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Reddit Bans 61 Accounts, Citing 'Coordinated' Russian Campaign To Interfere In UK Vote (stripes.com) 135

Posted by EditorDavid from the from-Reddit-with-love dept.
"The prospect of Russian interference in Britain's election flared anew Saturday after the social media platform Reddit concluded that people from Russia leaked confidential British government documents on Brexit trade talks just days before the general U.K. vote," reports the Associated Press: Reddit said in a statement that it has banned 61 accounts suspected of violating policies against vote manipulation. It said the suspect accounts shared the same pattern of activity as a Russian interference operation dubbed "Secondary Infektion" that was uncovered earlier this year.

Reddit investigated the leak after the documents became public during the campaign for Thursday's election, which will determine the country's future relationship with the European Union. All 650 seats in the House of Commons are up for grabs. Reddit said it believed the documents were leaked as "part of a campaign that has been reported as originating from Russia."

"We were able to confirm that they did indeed show a pattern of coordination," Reddit said...

Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan told the BBC that the government is "looking for and monitoring" anything that might suggest interference in the British election. "From what was being put on that (Reddit) website, those who seem to know about these things say that it seems to have all the hallmarks of some form of interference,"" Morgan said.

"And if that is the case, that obviously is extremely serious."
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Reddit Bans 61 Accounts, Citing 'Coordinated' Russian Campaign To Interfere In UK Vote More

Reddit Bans 61 Accounts, Citing 'Coordinated' Russian Campaign To Interfere In UK Vote

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  • Just 4 million accounts left (Score:4, Funny)

    by ClueHammer ( 6261830 ) on Sunday December 08, 2019 @04:45AM (#59497116)
    Just 4 million accounts left to purge and It will finally be a nice place.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday December 08, 2019 @04:45AM (#59497118)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • while their scripts move onto the 61,000 other accounts they have.

      That said, Reddit is basically useless for political discussion. If you post anything that isn't completely inline with what the mods of the forum in question believe they just ban you. It's a massive circle jerk. No useful or interesting conversations happen there, but on the plus side _nothing_ happens there. It's a place you go to have your existing ideas reinforced as opposed to challenged.

      • So, like the rest of the web, then? Business as usual, carry on.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          Oh no, it's far worse, instant pile. Nearly every thread populated by closed minded circle jerkers, every one else modded out. Try it, it is quite amusing and why so many, many threads are pretty much devoid of interaction. Each cluster forming it's own. Easy to delete those suspected Russians, they were all probably active in the same threads, them and only them there.

          This silly crap is still going on. Anything can be made to seem like anything on the internet, with regard to percentages. A billion users

  • "Russian hackers"... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Is there anything they can't interfere in...

    • Re:"Russian hackers"... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gtall ( 79522 ) on Sunday December 08, 2019 @07:49AM (#59497344)

      Trump's ability to lie?

  • NOT what it seems (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bobajobuk ( 6191462 ) on Sunday December 08, 2019 @05:17AM (#59497150)
    I'm one of the 48 percent of UK citizens who voted to remain in the EU back in 2016 and I have already tactically voted by post for the national general election next week. My sincere hope is that the current shit show in power are replaced. External influence is nothing compared to the insidious tactics of the domestic parties fighting for even more power right now. The weasel words and outright lies are unacceptable. "...those who SEEM to know about these things say that it SEEMS to have all the hallmarks of some form of interference...". What a crock of shit. I've read the leaked papers in full, yes there are mentions of the NHS amongst lots of other interesting trade discussions, it doesn't surprise me but the way in which this was used as an attempt to influence voters was wrong and I voted for the party who presented them. Very troubling indeed that I've seen direct evidence of pure propaganda on BOTH sides of the two main parties. Weakening the UK through Brexit isolationism and domestic political division only benefits her enemies and competing countries by definition?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by loonycyborg ( 1262242 )
      The very idea that there is something "dangerous" about this "influence" is an evidence of very some nasty thought patterns. US and UK never saw anything wrong about targeting Russians with propaganda, either in covert or explicit way. Irrespective of whether those Reddit's claims are true it shows that they don't want Russians do something they did to them themselves. Why Russians should be treated to lesser standard of what is considered acceptable propaganda use? Because they're inherently second rate pe

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by AHuxley ( 892839 )
        Reading the truth and spreading the truth online is a revolutionary act?
        NATO, some NGO, the UK gov, the mil, private sector workers, academics.... should stop funny memes, links, comments, art?
        Funny memes, links, comments, art that people created, people saw and people shared... hours of funny and creative work lost due to the political whims of a censor..
        A person makes something fun, the people looking at it have the ability to move on, to enjoy, to link, to comment, to LOL...
        but under political cen

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by U0K ( 6195040 )
          I hope you know that the leaked documents apparently reveal trade deals that as a result would drive up prices in the UK health care system.
          The light these leaks err I mean the truth and spreading the truth shed on the situation puts the Leavers into a bad position and makes the Remainers look better.

          It's interesting enough that alleged Russian trolls give the Remainers some leverage here all while their main goal was to sow discordance in favour of driving the UK and EU apart.
          And since you hate the EU

        • Sorry, but, though the US and UK governments did send truthful information, military counterintelligence units routinely spread lies and disinformation in order to sow dissent to destabilize Russia's (former USSR's) government and economy. We tend to only hit North Korea with the truth because, that's bad enough; lies would have to be too far-fetched to be believable.

      • You are looking at this internationally and without bias which can't be done when analysing a domestic situation.

        There is nothing different about USA > Russia as there is in Russia > USA. Not in action. Not in propaganda. No in interference. And most critically the piece you seem to be missing: Not in domestic response. Russia made efforts to curb USB interference. They locked out companies, they shaddow banned foreign accounts on their VK social media platform. The RT was in full overdrive countering

        • If there is nothing wrong in targeting Russia in order to help Yeltsin or hinder his direct successor Putin in an act of betrayal of pro-American forces in Russia then there is nothing wrong for Russia to do the same. So there most definitely exists a double standard here. In case of Reddit it's international community, it has no business taking sides of either Russia or US or whatever. If it's international community then it doesn't have more reasons to help UK than to help Putin. Once again it's double st

          • If there is nothing wrong in targeting Russia in order to help Yeltsin or hinder his direct successor Putin in an act of betrayal of pro-American forces in Russia then there is nothing wrong for Russia to do the same.

            You missed my point. Whether something is wrong or not is entirely in the eye of the beholder. There is no double standard, there is only a location dependent and situation dependent standard.

            Kind of like how I don't want to get hurt so I punch my attacker in the face. The attacker likely has a similar philosophy. In neither case it's a double standard.

      • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday December 08, 2019 @08:57AM (#59497438)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • What's a USSR?

          • You're probably joking as your UID is too low for you to be clueless but, for millennials or younger here's the actual answer: USSR stands for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, aka Soviet or Communist (actually Stalinist) Russia before it collapsed.

            • USSR stands for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, aka Soviet or Communist (actually Stalinist) Russia before it collapsed.

              No. The USSR was a union of Russia and many other states (now countries), such as Ukraine, Turkmenistan to name two.

            • You do realise that Stalin died in 1953 and destalinisation started like four days after he croaked?

            • Are you talking about that country which lasted for 73 and had fallen apart 28 years ago?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Livius ( 318358 )

          Strengthening Russia was exactly what ended the USSR.

          Independent Russia is far from perfect but it is better than what came before.

      • US and UK never saw anything wrong about targeting Russians with propaganda, either in covert or explicit way

        don't speak for everyone; I've always had a problem with it. Countries need to mind their own business and stay out of the affairs of others, unless specifically asked.

    • Re:NOT what it seems (Score:4, Informative)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Sunday December 08, 2019 @06:04AM (#59497202) Homepage Journal

      It's not really propaganda when it's just the government own secret negotiations that they denied were happening being leaked. It's different to say the Clinton email leaks because this time there is actually something there, it's hard evidence of low medicine prices being bartered away for a post-brexit trade deal.

      Sadly we live in an age where vital information like this has to be leaked, and by Russia. It's a failure of our own democratic system that this kind of information was not published under transparency rules. The government is making deals with a foreign power on our behalf, we have a right to know about it.

      Unfortunately a lot of people are just hell bent on making brexit happen and can't see past it. They don't think about what another 5 years of Boris will do to us, or what brexit will do to us, they just want it to happen on the assumption that everything will be wonderful afterwards. Voting tactically is the best way to stop those loons.

      • Re:NOT what it seems (Score:4, Interesting)

        by dunkelfalke ( 91624 ) on Sunday December 08, 2019 @09:35AM (#59497528)

        On the other hand, Brexit does get a disruptive member out of the EU, so not everything is bad about it.

        • One down..... 7 or 8 to go?

          Its when the French people decide to leave the EU that things will get really interesting.

          • That is highly unlikely. Matter of fact, the other good thing about Brexit is that it made even the French far right realise that leaving the EU would be stupid.

            The UK is hands down the most disruptive member and with them gone, the other two, whose shenanigans have been up to this point supported by the UK, will probably eat a humble pie.

            • Don't believe it. Even the UK doesn't have a year's worth of street riots going on.

              The Dutch farmers are protesting and there have been protests in many other countries too.

              The Visegrad countries are also very unhappy with the lack of EU accountability and democracy too.

              The French are actually very eurosceptic, even the referendum to adopt the euro was so close it makes the Brexit one look like a landslide (but it was the "right" result so nobody cares to re-run it)

      • I despise a lot of what you say; however, what you just said is amazingly rational and reasonable. There is some part of your foundational logic that is broken, but that did not affect what you said here. Very well said.

    • External influence is nothing compared to the insidious tactics of the domestic parties fighting for even more power right now.

      External influence supports one of those insidious domestic parties. It's all part of the same problem.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Fun Game of 'Change The Source'. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 08, 2019 @05:23AM (#59497160)

    "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." [wikipedia.org].

    The source of the 'influencing posts' is irrelevant. The internet is supposed to be a global unifying medium.

    Can you imagine the outrage if the source was pigeon-holed differently? Change 'Russian' for 'Chinese' or 'American'. Change it from a country to a religion - 'Islamic' or 'Jewish'. Change it to a race - 'White' or 'Black. The content being posted remains the same, but the 'reaction' to it varies wildly.

    • I'm so glad someone else sees the sense this here. I have no doubt that every country is engaging in social manipulation for their own benefit. If a company selling spatulas is smart enough to manipulate reviews about its product, there is a 100 percent chance every country is posting online to further their own goals. Not only that but if documents are true then again, why does the source matter? In the USA any posting of confidential documents on policies would be considered journalism, or it used, but it

  • So were the leaks real or were they forged? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by poity ( 465672 ) on Sunday December 08, 2019 @05:35AM (#59497174)

    If the leaked info is real, then are they merely making a case (albeit in dramatic fashion) that information must be hidden from voters .... to protect democracy?

    • If a leak can cause the people to jeopardize a government, then the government deserves to be jeopardized, and hanged.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Re "If the leaked info is real"...
      Depends on who the "seem to know about these things say" are...
      Private sector staff with their own political side to support...
      MI6? MI6? GCHQ? NSA? NATO? Some UK NGO? Some well funded EU based NGO? A think tank? The UK mil? Random university experts?
      Ex and former UK mil now working as "contractors"?
      Who gets to set what can be seen, understood, LOL at, turned into a meme, a cartoon, political news?

    • Re:So were the leaks real or were they forged? (Score:5, Informative)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Sunday December 08, 2019 @08:26AM (#59497390) Homepage Journal

      The Tories have admitted that they are real. They have accepted that they are genuine and are just trying to lie about it by pointing out that the NHS is barely mentioned. There is a kernel of truth in that, but as has been pointed out direct sale of the NHS is not the primary issue, patents are.

      If drug patents are extended to match US patent terms then the NHS won't be able to buy generic medicines and will end up paying many multiples of the generic price.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by AHuxley ( 892839 )
        Re "If drug patents are extended to match US patent terms".. that is something the USA can request given its their US brands that are selling the products/services to the UK.
        US products can get US patent terms... the UK is free to accept, free to walk away, free to try India, Communist China...

        Re "won't be able to buy generic medicines".. that was the UK system set up by UK experts over decades..
        The UK was free to buy into US services, free to get gov backed UK production lines, support the UK private s

    • The main target here is Corbyn. It's not so much about Brexit. There has been a high intensity campaign against him for years.

      https://thegrayzone.com/2019/1... [thegrayzone.com]
      https://www.dailymaverick.co.z... [dailymaverick.co.za]

  • "looking for and monitoring" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bb_matt ( 5705262 ) on Sunday December 08, 2019 @05:37AM (#59497176)

    Yeah, because the UK government has such an incredible track record when it comes to understanding all things 'cyber' ;)

    There's somewhat of an impasse between the Conservative party and the Labour party that is preventing direct finger pointing and point scoring for the Conservatives. If it weren't for the withheld report on Russian interference - the report the Conservatives refuse to release, then the Conservatives would surely be making hay over how Labour acquired the NHS dossier that points to trade deals with the US.

    Of course, this hasn't stopped our toxic British press from once again bashing the Labour party. ;)
    It also isn't going to stop the almost completely unregulated social media campaigns both parties are cranking up to volume 11.

    To our liberal minded friends across the pond, this is our version of a 'Trump' moment, wish us all luck...

    • Re:"looking for and monitoring" (Score:5, Informative)

      by luvirini ( 753157 ) on Sunday December 08, 2019 @06:00AM (#59497200)

      looking from the outside so my view might be wrong.. but to me it seems that your situation in the UK is worse than the US situation.

      That is because in the US it is harder to bypass constitutional things due to the way things are "protected" thus Trump, even when Republicans had a majority in both houses was limited in what he could break.

      But in the UK, a prime minister with a majority, specially if it i a big enough majority to ignore any "rebels" in the own party can change any law.

      Thus Boris, if he wins enough can do things like get rid of the to him annoying supreme court that has insisted that he actually follow the law, leave EU with no deal and whatever else he feels like.

      • Direct democracy requires an informed electorate hat can tell the difference between foreign interference, and well, regular folks. That's why it doesn't really work anymore.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        The last line of defence in the UK is the courts. That's why the Tory manifesto says they want to "review" the powers of the courts to hold Parliament and the Prime Minister to the law.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by AHuxley ( 892839 )
          Re "The last line of defence in the UK is the courts."
          Should the UK courts have another say on what the UK voted for?

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by U0K ( 6195040 )
            That is their job as one of the separated powers in order to prevent an autocracy.
            If one of the other powers does shit that breaks the law, the judiciary's duty is to interpret and apply the law.
  • The real story is, as usual, someone told us the truth. And that's unacceptable. Power must never be held accountable to the truth. They'll tell us what they decide the truth is, and if anyone gets in the way, they'll get murdered in a robbery where nothing gets stolen.
  • Remember when people in the nations controlled by the Soviet Union got some freedom under the Helsinki Accords https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
    Now news, links, comments are getting removed by the US gov? UK gov? Some cyber brand for the UK gov?
    How very ... Soviet.
    A celebration of returning to more use of a D notice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] ?
    Letting some US company select comments, news, links, art?
    The US gov? NATO? The UK gov? Experts? ...
    How about some US style freedom of speech a

  • Has "Reddit" already forgotten when they "identified" the Boston Bomber - and ended up harassing and threatening an innocent family?

    But, hey! Let's have random internet mods using their IP address lists to do media analysis, examine political campaign law, and in-depth predictions of social movements based on 'news reports'! What could possibly go wrong?

  • I regularly get banned from some specific subreddits for my extreme anticolonialist views (who go against business “wisdom”), and I absolutely have no problem using new accounts. You only need to totally disable cookies for Reddit to neuter the alternate accounts detection system.

    It's so toothless that the last time I was “detected”, it was for the totally wrong accounts, and the ban only lasted 3 days.

    There is always a way around censorship.

  • For the record: I'm not disagreeing nor agreeing with Reddit's views here. I simply found it interesting, that this is precisely the same as any other conspiracy theory:

    Somebody states that there was a nefarious conspiracy by "them". And states that there is massive proof out there, but won't provide said original data for verification.
    (Is archive.org capable of helping out here?)

    That doesn't make it wrong. But not right either.
    *Just completely useless.*
    Except to note the side and the agenda of the speaker.

  • If we like it, it's "whistleblowing" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by beepsky ( 6008348 ) on Sunday December 08, 2019 @12:40PM (#59498042)
    If we don't, it's "Russian bots"

    • The truth is exactly that cartoonish version of it. In the UK there have been many accusations that Corbyn is a russian asset. In the US the same accusations are being readied against Sanders, Gabbard, Stein , although there the campaign is only at an early stage.
      CIA guy Ciaramella on the other hand is called a whistleblower for doing what the CIA asks him to do.

  • If you're only sharing information about political parties, are we supposed to automatically take that as fact? Is that how they're manipulating voting campaigns? Am I supposed to watch political commercials before I vote?
  • “Reddit concluded that people from Russia leaked confidential British government documents on Brexit trade talks just days before the general U.K. vote," reports the Associated Press”:

    This being designed to distract from the real story, the fact that the conservative government discussed selling off the more lucrative parts of the NHS to the US pharmaceutical cartel.

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