Russian attempts to influence the vote for Brexit amounted to just three paid advertisements that cost less than $1 (or £75 pence), and which were seen by two hundred people.
Who is more dangerous to British democracy….a supposed Russian troll whose subversion nobody has read or a senior political journalist on the flagship political programme of supposedly the most trusted and respected news organisation who knowingly spreads a massive lie with the intent of discrediting and delegitimising the Brexit referendum result in the hope that it is overturned?
Some journalists and pro-Remain activists in Britain this is about something else: An effort to undermine the vote for Brexit and tarnish the legitimacy of the referendum. This strips out human agency, presenting voters as blind sheep that are pushed around by foreign powers and who seemingly have no voice or beliefs of their own.
In reality, of course, most of the people who voted for Brexit did so because they wanted Brexit.
The BBC’s Nick Robinson has been spreading such a lie for quite some time now, along with many of his esteemed colleagues at the BBC, that Russian interference altered the result of both the referendum and the general election.
Hacking the Vote
Highly sophisticated techniques to ‘micro-target’ voters, using personal data and demographics have been credited with contributing to the recent outcomes of both the Brexit vote in the UK and Donald Trump’s victory in America.
Trouble is that is a lie, complete horlicks. I doubt anybody has been influenced in the slightest by Russian hackers…Leave voters voted leave because that is what they have always wanted to do….and all the massive dark forces of Project Fear arrayed against them failed to change their mind…so a few Russkies on Twitter? Odd how Robinson is completely unconcerned about the interference of so many foreign busy-bodies who wanted you to vote Remain…not forgetting of course the BBC.
Doubt my doubt? The truth is out there….from Matthew Goodwin, Professor of Politics at Rutherford College, University of Kent, and Senior Visiting Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House…..
No, Russia did not cause Brexit, Britain’s Eurosceptic tradition did
Nearly 18 months have passed since Britain voted for Brexit, and yet people are still struggling to come to terms with what actually happened on that fateful day.
Ever since 52 percent of the electorate rejected the advice from much of the political and financial establishment to remain in the European Union, the underlying drivers of this vote have been repeatedly misinterpreted.
One idea that has become increasingly prominent in recent months is that Russia-linked social media accounts played a significant role in the referendum and nudged a misinformed public to vote for Brexit. Yet the evidence for this claim is incredibly thin or, some might say, virtually non-existent.
This is reflected in new evidence released this week by Facebook, in response to requests from the Electoral Commission. The data from Facebook reveals that Russian attempts to influence the vote for Brexit amounted to just three paid advertisements that cost less than $1 (or £75 pence), and which were seen by two hundred people.
Reminder: Leave won the referendum by more than 1.2 million votes.
This follows research at the universities of California and Swansea, which found that Twitter accounts based in Russia did send over 45,000 messages about Brexit, though the vast majority of these tweets (39,000) were sent after voting had finished.
Furthermore, some of those sent before the vote even encouraged people to vote to remain in the EU.
Some journalists and pro-Remain activists in Britain this is about something else: An effort to undermine the vote for Brexit and tarnish the legitimacy of the referendum. This strips out human agency, presenting voters as blind sheep that are pushed around by foreign powers and who seemingly have no voice or beliefs of their own.
In reality, of course, most of the people who voted for Brexit did so because they wanted Brexit.
The BBC needs to apologise for the lies that its journalists are spreading and rein them in rather than letting them go freelance in the ‘populist press’ to try and influence Leave voters with yet more Project Fear propaganda and lies.
This may not be the response you wanted here, but there is an issue plaguing me.
I voted for Brexit. I saw that we needed to escape from the tentacles of the unelected superstate heading for ever closer and deeper union, led by Merkel, bad news if there ever was any! But I DO have worries about it. They began with a brief item on the radio news, that I haven’t heard again: that- after Brexit- a group of Conservative MPs had been planning to call for fast-track visas for Nigerians to Britain, presumably to be followed by India, Pakistan etc? There followed a programme on TV on how Nigeria would have over 400 million people by 2030 (or 2050?). Think about it.
This awoke in me an earlier concern. That we were only ever talking about controlling immigration from the EU when expressing the need to take control of our borders. More immigrants have been coming into the UK without much control, who are not even from the EU. Very little discussion! How has that been possible? (Other than by the failure of one Home Office Secretary, T May). But could she have failed that spectacularly without ever having been held to account for the easy bit?
Post Brexit, are we going to find the entire Commonwealth fast-tracked into Britain, because they’re not from the EU? Sorry to be so very stupid. But I keep hearing that Nigeria proposal, when it’s not even being broadcast. And my faith in politicians is zero. Can anyone put me right?
I suspect you may well be right.