#Hashtag or ammunition?
A very applicable and interesting example of how the simple targeted use of social media can be leveraged by a nation state actor is in the form of the #DraftOurDaughters hashtag trend during the 2016 presidential election. The premise for the creation of the hashtag was somewhat bounded in truth. The Hillary Clinton campaign had a very early iteration of a possible social media campaign wherein they were working to champion a potential Clinton campaign initiative that would advocate for women of the appropriate age to register for the US Selective Service Program. The potential social media campaign never actually came to pass. It was abandoned quickly as it was thought to be too divisive.
However, within the pseudo-underground channels of 4Chan, the narrative that hackers had compromised the Clinton campaign server, which hosted their working campaign messages, was spread (Lacapria, 2016). Affiliated users and groups that were known to be in direct opposition...