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(CNN Business) - The first process of political trial in the United States during the era of social networks began with tweets out of context, conspiracy theories on the Internet and thousands of digital advertisements.
While House Democrats asked detailed questions to two senior US diplomats on Wednesday, the barriers between digital life and the real world began to break, with occasional surreal results.
In a strange episode, a Republican legislator posted 23 messages on Twitter that seemed to criticize the political trial investigation, calling it a "farce" and "rumor," but ultimately ended up being a reference to a meme linked to a conspiracy theory of right. Other prominent conservatives cataloged the audience of "boring" on social networks, while President Donald Trump took the opportunity to request funds for his campaign through text messages and email.
- READ: The first public hearing in the process of political trial paints a condemnatory portrait of Trump
These tactics offer a glimpse into the conservative strategy on the internet, as the investigation of the political trial enters a new public phase. Dave Karpf, a researcher in online political communication at George Washington University, said that much resembles "basic trolling behavior."
"It is indicative of where we are and what we will hear from elected Republican officials and conservative media," he said. “The facts of the case are condemnatory, but they have spread gradually. Instead of discussing the facts, they take refuge in style, ”he added.
The approach underlines how the Internet - which has long been seen as a mirror that simply reflects the real world - is increasingly used by powerful actors to shape the public's perception of reality.
Republican Paul Gosar's tweet chain, representative for Arizona, on Wednesday summarizes the matter, as he delighted some conspiracy theorists on the Internet when it turned out that the first letters of each of his 23 tweets formed the phrase of a meme viral: "Epstein didn't kill himself" ("Epstein didn't kill himself"). It is not clear whether Gosar believes in such a conspiracy theory, which speculates without foundation that a crooked play was involved in the death of the dishonored businessman Jeffrey Epstein. When the acrostic in his Twitter posts was discovered, the representative did not retract. What he did was publish new messages, whose initial letters formed the word "Area 51".
The tone of the episode strongly clashed with the seriousness of what was happening inside the courtroom: the fourth presidential political trial investigation in United States history.
Critics of the audience tried to undermine the process in other ways, including the out-of-context use of a social media publication to deceive the public. Republicans erased information linked to a tweet that Mark Zaid wrote two years ago - a lawyer who currently represents the whistleblower whose revelations led to the political trial investigation - then printed it and displayed it on an easel located prominently behind lawmakers in the courtroom, all in one play for discrediting the procedure.
The poster showed Zaid's tweet, which originally referred to the dismissal of interim Justice Secretary Sally Yates by Trump, calling it "#golpe." However, the message posted at the hearing lacked any mention of the dismissal, in a way that falsely suggests that Zaid has been conspiring for years against Trump.
Meanwhile, others on social networks continued to cite a name that some conservatives believe belongs to the complainant. Although Facebook and YouTube said last Friday that they would remove content that mentions the identity of the alleged complainant, CNN Business found several references to the name on both platforms this week, including some publications that contain it multiple times.
- LOOK: The latest on the first public hearing in the process of political trial of Trump
And as if it were to fill the networks with messages against the audience, Trump's campaign published more than 2,000 ads on Facebook about the political trial, according to data analyzed by Laura Edelson, a researcher at the Tandon School of Engineering at the University of NY.
"The farce of the political trial hearings begins today!", Was read in an announcement published in the morning. It was accompanied by a video of Trump attacking the Democrats for trying to dismiss him.
In total, buying ads will cost Trump's campaign between $ 40,000 and $ 260,000, according to Edelson's analysis. Some of the money could be recovered with his fundraising bombing, which called the congressional hearing "a witch hunt" and urged supporters to help Trump collect three million dollars in 24 hours.
The Republican National Committee of Congress (NRCC) has been posting targeted ads during the past week with photos of Democratic lawmakers who voted to begin the political trial processes.
A modest Facebook advertising expense of up to $ 700 allowed the NRCC to reach up to 45,000 people in Pennsylvania showing Conor Lamb, the state’s Democratic representative, attacking, according to Facebook’s political advertising library. Lamb will seek re-election next year.
The only Democrat who spent a lot on Facebook ads about the political trial this week, according to Edelson, is Tom Steyer, whose presidential campaign has taken up to $ 74,000 since Monday in ads that support the process. Steyer was one of the first supporters of a political trial investigation. In July, a group he founded published an ad in favor of the indictment on CNN and MSNBC.
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