California Western School of Law CWSL Scholarly Commons Faculty Scholarship 2019 Suing Russia: How Americans Can Fight Back Against Russian Intervention in American Politics William J. Aceves California Western School of Law,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.cwsl.edu/fs Part of the Human Rights Law Commons, International Humanitarian Law Commons, International Law Commons, and the Law and Politics Commons Recommended Citation William J. Aceves, Suing Russia: How Americans Can Fight Back Against Russian Intervention in American Politics, 43 Fordham Int'l. L. J. 1 (2019). Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.cwsl.edu/fs/292 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by CWSL Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of CWSL Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ARTICLE SUING RUSSIA: HOW AMERICANS CAN FIGHT BACK AGAINST RUSSIAN INTERVENTION IN AMERICAN POLITICS William J. Aceves* ABSTRACT The evidence of Russian intervention in American politics is overwhelming. In the midst of the 2016 US presidential campaign, a growing number of inflammatory social media posts addressing various political topics emerged on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These posts supported the candidacy of Donald Trump, condemned the influx of refugees and migrants, and promoted racial divisions in the United States. Through clicks, likes, shares, and retweets, these messages reached millions of Americans. But, these messages did not originate in the United States; they were drafted and disseminated through inauthentic social media accounts created and controlled by the Internet Research Agency, an obscure foreign corporation with direct contacts to the Russian government.