'Without Online Trolls, There Would Be No Donald Trump' [View all]

Interesting article by Marcy Wheeler about rightwing influencers and online trolls. An excerpt:

"The rise of a mob-driven distraction machine prevents independent journalists from being able to drive stories like we used to. Persistent true content is no longer enough to attract eyeballs and drive narrative, because people are flooding social media with conspiracies."

"And with so many of the stories I have covered, from the Russian investigation to January 6 to the Hunter Biden case, such troll-driven mobs have a demonstrable impact on the outcome. Such mobs were instrumental in discrediting legal outcomes that used to hold sway."

"By 2025, these trolling operations come in various shapes and sizes, from high-profile, well-known right-wing influencers, including Trump and his family, to anonymous accounts that nonetheless enjoy huge followings on Twitter. The January 6 investigation disclosed far-reaching networks of Twitter, Signal, and Telegram chats used to stoke election fraud conspiracies and plot the insurrection itself. Semafor earlier this year described a series of encrypted group chats that involved some 300 tech CEOs, venture capitalists and conservative media personalities, writing that 'their influence flows through X, Substack, and podcasts, and constitutes a kind of dark matter of American politics and media.' "

"But there’s one particular network of trolls, with an origin story that is unusually revealing of the way in which the partnership between Donald Trump and these right-wing, online armies can work. It reveals the backstory to some of the digital media manipulation that helped Trump first hijack politics in 2016."

Full article at link:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/tpm-25/without-online-trolls-there-would-be-no-donald-trump