We may never know for certain if Russia’s campaign to influence American society through social networks changed the course of history in big ways — if it altered the election results, say. But it is already clear that Russia’s efforts did change the world in countless small ways. A few dozen real Americans did protest that Saturday in Houston. Videos of the protest show real emotion — people on opposite sides of the street screaming, swearing and truly angry to have to share the country with the bozos on the other side.
As I watched these videos recently, I had an epiphany about the Russia influence campaign. The Houston protest videos depicted a bunch of Americans duped into fighting each other in public, all at the whim of an unseen force that, through expert and surreptitious cajoling, had gotten them to lose control of themselves on camera. I’d seen this show many times before, and you probably have, too. It’s called “The Bachelor.”
And not just the “The Bachelor,” but every show like it. The Russians are running a reality show through Facebook and Twitter, and their contestants are all of us.
Over the past few days, I reached out to several reality show producers, asking them to compare the Russian digital influence campaign and the world of unscripted TV. The more they told me about reality shows, the more the metaphor seemed to explain Russia’s trolling campaign — how it worked, what it aimed to do and why campaigns like it will be so difficult to fight.
