The Russia connectionThe top three trends we miss when discussing Russian ads

By Nina Jankowicz

Last week, the Democrats of the House Intelligence Committee released the trove of over 3,500 Facebook ads purchased by the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) from 2015 to 2017. For the most part, the release confirms what we already knew: Accounts based in Russia exploited America’s societal fissures to sow chaos in the United States in order to weaken our democratic structures, force us to turn inward, and thereby increase Russia’s standing in the world.

Any short news piece on the release of the ads will report that the so-called “troll factory” pushed divisive content along racial, sexual, religious, and other societal fault lines. It might focus on the ads’ often-nonsensical use of English. But taken holistically, three trends emerge that are not evident when only highlighting the most divisive content:

1. Russia understood the power of the positive.
Among the posts inciting hatred toward immigrants, police, homophobes, and Hillary Clinton, the largest and most successful communities cultivated by the IRA utilized positive messaging to build community and trust among their subscribers. Pages targeting African Americans highlighted accomplishments of black scientists, activists, and other prominent people of color, in addition to “raising awareness” about negative issues such as police brutality. A page billed as an LGBT community shared heartwarming stories of same sex marriages and tolerance as well as stories about injustices faced by gay Americans. And the famous “Being Patriotic” page aimed at American conservatives shared feel-good images of dogs in American flag bandanas and Reagan-era nostalgia alongside commentary about illegal immigration, gun rights, and Secretary Clinton’s purported role in the Benghazi attacks. As is visible from the top performing posts, all sought to promote pride in whatever affinity group they targeted.