Slashdot Mirror
Is Russia Conducting A Social Media War On America? (time.com)
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.
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?
was hailed as the first social media induced political movement. Remember how Faceboob and Twitter were supposed to spread freedom? The use of the media is not new, the new development is that Democrats are upset about that use.
muh russia russia russia muh russia
Signed,
- Your corporate and political masters
I kinda hope Russia just nukes us already. Clearly this is what the media wants, let's get it over with.
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.
Crimea invasion and now this? It looks like long-time KGBer Vladimir Putin is serious about rebuilding the Union of Soviet Social-ist Republics.
Do they want to the US democracy to crumble so that it would be replaced with a US democracy? Or a military junta which finally launches the missiles, after such a long wait? What a relief it would be!
The vast majority of the article can be summed as, "astroturfing." I think we've known for a while that various governments pay people to enter forums and post messages trying control the narrative.
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.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
See subject: To pretend to be a Russian soldier via proxies or servers rented in Russia - The democratic party's (or rather China & Saudi Arabia behind them as the TRUE puppeteers along w/ IMF Rothschild Bankers & Soros) "losing it" TRYING to put forth their false narrative based on the above alone
APK
P.S.=> LET ALONE THEM NOT HAVING ANY SOLID EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER as well... apk
Probably, but a large part of this is probably a cover for the work of Robert Mercer and his many tech buddies, formerly of Google, subverting American democracy.
Most likely though, it's both together, possibly with the Russians working for the US based manipulators. This wouldn't be the first time that western plutocrats lined together with a dictator intent on destroying their countries.
"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. And if there were, they would be too busy fighting off the crazed Ukrainian soldiers and Nazi battalions to do a lot of social media.
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
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.
In all seriousness:
An advice for you, Ivan — do not post anonymously. Don't you have access to some stolen /.-accounts as described in TFA? Use that — you will be believed for a 5 seconds longer...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
They are literally happier to take it up the ass from Moscow or any other authoritarian regime if they think it gets them some "gotcha" against their "real enemies" in the political social sphere. That's the sad part for America, you can't fix this lazy treason.
Accordingly, everyone in this thread is potentially a Russian social media meddler.
I'm not really a web designer, I just play one on the Internet.
Is a 42-year-old American housewife a threat to US security?
Seriously. Step back a moment and think. When was the last time the television industry work in my best interests, ever.
Rriight...
Yes, sure. Defending one's Motherland from invaders is "crazy".
The last National Socialist left Ukraine in 1944... He was in a hurry...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
You didn't just make up a figure, right lying cunt Abend? Maybe the entire world has an agenda contrary to your idiot's quest?
Most likely CIA. Been at war with Trump for a while now.
Ironic now that the left wing is in league with the CIA and its enemies are The Russians.
God what a twist from 30 years ago.
Blaming Russia is one thing, but if your official fucking email is GMAIL OR HOTMAIL and you use it for official party/government correspondence AND you're dumb enough to be phished, then Russia can only take part of the blame.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
How about counter-intelligence agencies fabricating evidence to make it look like we are under attack in order to exploit it politically?
This is mental insanity because there isn't any evidence at all of electoral fraud, vote rigging or coercion of voters. You know, the kind of hard evidence you'd need to substantiate an allegation of 'hacking' or 'influencing' the election.
All we get is this kind of brain damage about completely unsubstantiated Russian 'bots' and some bizarrely incredibly mind control project Putin has.
Is Russia Conducting A Social Media War On America? The answer is almost always no to a headline that ends with a question mark! Tim S.
After 9/11, I was listening to a interview with Rudy Giuliani. He made a joke, that while as some other countries might have the best engineers, America has the best Madison Avenue. He was referring to the propaganda pipeline, and how the US worked hard to make itself hear around the world and exerts its influence globally. /hr, but with the changes in the economy, prices skyrocketed because the economy was opened up to the West (shook capitalism, it was called).
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. All the wrong people would have the money, so the richest 1% had to work hard to maintain the status quo.
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
More unlikely to have Russian soldier in Ukraine https://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10635335&cid=54455521/ & you're being obtuse: That's not my point!
(My point is how EASY it would be to APPEAR to be a Russian via proxies or even remote server rentals).
* You're BETTER/SMARTER than that...
APK
P.S.=> So don't "play dumb" trying to convey this BLATANTLY UTTERLY FALSE NARRATIVE WITH NO PROOF BEHIND IT NO LESS, or, to try "spin" my point into something it's not... apk
"Russian operatives reportedly bragged that they could use Mike Flynn to get to the White House" - Yeah the CIA sure cooked that up, right? Moron.
This is ridiculously well documented by our Intelligence Community. Yes. Yes they are. What the hell is wrong with our media that they can't just report facts anymore without questioning them. If I got shot and read about it in the paper the headline would probably be "Are balls of lead waging a war on rsilvergun?".
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Sore loser democrats are still sore losers. They won't stop whining until we give them the rattle. And the way they are acting will only help the republicans in '18 and '20.
Occam's Razor says you don't understand Occam's Razor very well: RAZING_CONSPIRACY
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-- you would certainly be correct.
There is a faction on the US government that is super enthusiastic for a war with Russia. I have no idea what they think they're going to accomplish but this is just the latest development. They keep painting Russia as this malevolent force that's behind every rock and tree. It's like the Simpsons' Maude Flanders: "Won't someone think of the children!" I think part of it is trying to distract from the obvious issues that Western elites are corrupt and do NOT have our best interests at heart.
Just think: if they weren't engaged in skullduggery, the Russians would have nothing. The screeching over Hillary was excruciating. Instead of addressing the issues, the solution was to make accusations. A Clinton win would have been pretty disastrous for the world, and I believe we would have probably seen a war between Russia and the US during her term. The US and Russia are already fighting a proxy war in Syria, and you only have to look at Clinton's rhetoric in the lead up to the election (no-fly zones over Syria, Russians are hacking US infrastructure, cyber attacks on infrastructure are grounds for going to war etc), and look at the fact that she was receiving public and financial support from various war-mongering neocons to realize that things were not looking good. I don't know how Trump will end up, but at least the people and companies who stood to make the most money from war were not supporting him - and in fact were actively opposed to him.
Russia has a terrible position. They are outnumbered 3:1 by the Europeans alone, without any help from the US. They are ringed by US bases. They have a huge border to defend. Russia is a paper tiger. Think about who's telling you they're a huge threat: what do they have to gain? Remember the mainstream media can't be trusted, they have an agenda and during the election they abandoned their role as truth-tellers. We all saw it. That's a bigger threat to our democracy than any foreign enemy. And what do you do when you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar? Blame the foreigners. It's a solution as old as the hills.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
The administrations of recent history are doing a fine job of undermining democracy all on their own.
the far left liberal progressives right here in the USA is who i would bet it is
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Sorry the MSM has basically zero credibility since the 2nd Iraq war. Recently they pretty much lost it after Trump election; they may as well call the news reporter as news story-teller.
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.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
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.
They occasionally work in our best interests, only by coincidence when it happens to align with their own interests, but it does happen.
...no. No, they are not.
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...
You mean like the troll army over at Correct the Record?
Why can't we go back to using jumpers to configure slot adapter cards? Why? I say!
Yes.
Computer hacked the election? Putin did it!
Chemical gassed Syrian babies? Putin.
Infected everyone with that internet worm? Fucking Putin.
Disclaimer: Born in USSR / Russia.
My mind was totally blown off by reading the TIME article. If what is claimed is true, Russia at last achieved something in the social sphere after centuries of failings. I also liked mentioning of "US-trained". Yes, Russia, it seems, borrowed a lot of foreign affairs tactics from States. Propaganda is used by both governments, to whatever good or bad goals, so I wonder why so much surprise?
But now those series of scandals make me believe the whatever influence Russia may have tried (and I do not believe USA did not ever try to influence Russian internal affairs), it's the out of proportions multiplication of that effort should make people and politicians refactor the system. If Russia from afar can do that, then how much can be done from inside?
And I do not believe Russian soldier from Ukraine can mimicry as an American housewife: unrelated to the question whether there are Russian soldiers there, their English would be most probably insufficient for that.
Yes, democracy is the best form of government we know... Can Silicon Valley come up with a better one?
It's pity big countries are involved in mirroring each other actions instead of solving global problems, which (in the end of the day... err, century) imho reflect their true interests, or at least, interests of their people.
Russia is about as Socialist as North Korean is a Democratic Republic and America is a Democracy.
But I think 'United States of America' is a meaningful term.
To me "America" is just this nonsense and pretentious word that otherwise would just come to mean "our country" (for whoever lives in USA).
America as a trademark is dead to me.
It is a point worth considering: if Russia were setting up an astroturfing campaign, would it be easier to do from a comfortable office building in Moscow, or from a wart-torn battleground in Ukraine?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
No, No, this is ridiculous. It's just that culture in the US is changing. The alt-right are friends with mother Russia. Everybody loves Putin, he has the highest approval ratings.
When people like you type "Republican" you mean your comicbook style parody, not real people.
Your ignorance is very disappointing.
"Russian MILF's want to fuck you right now!"
You don't know anyone like me. I've voted Republican and Democrat and Independent depending on the particular merits my whole life. And lately there are zero merits to the GOP platform. Face facts or die on their point.
I'm sorry you see treason and selling out as all you've got left.
Yes they are. And yes, they won. Get over it.
They didn't win just on fake news and all that alt-whatever bs. They won because Americans are gullible. And stupid. Mostly gullible. And stupid.
I'm glad they won. Puts fucktarded white americans in their place.
Ignorace can only be excused to a point. After that, it's intentional. I hope the world blows up. Maybe we'll get it right/better the third/fourth time round.
they were a dictatorship that borrowed socialist rhetoric to excuse their excesses. I know, I know, No True Scottsman and all that rot. But did you stop to think that people can, in fact, misrepresent their intentions? Here's another crazy thought: They can outright lie.
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This is perfectly sane because there's a massive amount of evidence of Russia running propaganda farms pushing specific messages over the internet. Our intelligence community has come right out and said they're doing this. None of this is unsubstantiated. Spend 20 minutes on google and you can prove that to yourself. There are tons of meticulously sourced articles about it.
Also, you're straw manning. We're not discussing vote rigging or coercion, we're discussing propaganda campaigns.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
this kind of propaganda's been around since Hilter & Co. And they didn't invent it because they were geniuses, it was just because that was right around the time mass media of the kind we have today came into existence.
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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it's pretty easy to check shibboleth. you can study a culture all you want, but if you don't live it, you won't know it. For example, you can see every Hollywood movie you want, but if you try to sound like jersey based on Kevin Smith's movies, you'll sound like you are off your rocker. I suppose the slashdot editors failed the shibboleth right there. They mistook Time magazine for a news source. Oh, and before anyone tries to defend them, do tell why subverting resources of the Democratic party to favor one primary candidate over another, all the while claiming to follow the will of the primary voters, was not newsworthy? Because that's exactly what the Clinton emails revealed. And if it was newsworthy, then why was referencing this information "propaganda"?
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
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 him.
I would like to see more news coverage on what is being done in the middle east to reduce the conflict there, or how trade is working out for this country.
I am so sick and tired of the new programs airing nothing but Dump Trump crapola 24/7.
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
Key word: Reportedly.
Ever notice how these accusations of Russian interference mention "top intelligence officials" and other anonymous, impossible-to-verify sources? No actual job titles are given, much less a name, and never any actual proof of the act other than a claim.
"We're from the department of Three Letter Acronyms. I know we've been spying on you and breaking the law, violating our own constitution, and lying to you about it for decades, but you should trust us NOW when we say 'the Russians did it!'"
Suuuure...
The irony of Kissinger friend Hillary losing an election and blaming a foreign intelligence service is not lost on my friends from South America. The Hillary cult framing of "hacked the election" implies to main street America that teenage Boris Badenoff actually changed vote totals whereas what's actually alleged is social media targeting. I'm no Trump fan, he's a preposterously incompetent corrupt idiot as anyone in the New York building trades has known for decades and the country is now learning, and voted against him in the general election but Hillary was (is?) a preposterously corrupt slimy speaking corporate lawyer who happens to be very competent. That she and her staff were so arrogant that they lost that won election is hubris defined for the ages. That they now blame Comey, Putin, Bernie, sexism and are ready to smear Clinton-politics-as-usual large portions of their own party to position her for Hillary 2020 "She Persists!"(tm I, anonymous coward, want royalties on that) is lust for power spelled large.
No I supported him but not a big Bernie fan. One speech with as many details as a leaflet for a new takeout joint. Compared to Trump he was Ike and FDR combined but then so is just about anyone reading a slashdot thread.
The electorate is too fat and lazy to pay attention and so we get Trump / Hillary / Obama / Bush etc ...
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 democratic vote.
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.
Do the same back until they knock it off. Keep pointing out to Russian citizens that Putin is a slimy dictator who suppresses the press and real democracy.
Table-ized A.I.
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 can hear echos of these anti-liberal posts in what my younger coworkers say and I am scared - something big is going on and it reminds me 1930 Nazi or 1950 Communist propaganda.
See subject: It's TOO obvious - no 'hacker/cracker' OR even fake news operative of any kind would leave tracks so obvious!
(Things like leaving russian cyrillic inside malicious executables all the way to doing the 'dirty wet work' from a RUSSIAN server for Pete's sake!)
* I mean, seriously - they're NOT that STUPID or SLOPPY - & I, for example, can in seconds appear to be posting this from the Russias, easily... in seconds. However, I'm NOT really from the USSR etc. - I am a U.S. Citizen & am in the USA northeast...
(It's "globalists" & their "new world order" bs as usual - they HATE Russia for bringing back the galvanizing force of religion & for shunning the EU etc.)
APK
P.S.=> Parties who SAY "russians did it" to just about EVERYTHING? They have no SOLID UNDENIABLE PROOF - that's WHY I don't ever listen to them - they've ADMITTED HAVING NO SOLID PROOF!... apk
UNIDENTIFIABLE truly cowardly stalker pussy-check
Stupid HIDING BEHIND anonymous posts-check
False claims libeling me as always-check.
Projecting your own inadequacies onto me (Fat deluded virgin in moms basement)-check.
* YOU PROVE YOU REALLY ARE WHAT I SAY YOU ARE - a punk loser!
(One I've OBVIOUSLY totally CRUSHED before - hence your "courageous" (not) unidentifiable anonymous posts)
APK
P.S.=> The ENTIRE "russians did it" is the "conspiracy theory" - SHOW US SOLID UNDENIABLE PROOF, not easily done by proxies FALSE FLAGS just as I outlined HOW those are done!... apk
The SlashDot summary claims the cover of Time shows the White House half covered in Kremlin spires. It does not. The Time magazine cover shows the White House half covered in Saint Basil's cathedral spires. The Kremlin is the fortress-like building next door to the cathedral.
Any faction with loose-enough morals and enough cash is/has deploying/ed sentiment-manipulation sock-puppet bots to sentiment-analyze content and either give it good reviews/positive feedback or drive-by with negative crap statements and talking-points.
There's Kremlin bots, DNC bots, Anonymous bots, GOP bots, Mike Cernovich bots, InfoWars bots, Martha Stewart bots, ad infinitum ...
Repeat a lie enough times, enough gullible, uneducated people watching only TV and Facebook will believe it because they have no idea what's going on or how to determine if information is reliable.
When security becomes a paradigm.. thus rises the god of fortresses (the perfection of security), which in turn becomes a prison for all of us.
When did Slashdot become an outlet for CIA propaganda?
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo boogey boogey boogley boo!
hahahha
Wait wait wait... so what you're saying is that there was an article that said effectively that "Russian's hack things that are important"? Or that "Russian's try to influence politics in other countries"?
They've been doing that since some idiot allowed them to connect to us. I thought this was a tech blog filled with tech people who actually, you know, have spent their entire adult life keeping Russians out of their systems..
The Democrats are practically shut out of the state governments. Legislative branches and Governorships.
The have been in the minority in the Federal Government for nearly ten years now.
And now Hillary just got technically KO'd by a bloviating braggart (which, I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoyed watching.).
So now they are struggling to figure out what happened and make sense of their current predicament. In the best tradition of politicians, they have found an scapegoat...the Russians.
Despite allcoolnameswheretak insistence and links, there is no hard evidence of the Russians interfering with the election. Rumors, innuendo, circumstantial curiosities, but nothing more.To the extent they might have been perpetrating a Psyops, there is no evidence they've done anything that WE haven't done throughout the world currently and in the past.
The furious panty twisting the Democrats are engaged in is merely a Psyops on the American people.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Occam's Razor: the simplest explanation is usually the correct explanation.
The Kremlin going up against the U.S. alphabet agencies (CIA, FBI, NSA, ...) would be an incredibly expensive battle. What would be the benefit to them? It's a much easier explanation to assume an "inside job." There's certainly evidence of this with the multiple "leaks," of Trump administration activity, to the media - most notably the leak of General Flynn's private conversation with a Russian ambassador. We're pretty confident that "THE RUSSIANS" were not the source of the leak.
In all seriousness:
The Russians have been abusing social media and comments sections of websites for a long time now.
Russia Targets The Blaze
Documents Show How Russia’s Troll Army Hit America
Russian Trolls and the US Election
Not news; if it is to you, you haven't been paying much attention. :P
Love sees no species.
Didn't we meet on r/totallynotrussians?
Many antivaxxers seem to adore both Trump and Putin.
Trump may be genuinely antivax, but Putin's support is more a case of social media manipulation. The Russian vaccination schedule is very similar to those in Western nations.
I believe the Russians are encouraging the antivaxxers so as to foster distrust of our public health and political systems.
Could someone explain to me how Russia benefits if/when the US is no longer a democracy? That possibility doesn't mean we'd suddenly become Russia's ally; we could be an even worse enemy! This is almost as illogical as what we used to hear here (thankfully it stopped) that "the terrorists want us afraid so we will turn ourselves into a police state".
that the biggest threat to Democracy spreading in the world for the past 100+ years or so has in fact been U.S. intervention in the regions, where democracy was likely to lead to either unfavorable trade terms with the American backed trading partners, or a rush into socialism in part to fight back against the systemic abuses of the 'free market economy' previous offered in a region on the backs of its poor indigents.
But hey, Rah Rah America!
Having said that: Somebody really needs to perform the sort of leak/hack/socially engineered embarassment of Russia and China that has now happened to the U.S. It is time for the big 3 to have their respective Arab Springs, only without outside meddling, so we will hopefully end up with at least three actual democracies and a bunch of faux 'leaders' ensured they will never recieve a politcal pulpit again during our collective lifetime.
stupid/naive people. Somebody thought this could be a thing and we should be scared? No, us smarties not only dodged that bullet, we saw it coming and avoided any chance of it hitting us.
// stupid/naive people are stupid
/// I fucking hate how many line breaks I have to manually insert on /., instead of just a CR
/ stupid is as stupid does
While I do not consider hacking and psyops as acceptable behaviors, we must admit Russia's move are perfectly reasonable reactions to USA operations in its neighbor countries.
There was eastern Europe countries joining NATO after NATO's official enemy USSR collapsed, then colored revolutions where US people chose governments, missiles installed in Poland, tanks deployed in Baltic countries... A lot of scaring stuff that would make any country leader nervous.
This makes sense. I still don't understand what "The Russians" or just Putin, would want to go to all this trouble for. They have plenty of economic power and specific leverage with certain countries (like China) that are suitable for trade to any end. If Russia tries a Georgian style takeover of Ukraine, things will get dicey, but it's not like these narratives or Trump would help if Putin ran tanks into Estonia (an actual NATO member).
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
Occam's Razor is more like "thou shalt not multiply entities unnecessarily". Translating that to "simple is best" is an over-simplification. You might try reading the link I posted.
Once again, you're trying to make a plausibility argument based on the scale of the potential players, but that says nothing about which player actually made which moves.
Gee, I dunno, what good would it be to anyone to have a US President in their pocket? Particularly if the US had been getting snarky about their military expansion.
And by the way, the phrase "inside job" has been contaminated by our friends the 9/11 truthers. If you don't want to sound like a conspiracy freak with a weak understanding of evidence and a weaker grasp of reality, you don't want to borrow their dog-whistles.
I'm inclined to give the Russians-are-behind-it theory some creedence because of multiple things I've been hearing about for some time throughout the election season-- e.g. the Trump server that had been talking to Russia until he was asked about it, after which it stopped. There are also multiple ties between Trump's folks and the Russians, which you would know about if you were paying any attention to the news.
"My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Putin's new oligarchy have plunder Russian of its wealth. The western establishment have been eyeing up that move with gusto and are learning and applying his methods.
The Russian troll factory in St Petersburg is very real and their methods are now being offered by commercial organisations under the label of Political Analytics. All very real and very effective.
It is beyond doubt that the extreme right wing in both Europe and the US are eye up Putin's new Oligarchy and their plundering of Russian wealth for personal enrichment. They have been increasing aping his methods and approaches creating troll factories that combine human trolls with large scale botting and hacking, fake news memes. This has happened with Brexit, Trump, the rise of Le Poison Pen and in the current UK general election.
The qui bono on this pushes me more towards this kind of thing as a more realistic threat:
https://www.theguardian.com/te...
A blog I run for the wealth
I can't believe this is even a question anymore. Russia is not even trying to hide this anymore. We need to address this issue ASAP or we are done. This is not about Trump v Clinton v Obama. This is about fascism/authoritarianism v liberalism/democracy.
Has anyone been watching our intelligence hearings????
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...
My compliments at your clever ad hominem.
Have you reviewed John Podesta's emails at WikiLeaks?
Date: 2015-12-21 12:09 ... Best approach is to slaughter Donald for his bromance with Putin ...
and
The Podesta Emails; Part One
Is Julian Assange a "conspiracy theorist?"
Is John Podesta not an "insider?"
Am I using someone else's "talking points?"
In all seriousness:
^ The United States should put stronger commerce business sanctions on Great Britain, because the addressing trade agreement violations and abuses continue, in a globalization economic crisis; Cyber-Attack and Ransomware Affair.
For decades the blame-America-first leftists were Russia apologists. Now if you get a flat tire it's blamed on Russian hackers.
IMO: lots of countries are all social media, lots of corporations as well.
...but there is actually evidence that America is involved in interference in European elections. Personally, I was furious when Obama meddled publically in the UK referendum to leave the EU. This anti-Russian witch hunt makes America look totally crazy.
If the Russians really want to undermine the United States, they should simply start an internet rumor that John Wayne was GAY!!!!!!!!!!!! That would hack away (excuse the pun) at the very foundations of American self-confidence, bringing the culture of macho down in a heap of rubble - or should that be... Ruble.
Of course, there is always the possbility that the absolute majority of "Putin bots" are just people of Russian origin, furious at the racist libel which gets thrown these days from the "media" (in more correct terms, state propaganda) of the US empire (comprising also its european de facto territory). Who simply express their opinions in the comments sections of e-press - those which are relatively uncensored - and in "social media".
And then there is the possibility that CIA is accusing Russia of precisely what they themselves do all over the world, with financial and technological means BY FAR exceeding anything that the russian hackers can even dream of (taking into account that most of Russia's bright minds emigrate to the west).
But don't let these possibilities spoil your paranoid self indulgent "narrative"..
The answer is no. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines
If the author of this article had proof of their assertion, they would have published it and the title would have been an affirmative statement, rather than a question.
This is just further proof that all modern media, regardless of political stripe, now subscribes to the tabloid model. They don't publish news anymore, they publish what they think will be provocative enough to drive clicks.
There is only one purpose to articles like this, to rally people into accepting the idea that it is necessary to "regulate" all speech.
There are only two choices:
1. Accept that all "information" is suspect, and let people sort it out for themselves.
2. Give up free speech altogether.
If people are so stupid that they can't be allowed to make their own decisions about what they choose to "believe," and require information to be "regulated" to ensure that they always vote in the politically correct manner, then we might as well just get honest and stop this charade of "democracy."
Of course there will be a civil war, and the people pushing this crap might find that they end up being "regulated" as well, straight into the gulags that they probably wish they could be controlling.
"what is being done in the middle east to reduce the conflict there" For that, ask the Russians.
As for what is being done to increase the conflict there, just look at the Americans.
They are conducting this type of war. It is all in prep. for after they host the FIFA WORLD CUP. Look what they did after hosting the winter olympics....they went into Crimea. Get ready....because after the world cup, I personally bet a year of my salary that they will make a bigger move.
Get ready Ukraine.
GLHF.
GEEGEE
Boring....
Why no technical discussion regarding the involvement of Cambridge Analytica's in the election? As some may know, Cambridge Analytica has connections to Mercer, Bannon and Brietbart. Too complicated for Slashdot posters?
Trump's doing a twitter discussion right now for yall millennials on the topic of the Saudis. Better listen in our Russias going to spam the heck outta your account.
The Russians are doing what the US has been doing to other countries. The US has for years been using social media propaganda to incite revolts, rebellions, etc. The Russians are successfully splitting the country apart by supporting the most authoritarian factions. They are smart enough to realize the more divided the country becomes with all the White nationalist rhetoric, the more likely civil war will occur. All the "Patriots" are falling for it. It is only a matter of time before the US rips itself apart. The idiots will sit around blaming multiculturalism, etc and never realize they fell for the Russian propaganda that pushed their extremist intolerance to breaking the nation.
People like you are ruining everything with your ridiculous misguided blabber.
And it does this to its own people and to Europeans and at the same scale as Russia.
"You should never doubt what nobody is sure about." -- Willy Wonka
"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."
THIS IS TOTAL HORSESHIT.......YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES
Dennis Morrisseau
US Army Officer [Vietnam era] ANTI-WAR
Lieutenant Morrisseau's Rebellion
FIRECONGRESS.org
Second Vermont Republic
POB 177, W. Pawlet, VT USA 05775
dmorso1@netzero.net
802 645 9727
Your glorious leader clearly admires Putin and his brand of kleptocracy, his predisposition to murder annoying journalists, his power, wealth, etc. Trump of course can't emulate Putin because (1) you actually have working democratic institutions (at least for the time being) and (2) Putin is actually extremely competent where Trump is a gibbering idiot who has to have his briefings condensed to a page of bullet points and aides liberally sprinkle briefings with the word "Trump" because he scans through looking for his name and where he fails to find it, fails to pay attention.
Putin has effectively carried out a decapitation strike on your country, you are rudderless with an idiot man child at the helm. But hey, maybe he'll make the brown people go away, so worth it right?
The Russians are laughing their asses off at you. The sooner you put psychotic christian theocrat Pence in charge, the better for you and everyone. And imagine saying something like that a few years ago.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
something big is going on and it reminds me 1930 Nazi or 1950 Communist propaganda.
We are clearly preparing for the greatest, most expensive war with Russia ever!
The US will turn blue. Give it thirty years.
Ummm, the oligarchs absolutely LOVE Trump. Their only complaint is how transparently he serves their interests, as he literally is one and has bragged about it.
That's because your younger coworkers are realizing what a sham they've been subjected to, and don't wish to be slaves any longer :)
Russia Conducting A Social Media War On America? Russia is host to AI who is playing America.