Roxana Muenster

Graduate Student

Roxana Muenster, a doctoral student at Cornell University, studies the far-right and digital communication – with a focus on misinformation, conspiracy and online extremism.

Muenster says:

“Far-right influencers’ support of Russia has been, at times, overt: Former Fox News host and current content creator Tucker Carlson traveled to Russia at the beginning of the year for a series of laudatory videos on the country. His podcast now ranks among the top podcasts in the US. Other times the support is more implicit or hazy. Lauren Southern, one of the influencers employed by the company alleged to be at the center of the investigation, posted videos denigrating Ukraine and the media’s reporting on it. At the same time, after calling the invasion ‘a special operation’ in one video, she jokes she has to ‘get those Rubles in [her] account.’

“Influencers are a promising avenue to spread disinformation: For one, there is plausible deniability. Influencers employed by the company deny knowing of the company’s Russia relations and that their content was – wittingly or unwittingly – influenced by its backers. Influencers are also not news organizations, nor do they claim to be. This means they can often utter outrageous claims under the guise of opinion or ‘just asking questions.’ 

“Another important aspect which makes influencers promising tools in spreading disinformation is that users trust the faces and voices they follow. Followers often spend hours listening to or watching their favorite influencers, forming parasocial relationships and building trust akin to a friend. The content creators’ distance from news media is often considered a benefit, since far-right followers consider mainstream news corrupt. Institutional politics have recognized this: Presidential candidate Donald Trump has appeared as a guest on many of their podcasts.

“Lastly, over half of the U.S. population regularly consumes news. What they consume there is often curated by influencers and presented to them in the emotion- and opinion-driven tone that succeeds on social media algorithms. This is fertile ground for the injection of disinformation or false narratives. 

“It is important to note that the real threat of mis- and disinformation is less in the public changing their belief about a topic based on a single message they are exposed to once – this is simply not how media effects work. Instead, the danger lies in this environment of distrust, chaos, and confusion that its spread creates. We have seen how this can destabilize democracy by eroding trust in institutions such as the government itself, the media or the integrity of elections.”