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Russia-Linked Twitter Accounts 'Tried To Divide UK' After Terrorist Attacks (theguardian.com)
AmiMoJo shares a report from The Guardian: Fake social media accounts linked to Russia were used to influence and interfere with public debate in the aftermath of four terrorist attacks in the UK this year, researchers have found. At least 47 Russian Twitter accounts posted material after attacks at Westminster Bridge, Manchester Arena, London Bridge and Finsbury Park, according to researchers at the Cardiff University Crime and Security Research Institute (CSRI). Of the 47 accounts, eight were especially active, posting at least 475 tweets about the four attacks, which were reposted more than 153,000 times. The accounts intervened on both sides of polarized debates to ramp up the level of discord online, the research found.
Seriously 47? I call bullshit, there have to be more Russian trolls on twitter at any given second. And Americans, and Germans, and Australians, and Indians. Trolling is a world wide passtime.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Or is that just too much conspiracy?
Russia built a time machine and killed JFK today.
Sort of, they divide into factions, then align the gullible faction to a pro-Russian stance. i.e. its supposed to create factions so afraid of muslims, then we all unite with Putin against the muslim threat. 5 eyes would become 5+1 eyes, giving Putin access to surveillance data on other 5 eyes nations, and expanding his ability to attack other democracies, all under cover of protecting USA from this threat.
So you see this in Syria, where Trump identified Isis as the USA's biggest threat (it isn't, it's Russia), and Putin did the same, and the trolls bigged up the threat as a general threat from muslims. Putin then bombs all of Assads enemies (muslims and US allies), and Trump gives him political cover.
See the uniting bit? That's really the payoff. Mueller is arrested Putin's money launderers and Hannity is laying down smoke to cover for these Russians, Hannity's so aligned to the message and united to their cause, he forgets he's selling out America.
You see the same thing here, where they organized a "Stop Islamation of Texas' protest to stop Texas turning muslim (!) and to give them something to push against, a counter protest against the racist one:
http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-trolls-senate-intelligence-committee-hearing-2017-11
Once people buy into this nonsense, their self worth becomes attached to it. They can't admit to being wrong, so they keep up the pretense and can be led further and further astray.
I totally believe this guys! You should too.
The Russians stole my sandwich today also.
there is no more Russian trolls/hackers than anywhere else. This leftist conspiracy nonsense has to stop
Saying this IS RUSSIA doing this can only ever be based on stuff that is so easily forge-able as to be proof of nothing, other than someone wants us to THINK RUSSIA IS DOING THIS.
If anything, what is more interesting is how the media pretends the accusations are not farcical. Except.. Media Ownership.
If Slashdot is going to delete offtopic spam like they did in the Coinbase article, be consistent and delete this post as well. Deleting posts is a slippery slope, but if you're deleting spammy posts, an ASCII art depiction of the n-word should be removed.
russia and north korea have better things to do than dick around on the internet to screw with 5eyes
And created some sort of ill-defined "discord" -- maybe.
Meanwhile, U.S. "journalist" Brian Ross's fake news about Michael Flynn was retweeted over 25,000 times in less than half a day and caused the stock market to tank.
So yes, let's definitely keep the focus where it belongs -- on a handful of posts from Rooshun nobodies. Because that's clearly what's dividing everyone.
Trolling is practically free, successful physical attacks are hard and expensive. Worse getting away uncaught is harder, and unlike trolling (which is nebulous and plays on internal division) getting caught doing physical violence makes you a target and worse undoes your previous work as a *clear* and *external* common enemy, tends to bring societies together.
47 accounts that have a hall full of the best anthropologists, psychologists, psychiatrists and propagandists to support them.
Halls of select staff in isolated, sealed military cities.
Hand crafting every word on typewriters to ensure total security from the NSA and GCHQ.
The final approved message is transmitted by number station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... deep into the UK.
After the one time pad is used once a message is released on to waiting social media in a NATO nation.
The account has a real ip and looks like an average ISP. Using a desktop computer and consumer OS.
The ill equipped minds of the average European cant handle the flow of such quality statements.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Between the alt-right who thinks the Jews are controlling the world and the left who thinks it's Putin who is controlling the world, I'm beginning to think that flat-Earthers are not that bad after all.
Am I the only person on this planet who is still sane?
Fork Newts!
We need -1 Annoying I spent 10 seconds reading it.
This is a perfect example of the type of divisive bullshit they'd be posting too. Almost too perfect of an example, actually...
Russians were trying to divide the country? That's awful! It could be worse, imagine if our own politicians were trying to divide the country! Oh, wait.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
We doing that lock step US/UK thing like Iraqi?
Fucking great.
We didn't learn anything.
I'm sick of this ridiculous, endless "THE RUSSIANS DID IT" stuff. The evidence is normally lacking or asinine. The Guardian and particular outlets have an ongoing boogeyman with this Russian stuff, which has reached a point to have become absurd.
"WHITE MALE RUSSIANS DID IT"
Etc
We're over it. You've cried wolf, stupidly, one too many times and now, even if you're right, we're probably not going to listen anymore.
figuring out where the real terrorists are coming from?
Instead of making countries safer, they're going after internet trolls?
Good grief. Way to distract from their own incompetence. Or is it collusion?
Because xenophobia is ok as long as it's against white people
What makes you think others think that it's OK for Western nations to be doing this either?
It's not OK when the US does it, and it's not OK when Russia does it.
I was going to remark that we could expect Russian apologists to swarm to this story in three, two...but I was too late. They're already on it like flies on a fresh turd.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
i can understand they try to influence elections, but why influence the terrorist attacks debate? how does that benefit them?
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
I don't want to be mistaken for a troll! I want my opinion to matter to other Twitter users.
Great one Sergei, playing the irony card. You deserve a medal from Putin himself for this one.
How Syria's White Helmets became victims of an online propaganda machine
... EXPOSED!
Syria : White Helmets
White Helmets' bizarre ‘mannequin challenge’ in Syrian warzone
Brilliant! Unedited, fake White Helmets 'rescue' video
Fake News Alert: CNN Finally Admits “White Helmets” Staged Fake Video
White Helmets”and the winnner isanything but truth
Meet The Man Behind The Propaganda Rami Abdul Rahman
The Truth Behind The Oft-Quoted Syrian Observatory For Human Rights
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights run by immigrant from his UK home
The rubber babies of Aleppo
Putin dropped few hundred thou into social media and scored Brexit and Trump while shit like Clinton wasted billions and still lost. I know who my overlords are.
The division, which only exists because people are now hyper-aware of terrorism and related issues, goes something like:
Right: Terrorism is bad; open borders contribute to insecure nations. We shouldn't have open borders.
Left: This is our new way of life; you are a racist if you can't deal with it.
This whole thing reminds me of the old Miller Lite commercial where Conrad Dobler stirs up trouble between "tastes great" guy and the "less filling" guy.
The edgy neckbeard manchildren like it, so it'll stay.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
Same AC posting. I've posted all the AC comments in this thread so far except the OP. I agree with you that the US and other Western nations shouldn't be meddling b in elections and in the affairs of other countries. I don't think it's okay for the US to be engaging in such activities. However, many in the West are complaining about Russian meddling while tolerating their own government doing it. The US has done a lot of meddling in foreign affairs, often covertly. We like to pretend that we're spreading democracy, but we've propped up some pretty nefarious regimes that were anything but democratic. I really don't understand why more people aren't troubled by the hypocrisy, which is what I was trying to point out. Again, I totally agree with what you're saying.
Erm... I didn't post the one about xenophobia against white people, either. I'm not sure what they're going on about, but it doesn't make a lot of sense. I don't think meddling in the affairs of other countries works out well for those countries (or for us, in many cases) and I'd like us to stop doing so covertly and severely limit our activities. I'm okay with us trying to encourage the people of North Korea to overthrow the Kim regime, but that's about as far as I'm willing to go.
Well, some people do think it's OK, but many people don't. Why focus on the ones who do? Focusing on that hypocrisy risks ignoring or minimising or whatabouting the very real problem of Russian meddling. It also doesn't solve the problem of Western meddling. The hypocrisy is not as bad as the meddling.
Are you positive it would be a rout?
Facebook and Twitter aren't capable of stopping nations from using their services for the purpose of meddling in the affairs of other nations. Many of the attempts by Facebook to cracking down on meddling in foreign affairs also have side effect of seriously eroding privacy. It's also a form of censorship and Facebook doesn't have a good record of being judicious in its use of censorship.
The solution to the foreign meddling is an individual one in countries that have the freedom. People need to be skeptical of what they're told, and not believe something just because it's shared on social media or published on the internet. There's no substitute for questioning whether reports are plausible, examining the credibility of sources, and searching for multiple sources. Unfortunately, few people will actually do that, because it's easier to be lazy and more comfortable to remain within an echo chamber.
Alternatively, we can stop the meddling, but this is no easy task. We meddle in the affairs of other countries because it appears to benefit us at the time. In many cases, this occurs at the expense of the country we're meddling on, and other countries. We do it to expand our circle of influence. It's no secret that Russia has felt threatened by former Soviet and Eastern Bloc countries joining NATO and otherwise aligning with the West. As a result, they've ramped up their meddling even more. As long as neither side makes a gesture of trust, the meddling will continue from both sides.
Most Americans probably never even make the connection in their minds that our government is meddling in the affairs of foreign countries. We also portray it as being good and noble, using the term spreading democracy. If the meddling is to stop, our citizens will need to insist that we change our foreign policy. As long as we look the other way or pretend it's good and noble, the government will continue its meddling.
This doesn't mean protectionism or isolationism as some would like. It means not being manipulative and exploitative. And it means being forward thinking and interacting globally where our interests align with the best interests of others.
To put it in terms that nerds should appreciate, our diplomacy should be more like that of Jean-Luc Picardy and less like the foreign policy of the Romulan Star Empire.
The trolls here are easily identifiable. Often, they're the ones lamenting Russian trolling, which isn't present here--you'd have to be delusional to think the russian government knows or cares about slashdot. On the other hand, corporate and government trolls from the US have been here for years, calling Assange a rapist, snowden a double agent, glenn greenwald a liar and bradley manning a coward. We see trolls lying about how the ISPs secretly desire network neutrality, and about how global warming is a hoax. Now compared to all that, find me one post here extolling Putin. Go ahead.