Russian Influence on American Attitudes Exaggerated by Hamilton 68

In a recent report released by the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a Washington-based think tank, it was revealed that their tracking tool, Hamilton 68, has been overstating the influence of Russia on American attitudes. The report found that 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 tool was launched in 2017 with the intention of providing insight into how foreign actors are attempting to shape public opinion in the United States. It tracked 600 Twitter accounts associated with Russian influence operations and monitored their activity. However, the report found that many of these accounts were not actually linked to Russia but were just ordinary Americans discussing topics related to politics or current events. This revelation is concerning because it suggests that Hamilton 68 may be exaggerating the extent to which Russia is influencing public opinion in America. Furthermore, it raises questions about whether other tools used by researchers and analysts are also misrepresenting data or making inaccurate assumptions about foreign interference in US politics. The findings from this report have serious implications for how we view foreign interference in US politics and our understanding of what constitutes “Russian meddling” in American affairs. It is important to remember that while there may be some truth to claims about Russian interference in US politics, we must be careful not to overstate its effects or rely too heavily on tools like Hamilton 68 when assessing these claims.