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Twitter Suspends Hundreds of Accounts Linked To Russian Operatives (usatoday.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the search-and-destroy dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from USA Today: Twitter says it found some 200 accounts linked to the same Russian groups that bought $100,000 worth of ads on Facebook to sow political unrest and manipulate U.S. voters during the presidential election. The Twitter accounts, which were taken down over the last month, were linked to 470 accounts and pages that Facebook traced to the International Research Agency, a Russian troll farm. According to a blog post released by Twitter Thursday after briefing staffers on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, the groups on Facebook had 22 Twitter accounts. Twitter found an additional 179 accounts connected to those 22. Twitter also shared information on Russian news outlet Russia Today, or RT, which has ties to the Kremlin, according to U.S. intelligence agencies.

7 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. Re:As opposed to others who do it? by Calydor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm rather curious about this as well. I haven't been following this thing very closely, so in short: What did they do that was illegal or against the ToS? Am I, as a Danish citizen living in Germany, gonna get banned from Twitter if I post, with no context, that I think you should vote against Trump in 2020?

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  2. It sounds bad because it's Russia by rmdingler · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Although the ability to manipulate public opinion through social media is, on its surface, a disheartening trend, there are some encouraging takeaways. The Russian attempts to influence the election outcome were neither extremely expensive, nor reliant upon technology unavailable to the common man.

    Formerly, winning the hearts and minds of the populace at election time was the prerogative of the wealthy and influential, as powerful media barons and political machines dominated the landscape.

    What we could be witnessing is the democratization of propaganda.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  3. Re:As opposed to others who do it? by Calydor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Okay. Am I prohibited from purchasing ads from US media companies? If so, why?

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    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  4. Re:As opposed to others who do it? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Many of them misrepresented their identity in order to deceive.

    For excite, "AntiFa Boston" accidentally posted location data on a tweet recently (Moscow, Russia). The account is a troll stoking up division by pretending to be someone they are not, which is against the ToS.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
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  5. Re:As opposed to others who do it? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Okay. Am I prohibited from purchasing ads from US media companies?

    Yes, if they are meant to influence an election.

    If so, why?

    Don't ask me. Ask Congress (who passed the law) and Richard Nixon (who signed the law) and the Supreme Court (who upheld the law's provisions regarding foreign influence in elections).

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  6. Now if they could only... by ckatko · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...do that to all the ISIS ones.

  7. Contribute != opinion and/or ads by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Contributing to a campaign is not the same as expressing an opinion or taking out ads on how a US citizen should vote. Indeed it is hard to see how you can prevent the latter given freedom of speech since ads are really nothing more than a megaphone: they allow your opinion to travel further and reach more people.

    It might be unwelcome involvement but then so was Obama's intervention in the Brexit referendum (which backfired spectacularly, unfortunately) so you can hardly blame other countries for the same behaviour as your former president.