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Shocker: Guess it Wasn’t the Russians After All

by | Jul 23, 2018 | Narrated News, Politics


You heard it here first folks: If the Russians used the internet to sway voters, they certainly didn’t help Donald Trump at the polls in the 2016 presidential election. Who says? Why Brown University, of all places. The leftist media must have labeled this new report “circular file” – as in “put it the trash bin.” That’s because it doesn’t fit their narrative.

Brown University

An exhaustive analysis reported in the journal Plos One at Brown studied the role of the internet in the election and found that Trump “did unusually well among demographic groups least likely to use the web and social media.”  You read that right – those who voted for the President were least likely to go online. The study, conducted by academics at one of the most liberal universities in the country, is both shocking and revealing. Here’s their conclusion:

This finding challenges widespread claims that the web and social media impacted the outcome of the presidential election in favor of Trump.

Using data from the American National Election Studies (ANES), researchers looked at voter behavior regarding internet use from 1996 to 2016. They found that “For two of the three measures, the 2016 election marked the first time since 1996 that the Republican candidate performed equally well or better among the group of voters that is less active online.”

This conclusion flies in the face of the leftists and may have the Russians and Mark Zuckerberg wondering what the hell went wrong. The introduction to the Brown report acknowledges this false narrative

“Many have hypothesized that the internet and social media impacted the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In a post-election interview, Hillary Clinton emphasized the role of social media in the election, citing fake news, Russian intervention, and Republicans’ success in “marrying content with delivery and data” [1]. Others have emphasized the Trump campaign’s use of data to target messages online [2].”

Not only did these non-web and internet users manage to kick Hillary to the curb, but the study also reveals that “Trump outperformed other Republican candidates in previous election years.” While researchers say upfront that it doesn’t mean the internet had “no impact” on the election, they did admit that “…they do pose a challenge for some conventional narratives that put those factors front and center.”

You mean all those Russian bots went to waste? Who is talking about all these Russian conspirators anyway? Why the Special Prosecutor, for one.

In a 37-page indictment, Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller alleged that Russian agents used all forms of social media to manipulate the American public during the 2016 campaign. This grand scheme by Russia’s Internet Research Agency, according to Mueller, “posted derogatory information about a number of candidates” including Hillary Clinton and supporting material concerning then-candidate Trump.

Thus, it all boils down to one straightforward conclusion: Since Trump voters paid less attention to social media and the internet than non-Trump voters, all this (supposed) Russian activity went to waste.

A witch hunt, indeed. And now you have Brown University to thank for discovering what most conservatives already know – that Trump beat Hillary fair and square.

References

  1. 1.Johnson E Full transcript: Hillary Clinton at Code 2017. recode.net. Available from: https://www.recode.net/2017/5/31/15722218/hillary-clinton-code-conference-transcript-donald-trump-2016-russia-walt-mossberg-kara-swisher. Cited September 21, 2017.
  2. 2.Confessore N, Hakim D Data firm says ‘secret sauce’ aided Trump; Many scoff. New York Times. Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/us/politics/cambridge-analytica.html. Cited September 14, 2017.

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