New Delhi, Dec. 8 -- The worst argument of the West that I have encountered is that fake news changed public opinion and gave the world Donald Trump, and that this sort of propaganda creates the myth of other strongmen across the world. Like some bad Western theories, the view has developed the aura of a common truth even as evidence grows that it is highly unlikely and this view itself could be a piece of fake news.

It is an idea constructed by sophisticated American intellectual systems, and the idea has two parts. One is that the Russian state succeeded in influencing US elections by manipulating public opinion. The second is that Russia and other antagonists of the liberal West did this through the diabolical power of social media, e...