We’ve had a bit of help, this is from 2020:

Study: Russian Trolls Supremely Effective At Exploiting American Fear, Anger Online

Of course, the main purpose of posts by Russian trolls is to incite arguments among different groups or ideologies: conservatives versus liberals, pro-life versus pro choice, pro-immigrant groups versus border wall enthusiasts, etc. Researchers say as outrageous as much of this content appears to be, Americans can’t help but to click.

After analyzing over 2,500 of these Russian posts, researchers discovered they generated clickthrough rates as much as nine times higher than the norm in digital advertising campaigns. In a rather poor reflection of human nature, it seems that controversy, lies, and fear mongering do very much equal clicks.

https://studyfinds.org/study-russian-trolls-supremely-effective-at-exploiting-american-fear-anger-online/