Is Russia Conducting A Social Media War On America? (time.com) 469
An anonymous reader writes: Time magazine ran a cover story about "a dangerous new route for antidemocratic forces" -- social media. "Using these technologies, it is possible to undermine democratic government, and it's becoming easier every day," says Rand Waltzman of the Rand Corp., who ran a major Pentagon research program to understand the propaganda threats posed by social media technology." The article cites current and former FBI and CIA officials who now believe Russia's phishing emails against politicians were "just the most visible battle in an ongoing information war against global democracy." They cite, for example, a March report by U.S. counterintelligence which found "Russians had sent expertly tailored messages carrying malware to more than 10,000 Twitter users in the Defense Department."
Each message contained links tailored to the interests of the recipient, but "When clicked, the links took users to a Russian-controlled server that downloaded a program allowing Moscow's hackers to take control of the victim's phone or computer -- and Twitter account...
"In 2016, Russia had used thousands of covert human agents and robot computer programs to spread disinformation referencing the stolen campaign emails of Hillary Clinton, amplifying their effect. Now counterintelligence officials wondered: What chaos could Moscow unleash with thousands of Twitter handles that spoke in real time with the authority of the armed forces of the United States?" The article also notes how algorithms now can identify hot-button issues and people susceptible to suggestion, so "Propagandists can then manually craft messages to influence them, deploying covert provocateurs, either humans or automated computer programs known as bots, in hopes of altering their behavior. That is what Moscow is doing, more than a dozen senior intelligence officials and others investigating Russia's influence operations tell Time."
The article describes a Russian soldier in the Ukraine pretending to be a 42-year-old American housewife. Meanwhile, this week Time's cover shows America's White House halfway-covered with Kremlin-esque spires -- drawing a complaint from the humorists at Mad magazine, who say Time copied the cover of Mad's December issue.
"In 2016, Russia had used thousands of covert human agents and robot computer programs to spread disinformation referencing the stolen campaign emails of Hillary Clinton, amplifying their effect. Now counterintelligence officials wondered: What chaos could Moscow unleash with thousands of Twitter handles that spoke in real time with the authority of the armed forces of the United States?" The article also notes how algorithms now can identify hot-button issues and people susceptible to suggestion, so "Propagandists can then manually craft messages to influence them, deploying covert provocateurs, either humans or automated computer programs known as bots, in hopes of altering their behavior. That is what Moscow is doing, more than a dozen senior intelligence officials and others investigating Russia's influence operations tell Time."
The article describes a Russian soldier in the Ukraine pretending to be a 42-year-old American housewife. Meanwhile, this week Time's cover shows America's White House halfway-covered with Kremlin-esque spires -- drawing a complaint from the humorists at Mad magazine, who say Time copied the cover of Mad's December issue.
The media is (Score:5, Insightful)
If anyone is conducting a (metaphorical) war on America, it's the news media. How many hyped up bullshit stories is it going to take before news media consumers realize it's 95% storytelling and 5% actual events?
Re:The media is (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously people. Stop treating government as a sporting contest where you cheer for your team to crush the other team.
The government is the police and the military. They arrest and imprison people. They carry out drone strikes and bombings. They ruin people's lives. They take ~25% of everything everyone produces every year.
It's not a game. It's not a TV show. It's not a comedy. And it's not about you feeling good about yourself -- you're not a storybook hero. It's a grownup thing. Time to start thinking and acting like grownups.
Consensus government (Score:5, Interesting)
Stop treating government as a sporting contest where you cheer for your team to crush the other team.
Some countries like Switzerland have not a single head of executive, but a council of 7 people.
It the same was practiced in your country, that would lead to totally different campaigns.
It would be very difficult for the candidate of one or the other of your bipartite system, to spend time arguing that the other is "an incompetent idiot", because with such system, they are guaranteed to then later have to work together reaching a consensus.
Hard to crush a team, when all the team *must in practice* work together.
The only big suspense would be who out of the minor parties are going to get the last of the coucil seats.
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Switzerland is smaller and has less economic clout than some counties in the US. This sort of thing doesn't scale.
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Switzerland is smaller and has less economic clout than some counties in the US. This sort of thing doesn't scale.
Don't exaggerate, Switzerland is the size of an average US state. But yes, it wouldn't work in the US on federal level.
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Switzerland is the size of one large US city.
Re:Consensus government (Score:5, Informative)
Switzerland has a GDP of around $650B. There are only 6 _states_ in the US that have more and only 3 states have more than double that. Now, I did not fund a list of US GDP by country, but unless, for example, California manages to have about 25% of its total GDP in only one county, your numbers are complete bullshit.
Re:Consensus government (Score:5, Insightful)
Switzerland has a GDP of around $650B. There are only 6 _states_ in the US that have more and only 3 states have more than double that. Now, I did not fund a list of US GDP by country, but unless, for example, California manages to have about 25% of its total GDP in only one county, your numbers are complete bullshit.
The funny part is if you wanted to take the county or state comparison all the way, then a good chunk of the US would be considered third world.
Actually that's not funny at all, it's really quite sad...
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You mean like a confederation?
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Because as the number of participants in a discussion scales linearly the number of communication paths scales quadratically?
Re:Consensus government (Score:5, Interesting)
Indeed. And if somebody is really not a team-player, because they do not have the personal maturity for it (Blocher), then that person will be removed again. The others often serve for decades and if they make a mess, chances are they will have to clean it up themselves. As a result, when the Swiss have votes every three months on things, including almost all laws, there is actual information being disseminated and the government has one recommendation that all 7 Bundesraete support, despite being comprised of several different parties. And they actually give rational arguments for that recommendation (in most cases).
Of course, even this can be subverted. For example, the Swiss recently voted themselves the beginnings of a surveillance-state without any good rational reason, just the usual fear-driven nonsense. But they can get rid of that again even against the government if they so chose, and this subversion is much harder to achieve than in other systems. And quite often those in power do not get what they want, especially if it costs a lot of money with no real gain.
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I could not agree more. If you, for example, vote for a party that promised to do a real war and then they do it as result of being elected, you very much share the responsibility for the killing that ensues, just the same as if you had done it personally.
As to the matter at hand, a "war" is were people a lot of people get killed without actually deserving it individually. A war is not something you can overlook or misunderstand. If you are in a war, you _will_ know. That is another grown-up thing: Do not u
Re:The media is (Score:5, Insightful)
That's not a war on America. That's what America wants.
Media outlets live and die by ratings. They've tried appealing to people's logic before. Audiences tune it out.
Actually, this is a general metaphor for most of the modern world. Big bad "corporations" get blamed for the general preferences and assholishness of the general public. Want to know why all food is such cheap shit? McDs tries to sell salads, but nobody buys. Want to know why all the characters in horror movies are so stupid, and hit TV shows make fun of nerds? Most of the audience is stupider than a bag of rocks.
And politically -- and this also applies to intelligent people as well -- nobody wants information. All they want is validation. So that's what modern day media provides them. They have to, in this competitive landscape. The days of the big three forcing people to watch southerners brutalizing blacks because there was literally nothing else on TV, is long gone. They'll just switch to FOX, where no one even knows that Trump is in hock up to his eyeballs to Putin-connected billionaires [talkingpointsmemo.com].
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And politically -- and this also applies to intelligent people as well -- nobody wants information. All they want is validation.
That's well-said. Good point.
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And politically -- and this also applies to intelligent people as well -- nobody wants information. All they want is validation.
While we are at that, would suggest you having a look at commentaries on Russia affairs by Mark Ames [exiledonline.com], which are more on the information side I believe.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
While we are at that, would suggest you having a look at commentaries on Russia affairs by Mark Ames [exiledonline.com], which are more on the information side I believe.
Thank you for that source. I read it, and it provides some very interesting facts about the murky nature of the FBI, and how that organization has been used for, what I will characterize as, political malfeasance. However, I don't agree with the author's belief that "The FBI isn't even legal". I'm pretty sure if it were, the courts, Congress, and the President would have taken note of it by now.
To clarify my comments above, let me state the following:
Re:The media is (Score:4, Informative)
Thank you for that source.
You are welcome. Meanwhile, have you noticed that it's just the latest article in a series of (currently) six? There are links to other articles at the bottom of the page, some of which are more in line with the series name ("Russia blog").
While it's an interesting piece about the FBI, the major strength of Mark Ames as a journalist comes from the fact that he ran a newspaper in Russia in 1990s. In 2000s they got some issue with the Russian Government and preferred to shut down (or as Mark Ames puts it, his newspaper was closed). Nevertheless, he knows a great deal about 1990s Russia, and that's a great context most U.S. journalists just don't get. That's why Ames is unique, more or less.
That being the sole consideration, his writing would be just another opinion. But since he knows a vast amount of facts about Russia's most recent history, he is able to make a damn good point.
Re:The media is (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't really true at all. Two of the highest rated news programs in America are 60 Minutes and NPR's All Things Considered (google it). They even outperform FOX News. The most critically acclaimed entertainment shows are also often the most watched shows.
The reason crap is crap, is that crap is cheap to make and good things are more expensive to make. The formula for TV is not a singular pursuit of the highest possible ratings (though that is always nice I'm sure), it's a mix of the best ratings possible for the cheapest price possible, maximizing ad revenue.
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That's what America wants.
Sounds like something a tobacco company CEO might say. Sure it's poisonous, but they keep buying it, LOL. News media are the moral equivalent of cigarette salesmen.
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Re: The media is (Score:5, Informative)
There is not, and has never been, any evidence, large or small, connecting Donald Trump to Russia,
Shut the fuck up.
http://time.com/4433880/donald... [time.com]
http://www.politico.com/magazi... [politico.com]
http://www.latimes.com/politic... [latimes.com]
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: The media is (Score:4, Insightful)
The only irony here is your attempt to refute my observation that too many people only want validation, by showing that you reject anything other than what you want to believe, and not even addressing the many referenced sources and facts that were presented to do.
When someone reports pseudo-facts, factoids and fake news as hard evidence, people tend to believe there's something fishy going on. I clicked on the first link (TIME magazine) and the article literally starts with: "Russian intelligence agencies have allegedly recently digitally broken into four different American organizations that are affiliated either with Hillary Clinton or the Democratic Party since late May". This is a factoid; there is no real reason to not think that the Democratic Party hack is 90% due to the internal grievances with the party misconduct toward Sanders: some intern dumped the data and then shared it to expose such petty behaviour. The whole Russian hack thing smells like a really smelly red herring.
I think that in the end you just proved your point: people want validation, you too.
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"The have been in the minority in the Federal Government for nearly ten years now."
Yet ironically they don't seem to be a minority of the population...just a majority of population with systematically reduced voice in their own governance.
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Link to the NSA demonstrating that? I seem to recall the report came from the CIA, and their "evidence" amounted to "this is in line with the sort of things Russians want to do," plus some Cyrillic characters left over in files and some timestamps that corresponded to Russian working hours. Of course, one of the leaked CIA hacking tools, UMBRAGE, does exactly this. You press a button for "make it look like the Russians did it" and it makes it look like the Russians did it, "make it look like the Chinese did
Re: The media is (Score:5, Interesting)
There is not, and has never been, any evidence, large or small, connecting Donald Trump to Russia, or linking Russia to the DNC hacking. At all. Ever. In any capacity.
Never, ever get on the wrong side of the argument [schneier.com] with Bruce Schneier. At all. Ever. In any capacity.
Re: The media is (Score:4, Insightful)
Apples and Oranges. And potatoes for tha matter.
The only vote that the Constitution allows is the Electoral Vote.
Anything else is journalists running around tallying up numbers. They might as well be tallying up the weight of the jewelry that the people voting for each candidate were wearing when they voted.
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Apples and Oranges. And potatoes for tha matter.
The only vote that the Constitution allows is the Electoral Vote.
True, but in my lifetime is has gone from being a quirk of the US Constitution that I was told I would probably never see in high school and college to the road to putting Republicans in the White House. While I'm not going to argue against the system, it is a sign of things that are going on in the US, namely large populous states versus small populous states which is what the system was created with regards to. Of course, you can look t why those states are less populous, and in many cases worse off econo
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If anyone is conducting a (metaphorical) war on America, it's the news media. How many hyped up bullshit stories is it going to take before news media consumers realize it's 95% storytelling and 5% actual events?
Hrm.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Just because he's aligned with Russian interests doesn't mean he's Russian.
I like that the ability of the western media to influence politics with international progressivism is being weakened. The threats that the big bad bear will come invade Europe if we don't stop him now are fucking laughable. He's playing games in his backyard, those games are less relevant to me than the games the west is playing in the ME.
That he's pushing nativism to weaken the EU, fucking great. I don't want minarets calling for I
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I see it a little differently:
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The problem is that "the media" picks up all kind of "fake news" from social media. If something is trending on Twitter or Facebook, etc., the media will just parrot it... the more sensational, the better. This makes the media uniquely susceptible to these kind of Russian attacks.
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Spasibo, tovarishch
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If anyone is conducting a (metaphorical) war on America, it's the news media.
So, ignore the facts of Russian influence on the election, especially if you were one of the pinko patsies slurping down the Russian disinformation campaign. The only way Trump supporters can avoid admitting they were tools of Moscow is to deny it ever happened. Part of that is attacking the media reporting the story.
That either makes you a dupe or Russian soldier killing some spare time. Not much of a choice.
Re:The media is (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, it's obvious that Russia (or some country, but let's assume Russia) is conducting such a campaign. Just look at the post of Fox News, for example. You'll run into posts that sound like they were supposed to be written by an American, but have phrases that no American would ever write. It's pretty clear sometimes that you are dealing with someone who didn't get the top grade in the Russian info-war school.
Re:The media is (Score:5, Interesting)
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'Emails, No Crime' may prove to be an interesting circus. Remember, the new special investigator just set up doesn't have a very limited scope. There is still plenty of room to continue investigating.
I, for one, look forward to a vigorous investigation of 'manipulation' in the election. Because the long tails revealed don't necessarily point toward Trump's campaign exclusively.
We have all sorts of matters and evidence to look into. For instance, media people who leaked the Debate Questions to the Clinto
Disinformation of Hillary Clinton? (Score:5, Informative)
My understanding is that most of the emails were in fact true. The DNC never claimed the emails were false, just complaining that their dirty laundry got out for everyone to see.
Re: Disinformation of Hillary Clinton? (Score:2, Informative)
That's what they don't want Democrats to think about.
Russia Russia Russia Russia!
(We rigged the primary against Bernie and got all the debate questions before the debates)
Russia Russia Russia!!
The S in USSR (Score:2, Insightful)
Crimea invasion and now this? It looks like long-time KGBer Vladimir Putin is serious about rebuilding the Union of Soviet Social-ist Republics.
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Because indeed that would have been a cause worth fighting against.
Nothing about the USSR was socialist (Score:2)
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Alternatively: Socialism/Communism/Marxism concentrates too much power, that power corrupts whoever is in charge.
the ass in dumbass (Score:2)
Russia already had a base in Crimea. If that's an invasion, then the U.S. invades Japan/Germany/England/Saudi Arabia each and every time it moves troops through its bases in those countries.
And....its the U.S. that overthrew the elected government of Ukraine. Not Russia. In some alternate universe where Putin extended the Warsaw Pact to surround the United States and then overthrew the government of Canada, you wouldn't be throwing stones if the U.S. let Ontario join it by de
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So not only do you have the ass in dumbass, you've got the d in dumbfuck! Russia's military spending is a fraction of NATO's, and they just cut it by 30%. NATO has dramatically expanded after the fall of the Warsaw Pact - breaking a promise Bush made to Gorbachev. It's not Russia spending a trillion dollars to upgrade its nuclear arse
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You are either dumb or ignorant, probably both. There used to be a treaty that very specifically - down to a precise amount of tanks, helicopters, artillery and so on - limited the size of conventional forces in Europe. The NATO expansion quickly broke that treaty and several of the new NATO countries refused to sign it, making the treaty moot because the excess could just be parked in these countries, right at the Russian border. Russia fruitlessly compl
Russians on Slashdot (Score:2, Informative)
Hype is hype (Score:2, Insightful)
There is a paragraph about phishing that largely is quoted in the summary. The article doesn't make clear whether these are phishing attacks from the Russian government, or just from Russia.
Overall, the article is an example of the breathless hyperbole that fills every news article these days.
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"The vast majority of the article can be summed as, "astroturfing.""
I'd add that it's not even astrotufing about the old two-blocks world.
The titular should be something like "Is Time Conducting a News War on Social Media?"
As the likes of Twitter, Facebook, etc. are killing the "old way" Time represents, Time, of course, counterattacks in a desperate attempt to stay relevant: in USA one of the worst things you can call somebody is "communist"; you'd better call somebody son-of-a-bitch than communist; Russia
Re:Hype is hype (Score:5, Informative)
I think we've known for a while that various governments pay people to enter forums and post messages trying control the narrative.
I haven't heard of any other nation coming close to the scale of Russia:
"Russia's information war [businessinsider.com] might be thought of as the biggest trolling operation in history,"
There is a paragraph about phishing that largely is quoted in the summary. The article doesn't make clear whether these are phishing attacks from the Russian government, or just from Russia.
Uh, yes, TFA does say it came straight from Russian soldiers:
In one case last year, senior intelligence officials tell TIME, a Russian soldier based in Ukraine successfully infiltrated a U.S. social media group by pretending to be a 42-year-old American housewife and weighing in on political debates with specially tailored messages.
Overall, the article is an example of the breathless hyperbole that fills every news article these days.
Heh TFA says "the Russians would consider it a success if you questioned the truth of your news sources". Hrm.
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Ours is simply more sophisticated, relies on soft pressure and tends to have plausible deniability ... instead of outright money streams paying liars.
They get every almost polling service to say Hillary will win by complete coincidence, Russia has to be a little more forceful.
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They get every almost polling service to say Hillary will win by complete coincidence, Russia has to be a little more forceful.
How dare you? Don't you know polls are Scientific, and we all know Scientific means UNEQUIVOCAL TRUTH ! Why do you hate Science? Why do you hate Truth? Are you an anti-science heretic? All hail the glory of SCIENCE ! SCIENCE!
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Re:Hype is hype (Score:4, Interesting)
Heh TFA says "the Russians would consider it a success if you questioned the truth of your news sources"
If that is truly the goal of Russian hackers, then they are doing us a favor.
Now if only we can get people to doubt news sources they agree with.
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Uh, yes, TFA does say it came straight from Russian soldiers:
No. I'm going to point out that you fell for the exact trick the article wanted you to do, and mixed up phishing, hacking, and atro-turfing. The article purposely conflates those, but you did it accidentally. You need to turn off your emotions and turn on your brain. This article is attempting to deceive you.
I'll give you another hint: when it says "successfully infiltrated a social media group" what it means is "signed up for an account."
90% of social media promotes the left-wing agenda (Score:2)
Occam's Razor says it's not "The Russians." "The Russians" do not have the resources to control U.S. (social) media. It does appear that some entity is using the media to create deeper political division in the U.S. It must be very expensive to do this but, it would be much less expensive for U.S. government agencies to do this instead of a foreign entity. Occam's Razor says this is an inside-job. If any entity is influencing the media it is much more likely to be the CIA rather than the Kremlin.
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Occam's Razor says you don't understand Occam's Razor very well: RAZING_CONSPIRACY [obsidianrook.com]
What you're actually making is a plausibility argument based on a (dubious) claim that Russia's resources are too limited to have any effect in this realm.
If you wanted to make the point that multiple different player's are out there astroturfing as web surfers-- including, for example, Hillary's Brock puppets who were such a joy to deal with during the Democratic primary-- y
ITT (Score:2)
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I hope they know where to send the paycheck... I also apparently shill for big corporations, the Jews, the Illuminati, both the Republican and Democratic parties... and yet even though they know me well enough to bring me into their conspiracies, they apparently don't know where to send the damned payoff.
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Seriously (Score:3)
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Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
In the USA? The cops steal five times as much stuff, year in year out as burglars do.
Also, some bendejho federal judge has recorded an opinion that opening your door amounts to inviting the cops into the front room. Hence, security screen door with a good solid lock. Talk to people through it, stop push ins before they start. Keeps 'the hounds' from being unintentionally released.
Works for all criminals, not only those that wear blue.
No (Score:2, Informative)
All we get is this kind of brain damage about completely unsubstantiated Russian 'bots' and some bizarrely incredibly mind control project Putin has.
Re:No (Score:4, Insightful)
Because the alternative is admitting that Hillary lost because she's terrible and because her views are out of step with the public.
And that can't be true, right? If it were, Republicans would also control the House and the Senate and the majority of the state governorships [ballotpedia.org] and the state legislatures [ballotpedia.org].
Re:No (Score:5, Informative)
You're a liar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Well that's good, because there isn't any accusation of electoral fraud, vote rigging or coercion of voters (except by Trump).
Like a good infowarrior you erected a poor strawman to avoid recognition of the actual concern.
Good job, man!
Glad Russia didn't have any trouble manipulation social media. You are a poster child.
Yes (Score:5, Informative)
Also, you're straw manning. We're not discussing vote rigging or coercion, we're discussing propaganda campaigns.
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Russia doesn't get involved directly... They just take advantage of useful idiots, the alt-right in this case. Organised trolling and conspiracy theory mongering on social media goes a long way when idiots amplify it for you.
Interestingly GCHQ uses the same tactics, according to leaks from Snowden. I wonder if Russia learned from them, or if it's a case of parallel evolution.
They learned it from the USA (Score:5, Interesting)
I remember hearing [re-]broadcasts by Ronald Reagan via "Voice of America" broadcast into Afghanistan in the 1970's. He went off the deep end and talked about how there are plenty of jobs for Afghan defectors. This was such bullshit, as there were lots of unemployed Americans, so I just didn't understand how shit like this would be believed (by the East). Apparently, it was reasonably successful, for the amount of descent it would cause. Similarly, most of the strikes in Gdansk Poland were strongly influenced by the US, with the help of the catholic church. All sorts of nonsense was promised to the workers in the shipyards, most ironically, that they would get Western wages if they broke away from the Eastern block. After the bankruptcy of the Gdansk shipyards and the fall of the Soviet Union, "Johnson and Johnson" negotiated purchasing the shipyards. The workers were getting around $.25/hour before the changes and managed to get $.50
Re:They learned it from the USA (Score:5, Insightful)
Probably the biggest source of propaganda came during the 2007 TARP. If the American people did not bail out the banks who had been holding CMOs, the economy would be devastated.
This one really gets my goat. The big banks got off so easy at the expense of taxpayers. Then they lobbied so successfully for Dodd-Frank that it became a present wrapped for them in a bow.
They didn't learn it from anyone (Score:2)
The Mega Corps own all of big media. There's a few little guys running off Youtube but they can be shut down anytime Google (another Mega Corp) wants.
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Yes (Score:2)
Russia isn't necessary (Score:2)
The administrations of recent history are doing a fine job of undermining democracy all on their own.
There is no Trumpism without Putinism. (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been noticing since the election how odd it is that whenever I meet a Trump supporter, or a Hillary hater, If I bring up Russia, their nationalistic sense of American sovereignty will completely evaporate. To a person, they deflect concern about Russian hacking or Putin's oligarchy with such skill as if they've attended an 8-week media training course. They'll claim the Russians did us a favor by exposing Democratic corruption, and even shed a tear for the plight of the Russian people suffering under Obama's sanctions.
When I meet someone who says they "don't support Trump" but somehow only attacks liberals, I can just imagine the Facebook group that got their hooks in them. I keep seeing groups for political causes that used to have their own identities, but now only post pro-Trump or anti-liberal messages. "Being Libertarian" had a perfect example – libertarianism is diametrically opposed from authoritarianism, and yet it showed up in my feed because a friend of mine clicked "Like" on a picture of a parody of that one poem. It said "They came for the socialists, and I said nothing. Then everything was better and they stopped coming for people." Thousands of likes, each one from someone who labels themselves "libertarian" but totally signed off on the rounding-up of their political enemies, and declared their trust that strongman authority only takes away rights temporarily.
And that's what is worrying, because even if Trump gets impeached, the national psyche is already gravely wounded, and the Kremlin has a fresh truckload of salt for us every day to stop it from healing.
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Robert Merce also implicated in UK (Score:4, Interesting)
Many shadowy parties are reported to be involved in this sort of thing, another is American Billionaire Robert Merce who has also been implicated in unlawful campaigning in the UK Referendum and General Elections, illegally under UK election regulations.
https://www.theguardian.com/te... [theguardian.com]
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Excellent analysis of the global reach (Score:5, Interesting)
The Brexit vote and the U.S. presidential election form part of Russiaâ(TM)s campaign of propaganda and disinformation to undermine and interfere in democratic processes in the Western countries.
http://www.newsweek.com/brexit... [newsweek.com]
Social media war? (Score:2)
c'mon (Score:2)
Is American Government Conducting a Propaganda War (Score:2, Interesting)
Yep.
Countless times it has been shown how half the twitter followers espousing such things as open boarders, free food, health care, housing free everything (unless you are an american citizen of course) are pretty much fake.
Accounts for Congressional members on twitter are and their followers numbers probably fake too.
I mean have you watched the news lately? You know, there are other things more important going on right now than trying to remove a individual from office because the oligarchs don't like hi
That's Not the Kremlin! (Score:5, Informative)
It's worth noting that whatever Time might have intended, the error here isn't just on the part of the Slashdot summary. Just about every media outlet that mentions the Time cover calls it the Kremlin.
This reflects a truth about the depth of the media's knowledge and understanding of Russia.
We have trolls working right here in this article (Score:2, Interesting)
And the problem is that it is not only America - the pattern repeats in several countries - it started with Russian minority in Ukraina and Crimea and when proven successfull - spread to Balic States, Poland, UK, France, Germany and several other places.
One can observe posts on foras that have character dramatically different to those 3-4 years ago.
There are many liberal media foras on which 75% of posts are anti-liberal/anti-immigrant/anti-West. Something unseen 5 years ago when 90% of posts were liberal.
I
We're just screwing ourselves... (Score:3)
Not News (Score:3)
The Russians have been abusing social media and comments sections of websites for a long time now.
Russia Targets The Blaze [glennbeck.com]
Documents Show How Russia’s Troll Army Hit America [buzzfeed.com]
Russian Trolls and the US Election [soundcloud.com]
Not news; if it is to you, you haven't been paying much attention. :P
Lying Russians (Score:4, Funny)
Rriight [informnapalm.org]...
Yes, sure. Defending one's Motherland from invaders is "crazy".
The last National Socialist left Ukraine in 1944... He was in a hurry...
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"The article describes a Russian soldier in the Ukraine pretending to be a 42-year-old American housewife".
Blown right away. There are no Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
Kadyrov, is that you [independent.co.uk]?
Oh, wait, maybe you're Mahmoud [youtube.com], I guess since you've been barred [nytimes.com] from running again, now you're ./ing from your Mom's basement :P
Re:Rubbish (Score:5, Informative)
There are no Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
No, of course not. All those freshly dug graves [khpg.org] of Russian soldiers suddenly appearing and reporters being attacked [bbc.com] investigating the sudden increase in dead Russian soldiers mean absolutely nothing.
Don't forget the Russian special forces soldiers captured in Ukraine [businessinsider.com], the Russian officer captured while transporting ammunition and supplies [businessinsider.com], the Russian soldiers who have dropped the pretense they're not fighting in Ukraine [businessinsider.com] while others have quit the army [businessinsider.com] because they don't want to fight in Ukraine like their comrades. Then there are the terrorists themselves who fully admit Russian soldiers have been fighting for them [telegraph.co.uk].
So yeah, no evidence whatsoever of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
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Celebrated by western media, funded by western NGOs, increased the power of Islamist and destabilized the region.
If the mainstream media is honest, they are honestly fucking incompetent and dangerous.
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They occasionally work in our best interests, only by coincidence when it happens to align with their own interests, but it does happen.
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Nice try Russian spy!
Well, I'm actually a Russian. Which makes me wondering, if you are so hell-bent on committing a mass suicide, why won't you use American nukes for that purpose?
Now, the really scary part is that starting a war is traditionally the means to resolve a domestic crisis, and it totally looks like the U.S. is in the middle of one.
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No shit, what's the fucking end game here? Are we supposed to believe that Russia is trying to topple American democracy so it can be replaced by some military dictatorship that probably wouldn't think twice about going to war with Russia?
"You see comrade, we avoid war with America by coaxing America to go to war with us!"
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Good to know tho, for all the bs propaganda gets from the people in here, theres a non legible share
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Yes, yes, we should be like you, in service to our new masters, the mighty Oligarchy.
I hate to break it to you but if you think Clinton wasn't a full time servant of the mighty Oligarchy then you weren't paying attention. Bernie might have been different but we'll never know sadly.