Russian Troll Factory Paid US Activists To Fund Protests During Election (theguardian.com)

bestweasel writes: The Guardian reports on another story about Russian meddling, but interestingly, this one comes from a respected Russian news source, the RBC. From the report: "Russian trolls posing as Americans made payments to genuine activists in the U.S. to help fund protest movements on socially divisive issues. On Tuesday, the newspaper RBC published a major investigation into the work of a so-called Russian 'troll factory' since 2015, including during the period of the U.S. election campaign, disclosures that are likely to put further spotlight on alleged Russian meddling in the election. RBC said it had identified 118 accounts or groups in Facebook, Instagram and Twitter that were linked to the troll factory, all of which had been blocked in August and September this year as part of the U.S. investigation into Russian electoral meddling. Perhaps the most alarming element of the article was the claim that employees of the troll factory had contacted about 100 real U.S.-based activists to help with the organization of protests and events. RBC claimed the activists were contacted by Facebook group administrators hiding their Russian origin and were offered financial help to pay for transport or printing costs. About $80,000 was spent during a two-year period, according to the report."

Comments

$80k? Our politicians could learn something

[Marxist Hacker 42]

That's less than a 30 second TV advertisement for HOURS of news coverage.

The key is not getting caught

[rsilvergun]

folks really hate phony protestors. What made all this work so well is that Russia didn't get caught during the election. If they had Hilary would probably be president, especially if we got it as an October surprise instead of Comey reopening the investigation just long enough to help throw the election Trump's way.

Not that Hilary is a spring chicken herself but it took a fundamental breakdown over just about everything to make a guy who used to be a Simpson's joke our actual president.

Re:The key is not getting caught

[Marxist Hacker 42]

May I point out that Hillary was also for Black Lives Matter and Blacktivist, the two groups being paid to protest?

Re:The key is not getting caught

[PopeRatzo]

May I point out that Hillary was also for Black Lives Matter and Blacktivist, the two groups being paid to protest?

Here's how it works. You pay someone to participate in a protest and then have them do something that's really ugly and angers people.

For example, one paid Russian protester, a guy named "Jack Posobiec", would go to leftist rallies and hold up "Rape Melania" signs. Now this guy is an alt-right supporter of Trump, but he's not recognizable, so people think, "Man, those leftists are really horrible. Look, there's a "Rape Melania" sign."

Then, it gets the front-page treatment on Infowars, Breitbart, DailyStormer, and eventually ends up on Fox News. Total outlay for the sign is maybe a buck. Trump gets elected, and get this: "Jack Posobiec" becomes a "journalist" with White House credentials. So, not only does he get a little money on the front-end, but he gets rewarded by Trump on the back-end. Oh, and Posobiec was also one of the leading "Pizzagate" conspiracy theorists, which we now know was also a Russian op.

Here are the details:

https://www.washingtonpost.com...

https://www.salon.com/2017/08/...

https://www.deathandtaxesmag.c...

Re:The key is not getting caught

[Anonymous Coward]

Ugh. Found the poor schmuck who buys what the orange moron is selling.

Trump supporters are dumber than cattle.

How is it acceptable to refer to President Trump as the "orange moron" yet it was totally unacceptable to refer to President Obama's skin color as though it mattered, or had anything to do with anything?

If you want sanity in politics, the first step is to eliminate the double standards and completely shun any who propagate them. Then something resembling a concern for actual issues might emerge. It also might not, but here's the thing: we keep trying things that don't work. It's time to try something that might work. What's the definition of insanity again?

Re:The key is not getting caught

[poity]

But the article says they were facebook accounts that offered financial help to organize pro-BLM protests.

Re:The key is not getting caught

[Anonymous Coward]

How is it acceptable to refer to President Trump as the "orange moron" yet it was totally unacceptable to refer to President Obama's skin color as though it mattered, or had anything to do with anything?

How about because Obama's skin color was his natural skin color and he has little personal control over that? I suppose technically he could have had it bleached or he could have darkened somewhat through tanning, but it doesn't appear he did either of those (just some regular sun exposure). It's possible he may have used some makeup for appearances, which wouldn't be that uncommon or unusual, but he wasn't trying to fool anyone.

Trump's skin color, on the other hand... Well, he also has little control over his natural skin color, but he certainly tries. Clearly he wants to look tanned, so he uses self-tanner. And he does it really, really badly. Badly enough that, from someone as obsessed with image as he is, it looks like appallingly bad personal derangement. Much like his "hair" and his ridiculous ties. And those shoulder pads... I remember for a little while during the election I was trying to figure out why his arms always looked so strange, sort of sunken into his body, then I realized that it's because he's wearing shoulder pads that are way too big. I mean, I know almost nothing about clothes and fashion, and even I can see this. Trump has sold or currently sells his own lines of men's clothing, so you would think that he would either recognize this, or at least get fashion advice from someone who does. I could be missing something though, it could be part of an attempt to disguise his weight and funny looking arms are just a tradeoff.

If you look at pictures of Obama, he mostly just seems to wear suits that fit, wear normal ties, doesn't seem to do outrageous things with his hair or his skin etc. Obama generally seems like he's pulling it off pretty effortlessly, while Trump looks like he's trying too hard and simultaneously failing at it. To be fair, Obama has the advantage of relative youth over Trump and he's also not bald like Trump, so he doesn't have to try as hard. Also, with Obama's hair, he only has one option for how to cut his hair and still look "presidential" (i.e. not _too_ black, although it's not like the racists don't notice anyway).

Also, there's the wives. Both men have attractive wives (you might not know it from all the howling about how ugly she is from a certain portion of the population who pathologically can't find a black woman attractive, but she's quite attractive by most objective racially unbiased standards). Although I don't think that Obama thinks of his wife as an ornament, they look good together. It's always possible that they're just putting on a show as a happily married couple, but they've done an amazing job of faking if so. They complement each other. Meanwhile, Melania is obviously a trophy wife. She was a professional model/escort. Yes, definitely an escort despite what her lawsuit claimed, bearing in mind that while the term escort is often a euphemism for prostitute, it doesn't actually have to mean paid sex. The actual definition is basically a woman paid to be arm candy for men at events. Considering that she and Donald met at exactly such an event, introduced by her manager who was, in fact, in the business of hiring out models for parties, and who went into business with Trump providing models for events intended to sell real estate, it seems like the term is likely to fit. She's also blatantly obviously a trophy wife as a model, married to a rich man 25 years older than her, and with his history with women and his history of public statements about women. Anyway Trump has made the classic mistake of rich mean acquiring a trophy wife who think that it will make themselves look good. And that's forgetting that standing next to a much younger, much more attractive woman, who also knows how to dress impeccably and who is frankly constantly posing for the camera in public, just makes him look like more of a slob.

Re: The key is not getting caught

[Anonymous Coward]

So... You use pro-Hillary propaganda to smear Trump, anti-Trump violence to smear Trump, and pro-Trump activists to smear Trump.

You've invented a scenario in which you and your team are never responsible for any of the legitimately shitty things you have done. You're trying to dodge responsibility for your humiliating loss, your violent fascism, your support of hate groups like BLM, and your Clinton/Russian bribery collusion. You think that pointing and shrieking at Trump will distract us. It won't.

You are a sniveling coward, an intellectual weakling, and a traitor deserving execution.

Re:The key is not getting caught

[superwiz]

But Russians spent more on Clintons (both Bill and Hillary) than that. In fact, RF paid out 500k to Bill Clinton for just 1 speech. Hundreds of millions of dollars were donated to Clinton foundation by state-actor donors. 85% of that money was spent on Clinton family expenses rather than on charity. How is this someone not getting caught? There was nothing to catch. Clintons were openly bribed by foreign powers. Why would Russians spend millions on Clintons in the open only to go and then spend a few hundred thousand on Trump in secret? The whole Russian influence story doesn't make any sense if you consider all the publicly known information which you are asked to not consider as part of the story. Why are unproven accusations and innuendos (that Russia helped Trump) more important than what is known for a fact (that Russia helped Clinton)?

Re: The key is not getting caught

[SharpFang]

Yep to first half. Nope to other, the other guy debunks it adequately (not political but commercial expense)

A couple trolls under the flag of 'All lives matter' were able to incite BLM to violence by merely showing up. This clearly showcased Hillary as supporting violent extremists; black supremacists who consider actual equality insufficient. It caused a lot of backlash - who the hell gets enraged by a slogan of "All lives matter"?

But for that to happen, the BLM protests had to be organized in the first place. No BLM protest = no BLM causing riot = not exposing BLM as black supremacists = not showing Hillary supports a racial supremacist group.

OTOH, maybe Hillary would be better off not supporting a racial supremacists group in the first place?

Re: The key is not getting caught

[AmiMoJo]

black supremacists.... who the hell gets enraged by a slogan of "All lives matter"?

People who understand what it means.

"Black lives matter" is saying that there is a specific problem with black people's lives being valued less than others, e.g. the way some cops have reacted inappropriately with deadly force.

"All lives matter" was is a rebuttal, saying that there is no particularly bad problem with black people being treated differently, and that the cops who kill unarmed black people are justified in doing so. To oppose it does not suggest you don't think that all lives matter, or that you are a black supremacist, it just means you understand why people are saying it, i.e. to undermine BLM.

Re:The key is not getting caught

[superwiz]

Ok, I think you are missing the whole "she is above the law" part. Well, not missing, but lying about it like you are about everything else. And you do like to cherry pick your data. Your example of 8 million is less than 1% of the billion dollars the foundation collected. But you found 1 year in which Clintons were not paid anything directly by the foundation? That's kind of the nature of money laundering -- they always have to use different schemes for each new operation because repeating the same scheme make them catchable. Like Hillary's newest book... C'mon. best seller? No one would read that tripe. It's another laundry scheme.

Clinton Health Matters staff work with local governments and businesses in the United States to develop wellness and physical activity plans.

Jesus. Read this sentence 3 times and then think about whether anyone who is paying attention would actually believe this kind of bullshit. "Programming expenses"? What's the drill down? How much of it on private-jet fuel?

Trump's cabinet is doing stupid things like making energy more expensive by pushing coal and nuclear energy, the EPA is allowing more pollution

aha. It's why India has signed a deal to build 10 nuclear plants. Because it's looking to waste money. Nuclear has the cheapest per kW generation and coal has the cheapest booster per kW generation. "Renewables" only have cheapest generation during excess production times.

I voted for Bush in 2000.

You want me to take the word of a criminal-supporter such as yourself on your voting record? Pass. Although if you did vote for Bush, you might be in a better position to claim that you are just an idiot rather than an apologist for criminals. I just don't think you are that stupid.

if the Democratic party wants to win in...

Yeah, I hope they do exactly what you suggest. I won't give any hints on what they should do. I would rather see this vile scumbags dethroned and all the criminals among them jailed before they get to be heard again. There is a new path the country should take, but for now it is the Republicans who still have to act like they have something to prove. So it is the Republicans who are more years from becoming corrupt than the Democrats (who are already there).

Re: The key is not getting caught

[SharpFang]

People who understand what it means.

...or imagine so.

For the general populace, to violently oppose "All lives matter" exactly suggests you think not all lives matter (or not all matter equally). No matter what you think, or imagine that means means, the general public gets your message, conveyed through violence, as "Black lives matter, others don't."

The correct reaction from BLM would be reaching out and asking ALM to join them: "We're fighting for the same cause. Your message is compatible with ours. Join our protest." Accept, embrace, include. You protest more general cause, we protest a specific instance of it, but we're united in the same fight. Take the message at face value, and accept it at face value, and if the *actual* value doesn't match, then you have exposed the lie and the counter-protesters lose face. And if they choose to play along, hey, a message of peace, love, unity, equality reaches the nation, your movement only benefits. Play their game, because it set you up in a win-win scenario. Just pick the challenge.

But noooo. You know better. You always assume the worst. They MUST be Evil, and Evil deserves Fist to the Face.

You chose to pick one specific interpretation of "All lives matter", specifically assuming ill intent, putting in the mouth of ALM protesters words they didn't say, Then you assaulted them. And completely regardless of what they actually meant, and what you meant, everyone outside got your message as "Black lives matter, others don't."

The only people who chose to read this according to your interpretation from moment one are already Hillary's stalwart supporters and that doesn't mean shit. The undecided Joe Average saw this as a solid confirmation of their lingering suspicion of BLM being supremacists, and decided "Trump is a better choice."

We can go back and forth about ethics of what happened, make, support or debunk our assumptions who thought or meant what, who had the actual moral high ground - and it won't matter shit. What matters is how it looked like - and to everyone "in the middle"/"undecided" it looked exactly like in my prior post. It was a horrible PR move that likely cost Hillary the victory, and put BLM under scrutiny about racist tendencies. The tiny moral victory of several bruises on the trolls' faces, at cost of losing the whole war - losing the elections.

Re: The key is not getting caught

[DarkOx]

"All lives matter" was is a rebuttal, saying that there is no particularly bad problem with black people being treated differently, and that the cops who kill unarmed black people are justified in doing so. To oppose it does not suggest you don't think that all lives matter, or that you are a black supremacist, it just means you understand why people are saying it, i.e. to undermine BLM.

Of course people are saying to undermine BLM because BLM is wrong! All the statistics show cops do not as a rule kill unarmed black people with any greater frequency than they kill any other unarmed group and actually less. BLM was and continues to actively push narratives like 'hands up don't shoot' that don't reflect what actually happened at all. Is your position a group like BLM should be able to 1) make unsubstantiated claims. 2) be excused for resorting to violence when their lies are challenged?

Re: The key is not getting caught

[AmiMoJo]

The whole point of calling it "all lives matter" instead of "shut up and stop complaining about cops murdering black people" is to trick people. Their movement is not compatible with BLM, they are explicitly opposed to the goals of BLM because they think that black people are more dangerous and it's their own fault when they get shot during a routine traffic stop.

Don't fall for their trick. Citizen's United aren't a coalition of ordinary citizens. People's Choice aren't really the people's choice. National socialism isn't really socialism. Look past the name.

Re: The key is not getting caught

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, only a total idiot would interpret black lives matter, as "other lives don't matter". Sorry, but there is no "ALM" movement, it's just backlash against BLM. I know quite a few racist people unfortunately, and it's no coincidence that they're the only ones who ever talk about "all lives matter".

Obama + Clinton Russian Collusion

[Anonymous Coward]

Why are we even talking about a couple of Facebook ads when today's breaking news is the Obama administration was investigating Russian infiltration of the US nuclear material transport trucking company in 2009, by none other than Mueller of the FBI. It eventually led to corruption, money laundering, kickbacks and extortion charges. Yet somehow at the same time, a $500k speaking fee to Bill Clinton and $145mil being donated to the Clinton Foundation, with Hillary Clinton as sec of state let the same Russian group by Uranium One and 20% of the US uranium supply. Obama himself said that there was nothing to be concerned about, but we know now the investigation was blocked by none other than Comey, and Dept of Justice Holder And the Russian involved had a plea deal and covered it up in 2014.

Laws are for little people

[Okian Warrior]

Why are we even talking about a couple of Facebook ads when today's breaking news is the Obama administration was investigating Russian infiltration of the US nuclear material transport trucking company in 2009, by none other than Mueller of the FBI. It eventually led to corruption, money laundering, kickbacks and extortion charges. Yet somehow at the same time, a $500k speaking fee to Bill Clinton and $145mil being donated to the Clinton Foundation, with Hillary Clinton as sec of state let the same Russian group by Uranium One and 20% of the US uranium supply. Obama himself said that there was nothing to be concerned about, but we know now the investigation was blocked by none other than Comey, and Dept of Justice Holder And the Russian involved had a plea deal and covered it up in 2014.

Dearie, don't you understand? Laws are for little people.

James Comey can admit to leaking, and gets to write a book about it.

Reality Winner can admit to leaking, and gets to sit in prison, denied bail.

What is the point of protests?

[irrational_design]

I've always wondered what the point of protests are. Unless something dramatic happens (e.g., someone getting killed), no one remembers the protest a week later. Its as if it never happened. If the point of protests is to get people on their side, that often backfires. Where I live there were a lot of protests after Trump was elected. They would block roads and highways at rush hour which made everyone's commutes longer. That didn't exactly engender sympathy towards their cause. If that point is to get the powers that be to change their mind - that is incredibly naive. Only money/lobbyists and possibly a threat to their reelection can do that.

But, now I have my answer! Like so many things in life, the answer is to follow the money. The Russians were funding the protests. It all makes sense now.

$80k is indeed nothing for media buys.

[jbn-o]

Russiagate is becoming ever more desperate and obvious. The previous Russiagate lie had a slightly higher figure spent on Facebook ($100k) and even that amount is laughable; the corporate parties spend orders of magnitude more on media buys to get the public's attention and steer American voters toward voting for their electors. $80k spent doesn't deserve anything but a laugh at someone's attempt to excuse Hillary Clinton from her horrible politics, twice-demonstrated incompetence at heading a political campaign (losing to a then-unknown upstart Senator, then the candidate the mainstream corporate media wouldn't stop making fun of), and continued self-embarrassment in her comments about Harvey Weinstein's alleged sexual abuses.

I thought /. focused on repeating corporate media's IT-oriented lies (endless supportive coverage of proprietary software despite countless stories revealing the same truth: software freedom would have prevented that issue, or software freedom would have let people fix their own instance of $IoTobject). Now /. is getting uncritically into Russiagate? A story that has shown time and again the mainstream American corporate media has no time for facts? /. you're increasingly worthless.

Re:Not exactly

[Gussington]

1. Arrogance. She didn't think she had to campaign in the swing states. She actually believed in that "blue firewall" nonsense.

This is 99% of it. Not campaigning in swing states is pretty amateur stuff.

2. Trump's billions of dollars in free media coverage. Nobody in the press would denounce him because they were getting too many hits.

He got denounced plenty, but the stupid vote doesn't care for such things.

3. Russia. Russia. Russia. (insert Brady Bunch joke here). We had an ex-KGB pro with the full backing of his nation throw his hat in the ring for Trump.

This is less a Hillary thing and more a general threat that still isn't getting the coverage it deserves. Russia has been playing this game for decades. I recall a thing I saw years ago how the Soviets were pumping millions into the hippy protests in the 60's in an effort to disrupt and divide. This will continue way past this election unless something is done.

4. Her health. She really was too old for this shit.

No worse than Trump, or Bush snr, or Reagan etc. Plenty of old retards in politics.

5. 30 years of bad press. Not just the emails. Everything. The Republicans knew she was going to run for president at some point. They have a multi-billion dollar media machine dedicated to their cause (Fox, Beitbart, all of Koch media, etc, etc). They've been hammering away at her since her husband left office.

And she still could've won which shows how pointless that effort was.

6. TPP. Crap deal for everyone except the ruling class. In an election about jobs that hurt a lot.

I find it hard to see how anyone can call this either way. If there's one thing we know about economics it's that economists get it wrong most of the time. Tossing a coin is equally valid in predicting such things, so I take it with a grain of salt when anyone claims to know how that would play out exactly.

7. Warmongering. In an effort to show everyone that a woman could be "strong" she went around the world pissing off our allies. A lot of folks figured she'd get us in a war. Meanwhile Trump was saying he wouldn't do that. Jokes on them, he's already got us on the brink of two new wars (to add to the 7 we're already fighting, look it up).

This is one I didn't get. Hillary was warmongery for a Dem, but she was still less warmongery than any Rep POTUS in 40 years.

That's about it. Folks mostly agreed with her on everything except the TPP because most Americans are genuinely conservative. e.g. they don't want much change except maybe some more help from the government (for them only of course, not those lazy Blacks^X Welfare slobs). She's a right of center moderate. Exactly what most voters wanted.

TPP seemed to be used by luddites who think they can wish globalisation away. The genie can't be put back in the bottle, technological advances in transport and communication networks make this impossible to reverse. So you may as well accept there'll be massive changes to our way of life and try and deal with it with a forward thinking leader, rather than an orange man-baby clown...