Columbia University, Trump campaignA week before Hillary Clinton published her campaign memoir, Facebook seemed to validate her complaint that Vladimir Putin helped Donald Trump defeat her. But the social media platform’s announcement about suspicious online political ads also highlighted common misconceptions about the nature of Russian attempts to influence the presidential election.

We often hear that Russia “hacked the election,” “attacked our democracy,” or “undermined the integrity of our electoral process.” Yet so far all the anti-Clinton efforts blamed on Russia amount to attempts at persuasion, as opposed to interference in the casting and counting of votes. Jacob Sullum argues that our democracy probably can survive a few more voices in the cacophony of competing claims, especially if we cultivate habits of skepticism and critical thinking.

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