AT:  It's a "big deal" for many reasons.  True, some would like to use it as an "excuse" for Ms Clinton's loss.  I'm not one of them.  She lost for many different reasons,  most of them of her and her supporters own doing......but that's a different conversation.  

As I've stated, we have a long history of involving ourselves in the internal affairs of other nations.  I think it's founded on a combination of self-interest and patronizing belief in "American exceptionalism".we're so great we have the responsibility to make everyone else "just like us."  (Now that I think of it, I feel that same, but personal, "exceptionalism" was part of the persona which cost Clinton the election)...pardon the digression. 

The advent of the internet has made it much, much easier to both access and disseminate information ("true" or "false" information) and, therefore, easier for less powerful nations and individuals to "mess with" the more powerful ones.  It's "leveled the field"...we don't like that