Russian trolls reportedly watched House of Cards, but not for the reasons everyone else watches House of Cards (Mahershala Ali, Claire Underwood’s sheath dresses, Patricia Clarkson eating soup for lunch). They watched it to learn about American politics, according to a report from Yahoo. The “troll factory” that was part of Vladimir Putin’s effort to influence the 2016 presidential election had to watch the Netflix political drama to help them craft online messages to sow distrust against Hillary Clinton. “At first we were forced to watch the House of Cards in English,” one of the workers, identified as “Maksim,” told the Russian TV station Rain in an interview. The show was supposed to teach them about American politics and culture (was The West Wing not available? Or, at the very least, The Newsroom?). “It was necessary to know all the main problems of the United States of America. Tax problems, the problem of gays, sexual minorities, weapons,” he said.
