dissolution of the USSR, relations between Russia and the United States have been generally good. In the 70s, the nations worked to ban intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), yet tensions increased once again in the 1990’s after discovery of NATO’s eastern expansion plan. The poor relationship continued under Vladimir Putin in 1999. Putin rose through the ranks of the KGB and eventually left to join politics in Saint Petersburg. He joined Yeltsin’s administration and was eventually elected after Yeltsin’s resignation in December 1999.
Although it is said that Putin and George W. Bush had good personal relationships, there were many disagreements over the US missile defense plan, the invasion of Iraq and the expansion of NATO into the eastern bloc. These plans resulted in tense relations under the Bush administration, but improved under Obama after a G2 summit prompting the “reset” of Russian-US relations. This reset didn’t last long, in December 2011 Putin accused the US of interference in their elections, indicating that no real “reset” had ever been achieved. The contrasting ideas of government used by the US and Russia were still in competition with each other as Russia moved away from a democratic system.
The historically tense relations between the US and Russia still poses the question of why did Putin interfere in the 2016 elections. According to a New York Times article, Russian operatives were sent to collect intelligence about swing states, and used social media ads, posing as American activists in order to poorly portray Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Interestingly enough Putin has been dissatisfied with Clinton as she allegedly attempted to incite unrest during the 2009 elections. This could be one of the driving factors for Russian interference, coupled with Putin’s desire to gain status as a world power over the US.
The various adds created by Russian agents were accompanied by hashtags bashing Hillary Clinton, like #HillaryforPrison, while also promoting Trump. The question is why was there such a large push for Trump from the Kremlin and what does Russia gain from his election. Theoretically there is a lot for Russia to gain from the election of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. If Putin wanted to make the US look weaker in order for the ascension of Russia on the world stage, electing an outspoken almost unhinged person like Trump would foster the desired opinion of the US. Similarly Putin attempts to portray himself as a very intimidating and powerful person, and it would theoretically be easier to manipulate Donald Trump in order to attain Russian demands in agreements. Putin’s personal vendetta against Secretary Clinton coupled with the desire to heighten Russian influence and power led to Facebook ads promoting Trump while demoting Clinton.
The 2016 election was less about choosing the better candidates and was generally perceived to be a choice between “the lesser of two evils”. In this way any kind of negative image of either candidate would help to sway indecisive voters. This idea can be best expressed by the example: when someone points out something that they find annoying about another person, we as human beings start to notice that thing and be subconsciously annoyed by it. Social media has risen to be a staple in everyday American life and along with it thousands of ads. The marketing tactics used on social media can be very deceptive in portraying what the user “needs”. People tend to be more susceptible to false information presented on the internet, especially if it looks legitimate. These ads target susceptible users with the negative images associated with Hillary Clinton in order to portray Trump in a more positive light and swing votes for him. The more that people see the same information the more likely they are to believe it and therefore the ads no matter the scale did have an impact on American voters.
Decades of tense Russian-US relations has led to Putin’s push for the election of Donald Trump as someone to be manipulated for Russian gain. The Russian interference in the 2016 election did influence voters no matter the scale and could threaten future elections because of the susceptibility of social media users to being bombarded with ads. Because of this it is imperative that voters research candidates and make up their own minds, instead of listening to the voices of advertisers and show up to vote. •
