Slashdot Mirror
Russia's Former KGB Invests In Political Propaganda Spambots
An anonymous reader writes "The newspaper Kommersant reports that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (formerly part of the KGB) has invested 30 million roubles (USD $940,000) on 'blog and social network intelligence' programs (Google translation of Russian original). A small part of that money is used for surveillance and analytics, but 22 million roubles (USD $690,000) is invested in 'mass distribution of messages in social networks with a view to the formation of public opinion.' Which presumably can be rephrased as 'launching massive pro-Kremlin astroturfing propaganda spambots in order to stifle and undermine political dissent.' The brazen Russian government acknowledgement of this investment indicates that the Kremlin does not think of such activities to be in any way illegal or unethical. No words whether these spambots would respect any anti-spam laws or the Terms and Conditions of victim websites. But hey, now you can accuse anyone you disagree with online of being a 'KGB bot'!"
So who is going to be the first one to restart Kremvax?
--
BMO
just like the US.
In Putin's Russia, Twitter Updates You...
much less than the USA spends, then?
So, before all the US folk get all holier than thou, the US uses a strong AI for this purpose. It doesn't just give quick replies, but in-depth analysis and opinion, including breaking down opposition arguments.
It silences critics and those that reveal classified information by attempting to make it sound implausible.
Oh, and its a multi-billion dollar project.
This mr. Anonymous Reader does not have a clue. With the military budget of the US, they could do:
- http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/11/04/the-cia-is-watching-us-intelligence-teams-monitor-5-million-tweets-every-day/
- http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=2229
- http://mashable.com/2012/05/23/fbi-spy-on-skype/
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks
etc
If the FBI and CIA could do it for a lousy 1 million dollar, they'd chosen for this option too. This indicates the CIA and FBI do not think of such activities to be in any way illegal or unethical, but that they are inefficient.
Seriously? It's been more than 20 years, how long does it take for you Americans to move on from your Cold War Hollywood production induced knowledge base of the world? Next, you'll find out that CIA spends millions on recruitment and *gasp* pro-WhiteHouse astroturfing propaganda in order to stifle and undermine political dissent.
So instead of a link to the original story we get a link to Google translate?
They can't do that, if the US has patented this:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mhastings/congressmen-seek-to-lift-propaganda-ban
Posted from my Kremlin spambotpad
In America, Facebook shares tank. In Russia, tank shares Facebook.
__
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
Isn't this sorta like what's going on in the US with the Tea Party?
Daily read for tech news: Freezenet.ca
that they caught up to the US but they still need to pay hordes of astroturfers to equalize the playing field.
Hey Putin, how about Gazprom runs its own political propaganda organization? You could call it a "Think tank."
thegodmovie.com - watch it
It appears that the Russians are working to restore and update the Russian nee Soviet state's ability to conduct political warfare, which was quite powerful. Some of the lies they spread have yet to die down. Since the Russian state seems to heading back towards Soviet methods and attitudes, everyone should be concerned.
Soviets Sponsor Spread of AIDS Disinformation
A Soviet political warfare manual comments on 'socialist education'
Soviet methods did not spare their allies.
A Portrait of Stalin: Secret Police
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
KGB Bot un-friends you!
Most people on Slashdot are fucking idiots.
All this money will be stolen. I swear.
At least the russians are transparent about it. How many governments do it in the shadow?
Argentina government since a couple of years ago is known to infiltrate twitter and facebook with thousands of fake virtual accounts that supports (spanish) the current government. They also have an army of people actively checking internet and posting in forums, they discovered them by correlation with working hours (nobody post after 6 pm, nicks are auto-generated using a known algorithm and stuff like that)
I bet they use a software package for this purposes. Didn't Palantir offered something like this?
Russia Today, the state-owned media organization, is one of the best sources for national and international news that all the American news networks won't cover.
If they want to propagate this via bots, I personally don't have a problem with it. They aren't afraid to embarrass the US, and I think we need to be embarrassed if we are going to change.
The notion that the FSB, the successor in interest to the KGB, would have any qualms whatsoever about ignoring the "Terms of Service" of an American or European website is laughable. These are people who kill as a matter of doing business, so the fact that their spam bots violate US or European laws doesn't concern them, even in the slightest. The only reason to suggest otherwise is to make an ironic joke.
So the Russian secret service does the same shit companies do. they want to bend public opinion in their direction. However, normally (as in Western countries) governments do not need to do that, because the media is on their side (or to be more precise the government is on the side of the media). So the move in Russia indicates, that the mass population moves away from classic media as their source of information towards other platforms and therefore they have to control those too. So in short. They control the media (as like in a dictatorship) and now this Internet thing causes disruption. So they try to control it too.
What shall I say? I am not surprised. I am only surprised that it came out. But, I guess that does not hurt the endeavor.
indicates that the Kremlin does not think of such activities to be in any way illegal or unethical
I have to confess that I did feel a little bit queasy reading what Timothy has posted
This world that we live in today, where "paid reviews", "forum astroturfing", "blog spamming" and "rabid fanboyism" are been actively encouraged and sponsored by for profit corporations such as Microsoft, Adobe, Apple Inc., - mainly from the Western democracies - any effort in linking Russia to similar "illegal" and/or "unethical" activities is futile
It was the West who have fine-tuned activities such as being described in TFA to an art-form, in the first place
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Nukem now?
Now? Wasn't Duke's surname actually Forever?
...but the KGB bots modded it down.
In my analysis, strong AI doesn't exist outside of science fiction novellas, and thus furthermore and therefore is a ridiculous accusation to make.
The way you write makes me want to punch you. " thus furthermore and therefore", really?
I agree with you, yours, yourself and those who bear a yoursimilitude to you. The above poster, writer, author of the comment referred to, listed and discussed has undercut, severed and bisected his own cogent word assembly through unnecessarily, avoidable and inessential verbal repetition. And while hyperbole was the purpose, object and function of the conjunctions, and I can understand feeling frustrated, angry or annoyed, I feel that physical violence is an inappropriate, disproportional and incongruous conclusion, ceasing, cessation, close, closure, completion, consequence, culmination, desistance, ending, finale, finish, issue, outcome, result, and end.
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
As a citizen of a formally independent Scandinavian country I can accuse those I disagree with as KGB bots, CIA bots and MI6 bots, also known as MI-SEX bots. There are so many bots all around. Some of them speak mostly French and have problems tolerating refugees from the Indian subcontinent.
This is the SVR not the FSB. The SVR is the main organisation doing extra-territorial activities while the FSB is domestic only. The two organisations retain connections but are under different management.
See my journal, I write things there
The US government has engaged in these type of tactics for years. How is it news that the Russians are catching up?
Maybe this will lead to a more balanced worldview on social networks. At least Russian interests are pretty straightforward. They just want to be left alone, without being surrounded by missile systems, American military bases, or counties destabilised by the rogue states of america. America needs to take a look at itself in the mirror. Today, what they will see is very ugly; a country where the is no free speech - every day we see the arrest of protesters on TV, the majority of the media is controlled by components of the corporate regime, there is effectively single party government, there is a terrible health care system (worse infant mortality rate than Cuba), the basic education system is third world, and the regime in washington is militaristic, and cracks down on all forms of dissent, as it redistributes state 'wealth' to its various cronies.
Why not? For starters, all Soviet officials of the KGB who were from other republics - Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, et al - they would have returned to their countries after 1991, wouldn't they? Besides, after the 1991 attempted coup, the KGB was disbanded, and since in the early part of his regime, Yeltsin was busy purging the Communist Party, most KGB agents went down w/ it. It was later on, w/ Putin, that they may have staged a comeback, but fact remains that there are 2 totally separate agencies handling intelligence - the FSB and the SVR.
If there is no 'formerly, the Communists would have returned to power.
By the way, is this /. story a test of a kind? Because the link that says: "Google translation" literally leads to Google's translator page and nothing else.
I found the silly article from Kommersant that this story is about, here it is.
After reading it I don't think it should be taken seriously (it's not your NSA or CIA, Russia doesn't have the kind of people right now that would take a project like this seriously and not just steal the money).
My quick translation:
Kommersant's sources say that the intelligence agency started a number of programs, with code names 'Storm-12', 'Monitor-3' and 'Dispute' back in January-February of 2012. The idea is to create following programs:
1. To investigate methods of intelligence gathering from Internet providers and data centres and social networks (code name 'Dispute' at 4.41 million rubles).
2. To investigation methods of 'silent management within the Internet' (code name 'Monitor' at 4.99 million rubles).
3. To conduct a scientific type of research in order to develop 'means of pushing special information within social networks' - this means astroturfing (code name 'Storm-12' at 22.8 million rubles).
The three projects are interdependent, the plan is to monitor the Internet and social networks with the 'Dispute' system, which is supposed to 'research processes of social network formation and information dissemination within them' as well as 'establishing the factors that are responsible for the increasing influence and dissemination of information', basically trying to figure out why some information becomes more popular, how do things go viral as opposed to other things (I suggest they start by analysing LOLCAT videos for that).
Once the information is collected it is supposed to be analysed by 'Monitor-3', which is responsible for 'developing the methods of organisation and management of the Internet virtual social networks by using experts, setting tasks, controlling the work of social media, regularly collecting information from the experts in their respective fields'. (Actually this part doesn't read well in Russian and translating something that is written so poorly and ambiguously in one language into another is not easy. This is part of the reason, except for the minuscule funds, why I wouldn't take this program seriously.)
Lastly, 'Storm-12' is then supposed to introduce managed information into the social networks based on the collected data. Its task is described very poorly and grammatically ambiguously as the following: 'development of special programming system of automated dissemination of information within large social networks. Organisation of information support structures into predefined scenarios in order to have a desired affect upon the mass audience of social networks.' The purpose of this 'virtual military' is described as 'mass dissemination of information messages within the (monitored) social networks, with existing user accounts, in order to shape public opinion. Aggregation of statistics and analysis of effectiveness of management of public opinion. Analysis of usefulness of the most popular social services as vectors of initialisation of information waves for directing the public opinion about various matters'.
Kommersan'ts sources say that in order to make the programs secret, the government passed the following bills: N1116-36 on 23 of December, 2011.
Supposedly the systems 'Monitor-3' and 'Dispute' will be ready in 2012 and 'Storm-12' will be ready in 2013'.
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and so on and so forth. I can tell you this much: this entire story reads like a bad spy thriller, it's just not plausible.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to do anything for that amount of money in Russia, with that much money they won't even be able to set up a server room, never mind paying the right people the right amounts of money to do any of this work. This is complete nonsense.
I am not say
MY OTHER COMMENTS
Sorry, I can't reply to you from my first account, the reason for it is very ironic given this story.
But I didn't say that there is no Communist party in Russia (there is actually), I said this: once KGB, always KGB. Who do you think is at the helm of Russian government right now?
Oh, and I actually found that article this /. story is supposed to link to, translated some of it and posted it here.
MY OTHER COMMENTS
Everyone in the free world should read the closing statements from the members of the punk band Puss Riot http://nplusonemag.com/pussy-riot-closing-statements- A fascinating insight in how the oppressive system works on individual levels.
One defendant's psych eval identified her values as: "justice, mutual respect, humaneness, equality, and freedom."
Those are values that I hope still define the majority of people in the free world!
And we should NEVER forget to defend them in our societies.
how IT is changing the world - http://max.zamorsky.name
in case anybody has been paying attention, there have been web pages created on many themes of "boycott sochi" all of which are conveniently unconvincing poorly made messes. there are many good reasons to boycott the 2014 winter games in sochi, or at least to make a stink in this general direction, and it appears that russian elements have decided to head this off by creating scarecrow sites to prevent this from getting traction.
happen to control the government along with the airwaves.
I would like to say at least dealing in the realm of free speech was an improvment, astroturfing included, if that same government weren't also engaged in the arrest and murder of journalists and political opponents, and weren't engaged in general control of other media.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
After all you would /never/ find the front runners in the American political system using methods of spam to get their point across. Would you?
the same as what Apple is doing on slashdot? Let AC's and dead accounts post pro-apple bullshit in every apple-related article only for them to be silent again until the next apple-related article?
RU is late to the game, 'mass distribution of messages in social networks with a view to the formation of public opinion.'
Sometimes I suspect MS, other businesses/lobbyist, mega-churches, and PACs, are already acting like government G2Agencies on /., Facebook, Twitter, Wired ... with automated SocialPolicyAgents (SPAgents).
So, why argue with GIGO SPAgents? SPAgents work in the best interest of a few of the $public$.
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
Instead of paying $1,000 per toilet seat, they now just say what they're doing. The CIA and military agencies should take note.
The western capitalist system has no need for state propaganda. The masses are all to happy to watch, devour no worship the opinions and lifestyles of the 1% who tell them that the 1% deserve to be the top and everyone else has a chance too even if they never ever get even remotely close with their part time burger flipping job.
What am I talking about? Media. Name ONE person in Media who makes less then 100.000 dollars per year. One TV celeb, just ONE! In many ways, Reality TV is a very risky move, showing the non-1% and allowing them to speak? Showing that work is hard and dangerous and it never gets any better? OOPS! Ah but luckily, reality stars get payed big, so soon they are the 1% too.
Public opinion in the West is made on TV and TV makes big money for all involved. Of course they are going to be pro-big money. It is like asking Oprah on how to make it from day to day with just 2 dollars per day for food. She eats ten dollars in a single snack. She hasn't lived the live of her audience in decades.
And she is not alone. Rappers? The ones you know ain't from the hood anymore, they live in guarded mansions and drive in armored cars.
American propaganda is simple, it shows only the lottery winners, 1 lucky winner won 300 million! Watch and admire him and aspire to do the same. Saying tat 300 million people lost a dollar they could have spend better... that would not be such a good ad.
Everyone who you see in America on TV, has made it. What better way to indoctrinate the American Dream.
But hey, why believe me, I am posting on the blogsite of poster boys of the American Dream. After all, they made it, so so could you. Right? It couldn't possibly be that the 1% by definition will always be the 1%? Nah, that is commy thinking. Everyone can be the 1% if they just work hard.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I thought AI never use contractions.
No, that's just Star Trek. You have to take Star Trek with a grain of salt. I mean, it's a fictional world where somehow they figured out strong AI before they figured out how to give an android a realistic skin tone and where they all run around with iPads but still use flip phones to talk to the ship.
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
Sorry, I can't reply to you from my first account, the reason for it is very ironic given this story [slashdot.org].
indeed, it is ironic that someone who openly supports the suppression of the will of the people and their right to choose their own government is whining about people expressing their opinion of his writing. now you feel you are being suppressed - not much different from how you support the suppression of others' opinions. you would show no sympathy for others in your situation, why should anyone care for you in yours?
Looks like Channel One is useless for that. People stopped watching TV and turned to internet for news.
We spambot you!
It appears that the Russians are working to restore and update the Russian nee Soviet state's ability to conduct political warfare, which was quite powerful. Some of the lies they spread have yet to die down. Since the Russian state seems to heading back towards Soviet methods and attitudes, everyone should be concerned.
Comrad, I am sure you did not mean insult motherland by your post. I give editing for free and you use it. It is better, for Russia, for you and for your family. I see them on Facebook. They look happy. Let us keep them happy together. Update as follow:
It appears that the Russians are working to restore and update the New Russian state's ability to conduct affairs of state, which is quite powerful. Some of the stories they spread have yet to die down. Since the Russian state seems to heading forward towards New Russian methods and attitudes, everyone should be excited.
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
You're saying you Americans? I was superbly annoyed when I saw yet another Slashdot headline with "KGB" in it, and I knew that when I looked up, it would be timothy's extruded fecal matter. Sure enough. We aren't all this stupid. Believe me. But none of us has the balls to throw timothy or kdawson into a vat of boiling oil and move on.
How much do you want to bet that these Slashdot editor butt pirates don't know what the OSS was?
Facebook spam you
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
the above was posted by roman_mir
he has taken up sock puppetry in lieu of learning how to construct an argument
mod down if possible
Like, seriously! ^^MPU^^
captcha: glorify
"The brazen Russian government acknowledgement of this investment indicates that the Kremlin does not think of such activities to be in any way illegal or unethical. "
The US is doing the same (Airforce, Navy been hiring people a few years back)
This is from about he same time when the Gas prom run Russia attempted to buy up or buy into as many social networks as it could, this is the time when China decides to lock their people out if social networks run by foreign states
Controlling social networks has been the game for years when it comes to form in public opinion
This is done to peoples, groups or entire countries
Crawl out from under that rock...
Doesn't change GP's argument in the slightest, though.
Unlike the US and most likely other countries. There is a reason I don't pay attention to the media.
Uppity, I say!!!!!!!!!!!
mod parent up
Memorable quotes for
Looker (1981)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082677/quotes
"John Reston: Television can control public opinion more effectively than armies of secret police, because television is entirely voluntary. The American government forces our children to attend school, but nobody forces them to watch T.V. Americans of all ages *submit* to television. Television is the American ideal. Persuasion without coercion. Nobody makes us watch. Who could have predicted that a *free* people would voluntarily spend one fifth of their lives sitting in front of a *box* with pictures? Fifteen years sitting in prison is punishment. But 15 years sitting in front of a television set is entertainment. And the average American now spends more than one and a half years of his life just watching television commercials. Fifty minutes, every day of his life, watching commercials. Now, that's power."
##
"The United States has it's own propaganda, but it's very effective because people don't realize that it's propaganda. And it's subtle, but it's actually a much stronger propaganda machine than the Nazis had but it's funded in a different way. With the Nazis it was funded by the government, but in the United States, it's funded by corporations and corporations they only want things to happen that will make people want to buy stuff. So whatever that is, then that is considered okay and good, but that doesn't necessarily mean it really serves people's thinking - it can stupify and make not very good things happen."
- Crispin Glover: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000417/bio
##
"It's only logical to assume that conspiracies are everywhere, because that's what people do. They conspire. If you can't get the message, get the man." - Mel Gibson (from an interview)
##
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." - William Casey, CIA Director
##
George Carlin:
"The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They've got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They've got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else.
But I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.
You know what they want? Obedient workers people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And, now, they're coming for your Social Security. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place. It's a big clu
The news yesterday:
The British were miffed that Iran had bought the world's fastest speed-boat; 2 years ago. The Brits had attempted to stop delivery at the time and now the Iranians have a flotilla of speedy gunboats. Despite the yanks losing a battle-game to such a force in 2002, they were prepared for war against Iran.
No-one complains when the US builds a remote-killing plane and uses it on the citizens of obedient Pakistan.
U.S.S.R. is long dead, while U.S.A. continues to do what it did throughout the Cold War. Protecting economic and military interests of American elites all over the world with poker face on, even at the cost of great suffering of local population. I am no fan of Soviet Empire or current mafia government of Russia, but hey, let's be honest.