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Russian Trolls Created Facebook Events Seen By More Than 300,000 Users (cnn.com)
"Posing as American activists, Russian government-linked trolls created 129 Facebook events between 2015 and 2017," writes CNN. An anonymous reader quotes their report:
On multiple occasions, the events prompted real Americans to take to the streets. In a written statement Facebook gave to the Senate Intelligence Committee released on Thursday, the social media network said that the events created by one Kremlin-linked troll group were seen by more than 300,000 Facebook users. About 62,500 users marked that they would attend the event, and an additional 25,800 expressed an interest in attending.
Facebook told Congress it does "not have data about the realization of these events," but CNN has previously found evidence that the Russian group successfully convinced Americans to attend the demonstrations. The events were organized on a range of divisive issues and were designed to pit Americans against each other.
"The company also told Congress it had removed Kaspersky Lab from a list of free anti-virus offerings it provides users."
Facebook told Congress it does "not have data about the realization of these events," but CNN has previously found evidence that the Russian group successfully convinced Americans to attend the demonstrations. The events were organized on a range of divisive issues and were designed to pit Americans against each other.
"The company also told Congress it had removed Kaspersky Lab from a list of free anti-virus offerings it provides users."
On what planet did Putin and his cronies think the West wouldn't throw the kitchen sink at them in retaliation for the election hack?
Did these mongs REALLY think they could hold us off forever simply by gaslighting us on Twitter? ("there is no proof of collusion, there is no proof of hacking, whatabout this, whatabout that, etc etc). So fucking stupid.
The arrogance and naivete defies belief.
That's the dirty secret -- propaganda and astroturfing works. Social media is a dream come true for the practitioners of the Soviet-style dark arts of mass brainwashing and information-attack.
Which makes the fecklessness and arrogance of the social media barons ("this time it's differet", "the Internet changes everything") all the more galling. They sniffed their own techno-libertarian farts, believed their own bullshit, and then, due to their obstinate refusal to come to terms with the destructive power of their platforms, nearly destroyed the republic.
I'm not holding my breath, waiting for fucking idiots like Jack Dorsey or Mark Zuckerberg to wake up. I'm out. If Russian and Chinese security-state fascists are given a free pass to attack us, really the only thing we can do is opt out and do the only thing we can do individually to make things as hard as possible for the enemy.
On what planet did Putin and his cronies think the West wouldn't throw the kitchen sink at them in retaliation for the election hack?
Did these mongs REALLY think they could hold us off forever simply by gaslighting us on Twitter? ("there is no proof of collusion, there is no proof of hacking, whatabout this, whatabout that, etc etc). So fucking stupid.
The arrogance and naivete defies belief.
First of all, chill. The purpose was to get people riled up and divisive, and by being outraged you are playing into their hand.
Furthermore, if you are outraged don't propagate by posting about it - that just amplifies the effect.
Secondly, does this de-ligitimize at least one major riot here in the US? Was there (at least) one instance where US people did not feel strongly enough to protest, but were egged on by outside influences?
Doesn't that mean that there is *less* discontent in the US than what might be inferred from protests?
Parent posts demonstrating the two truths and a lie technique. The reddit-style one sentence per line formatting makes it a weaker post than it could have been, so take care to learn from his mistakes.
Well I appreciate it because it confirms a personal belief I've been holding since the elections: Russia (the nation.. not the "people") has been playing both sides of the board. A divided USA would be nothing but beneficial to them. A new civil war (wishful thinking on their part) would be a wet dream come true. The same assholes you see screaming about Trump are the same assholes you see screaming about Clinton. Both sides want to create bandwagons to "stop" the other.
Why not? Russia's information warfare campaign is fascination and world-changing, and VERY interesting to nerds. After all, most of the vectors of Putin's information assault on the West are enabled by the Web and social media.
Some make believe accounts made some make believe events that other accounts (make believe or not) said they were going.
"not have data about the realization of these events," WFT, CNN?
A reporter reports about half the story, how hard can it be to research if these said "events" were real or not? My guess, none ever happened. But, isn't a quality news report one that has the complete story? This report isn't sufficiently researched to have any utility besides stirring the pot.
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/ Which fucking adults? Oh, you mean the people who became multi-millionaires while in public service? Those adults? The ones who played with theimselves while ISIS conquered large fractions of the middle east? Oh,, no, you mean the ones who gave 7 billion dollars to a terrorist regime that triggered the rise of ISIS by creating their own Iranian controlled militias all over Iraq and Syria..
LIke the 20k emails? Or maybe the server that should not have existed? How about the dude deleting emails that should not have been? The smashed phones? Or the emails that talk about blaming russia? Or the billions missing from haiti?
As fun and serious as watching that?
NICE!! you wont find much unbaised posts here. US propaganda = GOOD, Russian propaganda = BAD.
But i'm with you and do love these posts.. as you said, the US has been doing the exact same thing for decades against many countries, but the US citizens seem to have a serious issue when it is done to them? They didnt seem to mind having decent democratically elected leaders thrown out to bring in tyrants in the name of "freedom".
Sigh.
--- ...when the adults are back in charge in Washington, there are going to be SERIOUS, life-changing repercussions for Putin and his friends.... This is going to be FUN to watch."
"Trump is totally, unbelievably fucked...
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Good fucking grief, the party-rah-rah-rah in this. Your 2018 is going to be as disappointing as your 2016.
Jesus christ.
This story never ends, Russia did this, Russia did that, always very little or circumstantial evidence, or something like "up to 6 fake accounts were made, with over 32 followers!"
Unless something significantly concrete, ground slamming and thorough comes out which outright proves some kind of real huge conspiracy, then all this looks like is crazy people on a witch hunt.
FUTHERMORE even if it were real, it's up to people to vote with their conscience / brain, assuming they have one.
On top of this, even IF the Russia email hack Hillary thing is real (or was Russians) the point should be the bloody evidence revealed, don't play the distraction game, if her emails clearly proved she was a liar or trouble or whatever (I don't even know what it was) why are we desperately trying to look the other way?
Note: NOT an American, didn't even vote in your election and I know Trump is an idiot, but the republicans didn't win your election, the fucking democrats lost it by omitting Bernie.
So tired of this political stuff on /., what next? Another in depth article about how every single white male programmer is without question a rapist or something?
The goal is to cause chaos. The bait-and-switch approach is that you take advantage of a shocking event (mass shooting, disaster, etc) and let loose your army of bots to organize protests with 100,000 followers on one side, and an opposing event with 100,000 followers on the other side.
If nothing happens, meh, it cost you nothing except paying some guys in St. Petersburg to shitpost. Try again after the next shocking event.
If you get lucky, you get 500 protestors on one side of the street, and 500 counterprotestors on the other side of the street, and they start throwing insults, bricks, and molotovs at each other.
Then you sit back and enjoy the chaos you've created -- not just the localized disruption of the riot but the fact that everybody you lured into a riot leaves with hardened feelings against their opposition.
Lather, rinse, repeat. More chaos, more violence, and maybe you get really lucky and kick off a civil war. Your greatest geopolitical adversary basically punches itself in the face and off the global stage while you sit back and way "Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!"
Look upthread -- notice that some of the ACs are vehemently supporting one side of the story, and some of them are just as vehemently supporting the other side. Maybe only a few of them are actual information warfare guys. But it only takes a few to get the rest of the ACs (sincere readers with partisan opinions) to tear at each other's throats.
Basically, they're doing this in real life: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trollbait-nobody-is-right
And they're going to keep on doing it as long as it continues to work.
I'm a libtard.
The Hillary viewpoint with the DNC and Podesta Emails boils down to this:
"We would have won if those meddling kids didn't expose our lies"
It's literally something out of Scooby Doo.
Trump and trumpism isn't the result of the goddamned Russians, it's the result of 40+ years of stultification of the American Public. Ever since the Southern Strategy. The Republicans have been courting the idiots ever since then, and don't fucking argue this point with me, because it was Nixon's own words as to what rubes he was going after.
And ever since then, they've become the Republican Base.
Gone are the Barry Goldwaters. The GOP (grand?) is now composed of grifters, wannabes, assholes, racists, and tools. Since this matches much of the American Public, it's no wonder that Trump won, because he is all of that, and more.
And what gets me is that the Democrats should be /hammering/ the Republicans on policy. Except that it's "Russia Russia Russia." Which the American Public doesn't give two shits about. So we have tools like Tom Perez in charge of the party, someone who would stab you in the back (politically) as much as look at you.
No platform. No policy. Just skulduggery.
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BMO
Speaking of inviting hatred and fear, isn't it funny you're defending Russia, who literally did that via social media propaganda?
Makes you think about the projection so common to some political parties these days.
300k is just the fake events that apparently some Americans did actually attend. The number of people who saw Russian posts is higher.
Anyway, eyeballs are not a good metric. Influence is, but influence is hard to measure. This story is very significant because it appears that there is evidence that people definitely were influenced to the point of attending protests organized by Russia.
We are slowly moving towards acceptance. First it was "this never happened", then it was "the posts only reached a few hundred people", after that "no one was actually influenced by this stuff".
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Russians, Republicans, what's the difference? Both hate Muslims, gays and feminists and love God, guns and authoritarians.