Slashdot Mirror
Twitter Notifies 1.4 Million Users of Interaction With Russian Accounts (recode.net)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Recode: At least 1.4 million people on Twitter engaged with content created by Russian trolls during the 2016 presidential election, the company revealed on Wednesday. That's more than double the amount that Twitter initially identified -- and perhaps still just a fraction of the full universe of users who may have witnessed Kremlin propaganda over that period. In announcing the new data in a blog post, Twitter also said it had notified all 1.4 million affected users that they saw election disinformation. That fulfilled a pledge that the company previously made to members of Congress who are investigating Russia's tactics on social media. Notified users included those that followed one of the roughly 3,000 accounts belonging to the Internet Research Agency, the troll army tied to the Russian government, as well as users who retweeted, replied, liked or mentioned those IRA accounts in their tweets. But Twitter did not alert users who merely saw Russian troll tweets in their feeds but did not interact with the content. Nor did it reach out to users who saw tweets from the roughly 50,000 Russian bots that tweeted election-related content around November 2016.
Wonder who they were targeting...
Trump refused to implement the sanctions law, claiming the mere threat of sanctions was working.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-sanctions/trump-administration-holds-off-on-new-russia-sanctions-despite-law-idUSKBN1FI2V7
However his CIA chief says Russia has not let up attacking the USA and expects Russia to interfere in the US Midterm elections:
http://time.com/5124313/cia-mike-pompeo-russia-midterm-elections/
Republicans should clean house, Nunes is blowing a smoke screen to hide Russian attacks on the US elections, and you can't have the Republican head of the Intelligence oversight committee giving cover for a *foreign* intelligence agency to attack the US.
Put a flag icon of the accounts country of origin over their tweets. That way you can see where it's coming from.
When it comes to trolling, I will be most grateful if anyone presents clear-cut example(s) of what Russians are alleged to have exposed to us.
I have a feeling it's not that different when compared to what the US agencies do themselves.
So folks, spit out some examples.
Which should beg the question: What's the difference between foreign political trolling and domestic political campaigning? We already allow corporations and any domestic actor to express their political opinions, constructively and not. Is it somehow different when it's a foreign actor?
"... commit myself to defend ... the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic ..."
There was a claim, [possibly made by Vlado himself,] that many of the Russian IPv4's interacting with Twitter traffic were due to TOR exit servers based in Russia.
So we are back to a verifiable {micro-sized airborne particles of combustion origin and planar reflective surfaces} situation
So you think it's OK for senior law enforcement people in the FBI and DoJ to even contemplate things like "insurance policies" against candidates they don't like?
"Insurance policies" against that candidate being ELECTED???
Are you a dropped-on-your-head-at-birth utter FUCKING MORON, or an actual dyed-in-the-wool totalitarian?
Of course, no mention of the paid proposals straight from the European finalists and Chinese government cheering for Bernie and Hillary. Because that want"bad", that was free speech.
how many users engaged with content created by american trolls?
Wonder who they were targeting...
In fact, it's pretty clear that they were targeting America in general.
Despite the popular thinking, all the evidence is that they weren't actually trying to help one political party over another-- their intent was just to disrupt American society, and the democratic process, any way that they could.
(and not just America-- they wanted to disrupt western European countries as well. And, of course, it all stems from their attempts to destabilize Ukraine.)
Given the proclivity of the Left to accuse others of being Russian whenever they hear an opinion they don't like, I wonder how they actually know if it's a"Russian" account or not.
Hmm-- did you try, perhaps, actually following the links to the articles that answer that question? No?
So, you didn't actually want to know, did you.
F'ing anonymous cowards. I expect you are a Russian troll.
2016: Birther loons are deservedly ridiculed.
2017/18: Muh Russia loons approach the Birther crazy level, but in some cases they are the exact same people who laughed at the birthers.
Define irony !
I haven't seen any evidence that Russia ever attacked us in any way,
Depends on what you mean by "attacked". What they did was spread disruptive messages primarily through social media, with the apparent intent of sowing discord and animosity. If you "haven't seen evidence", I take it to mean that you haven't actually looked at any of the evidence.
I will point out, however, that what they seem to have done here is not actually illegal. They posted messages. Turns out it's legal to post messages of almost any sort. (They may have violated terms of service by using a bot army to do a lot of this... but it's not clear that violating terms of service is actually a crime).
Except for the part about breaking into the DNC email system. That part actually was illegal.
nor that they hacked our elections,
Depends on what you mean by "hacked our elections". There's no evidence, for example, that they ever successfully broke into voting machines to change votes (although there is some evidence that they did some probing). What they did was use their army of bots to spread disruptive messages. Is that "hacking an election?" Well, if social hacking is "hacking."
something Obama and Clinton said could not happen when it was them being accused of it before the election.
Interesting, but, no, neither one of them ever said that it's impossible to hack an election. They did not say this.
When it comes to trolling, I will be most grateful if anyone presents clear-cut example(s) of what Russians are alleged to have exposed to us.
So, I take it you didn't follow any of the links in the summary, like say this one https://www.theverge.com/2018/... or this one https://blog.twitter.com/offic...
Why are you bothering to comment if you aren't even interested enough to follow the links?
you could have tried a google search, too: https://www.google.com/search?...
FBI used a warrant to spy on Carter Page's visits to Moscow, and his meeting with FSB people in Moscow. If they can't use a warrant for that treason when can they?
It's about as clear cut treason as it gets. FBI had the duty to get a warrant and investigate his meetings.
Perhaps you don't quite understand the implications of Nunes snokescreen. Trumps defense to Carter Page's treason was "he wasn't in my campaign just a volunteer". But Nunes is claiming "FBI spied on Trump by spying on Carter Page".... which links the two and undermines Trumps defense.
So as soon as Nunes lays down cover smoke for Russia, people are going to look at Carter Page of the Trump campaign, because those details they've declassified.
Republicans cannot have their head of Intellligence on Team Russia. He has to be on the US team.
What's the difference between calling an someone 'Ivan' and calling a civil rights activist a 'n*gger lover'?
Answer: You don't have to listen to what they say.
How does it feel to be the same as those bigots screaming 'n*gger lover'?
Millions Americans live abroad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... for complex reasons.
If a post originates from a foreign IP, it does not mean yet that it was not written by an American.
I am acquainted with some post-soviet functioneers. They are not capable to generate content which is read and liked by millions of US citizens. They just do not know the US realities to such degree, not even close.
I have no doubt that it is either the diaspora or activists inside the country are using proxies located in remote parts, for obvious reasons.
All the Nunes memo proves is that there are elements of the GOP that are willing to distort facts, cherry pick findings, and strip context so that what they present makes them look good despite being materially inaccurate.
And in other news @therealdonaldtrump received a tweet from twitter which has the white house rushing to prepare a denial of.
Nice link - the "Alliance for Securing Democracy". Now that's a creepy 1984-style name! Seems that site is operated by the German Marshall Fund, a Cold War institutional relic dedicated to NATO hegemony in Eastern Europe.
No reason for obsolete cold warriors like that to build up a Russian boogey man. It's not like they have no purpose in a peaceful Europe, and a new conflict with Russia would rescue them from the dust bin of history. No sir, no siree. This is definitely not lawful domestic propaganda. They have no motivation to lie - I trust their every word.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...
Maybe because a lot of well-connected Americans have made a tidy little profit selling our country up the river to the Chinese?
Ok, did you see anything wrong with it besides the name?
BTW, how's the weather in Moscow this time of year?
I'm pretty sure it's cold as fuck in Moscow. Can you confirm that for me? K thx.
Here in Vietnam it's a fairly cool night, about 76F. There's a little breeze so the air pollution has lightened up. Altogether a lovely evening.
Hope you're enjoying the snow!