Hamilton 68: Tracking American Attitudes, Not Russian Influence

In the wake of the 2016 US presidential election, many have been concerned about foreign interference in American politics. The German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy launched a tool called Hamilton 68 to track “Russian influence” on Twitter. However, instead of tracking how Russia influenced American attitudes, Hamilton 68 simply collected a handful of mostly real, mostly American accounts and described their organic conversations as Russian scheming. The website tracks 600 Twitter accounts that are supposedly linked to Russia and are used to spread disinformation and propaganda. These accounts are said to be connected with the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency (IRA), which is accused of interfering in the 2016 US election. The website claims that these accounts “are pushing narratives that favor the Kremlin” by tweeting stories related to US domestic policy issues such as immigration, race relations, gun control and LGBT rights. However, many have questioned whether or not these accounts actually represent Russian influence or if they are simply Americans expressing their own opinions on social media platforms like Twitter. According to one report from researchers at Oxford University's Computational Propaganda Project, there is no evidence that any of these 600 accounts were directly linked to Russia or were part of any coordinated effort by Moscow to interfere in US politics. In addition, some experts have argued that Hamilton 68 paints too broad a brush when it comes to labeling certain conversations as “Russian scheming” without providing evidence for its claims. They argue that this could lead people to believe that any conversation on social media about certain topics is somehow related to Russia when it may not be at all. This could also lead people away from engaging in meaningful dialogue about important issues because they may be afraid their views will be labeled as part of some sort of Russian plot against America. Ultimately, while Hamilton 68 has been successful in bringing attention to potential foreign interference in US politics via social media platforms like Twitter, it is important for users and researchers alike to take into account all available evidence before jumping to conclusions about who is behind certain conversations online and what their motivations might be.