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Pro-Gun Russian Bots Flood Twitter After Parkland Shooting (wired.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: In the wake of Wednesday's Parkland, Florida school shooting, which resulted in 17 deaths, troll and bot-tracking sites reported an immediate uptick in related tweets from political propaganda bots and Russia-linked Twitter accounts. Hamilton 68, a website created by Alliance for Securing Democracy, tracks Twitter activity from accounts it has identified as linked to Russian influence campaigns. On RoBhat Labs' Botcheck.me, a website created by two Berkeley students to track 1500 political propaganda bots, all of the top two-word phrases used in the last 24 hours -- excluding President Trump's name -- are related to the tragedy: School shooting, gun control, high school, Florida school. The top hashtags from the last 24 hours include Parkland, guncontrol, and guncontrolnow.
While RoBhat Labs tracks general political bots, Hamilton 68 focuses specifically on those linked to the Russian government. According to the group's data, the top link shared by Russia-linked accounts in the last 48 hours is a 2014 Politifact article that looks critically at a statistic cited by pro-gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety. Twitter accounts tracked by the group have used the old link to try to debunk today's stats about the frequency of school shootings. Another top link shared by the network covers the "deranged" Instagram account of the shooter, showing images of him holding guns and knives, wearing army hats, and a screenshot of a Google search of the phrase "Allahu Akbar." Characterizing shooters as deranged lone wolves with potential terrorist connections is a popular strategy of pro-gun groups because of the implication that new gun laws could not have prevented their actions. Meanwhile, some accounts with large bot followings are already spreading misinformation about the shooter's ties to far-left group Antifa, even though the Associated Press reported that he was a member of a local white nationalist group. The Twitter account Education4Libs, which RoBhat Labs shows is one among the top accounts tweeted at by bots, is among the prominent disseminators of that idea.
While RoBhat Labs tracks general political bots, Hamilton 68 focuses specifically on those linked to the Russian government. According to the group's data, the top link shared by Russia-linked accounts in the last 48 hours is a 2014 Politifact article that looks critically at a statistic cited by pro-gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety. Twitter accounts tracked by the group have used the old link to try to debunk today's stats about the frequency of school shootings. Another top link shared by the network covers the "deranged" Instagram account of the shooter, showing images of him holding guns and knives, wearing army hats, and a screenshot of a Google search of the phrase "Allahu Akbar." Characterizing shooters as deranged lone wolves with potential terrorist connections is a popular strategy of pro-gun groups because of the implication that new gun laws could not have prevented their actions. Meanwhile, some accounts with large bot followings are already spreading misinformation about the shooter's ties to far-left group Antifa, even though the Associated Press reported that he was a member of a local white nationalist group. The Twitter account Education4Libs, which RoBhat Labs shows is one among the top accounts tweeted at by bots, is among the prominent disseminators of that idea.
Ding ding ding!
The left has been too obsessed with the "Russia! Russia! Russia!" witch hunt, thinking that Putin put Trump in office and Muller is going to find proof any day now... all the while ignoring the greater issue.
It would be bad of the Russians did what they are alleged to have done if they were just really anti-Hillary and/or pro-Trump... it would be worse if they were just trying to sow chaos, which is a far more likely result.
The blinders some are wearing are impressive: seeing Russian bots everywhere on the other side, arguing against them and supposedly trying to influence people on the right... yet never being aware of the ones arguing for/with those on the left.
Cognitive dissonance is one hell of a mental issue.
1: The US has about the same incidence of "mental illness" as any number of advanced industrial nations (West Europe, Australia, New Zealand etc)
2: The US has far, far away more incidents of mass gun slaughter than other advanced industrial nations, only basically a daily basis.
3. The US has a patchwork of poorly thought out, and largely ineffective state based gun laws.
4: The US has a culture of worshipping guns and violence as the solution to almost any problem.
5: The US has an almost "developing country" healthcare system, particularly in mental health.
6: The US has far, far higher rates of licit and illicit drug use and abuse than other advanced industrial nations.
7: The US has a culture that idolises money above almost everything else.
8: The US has a marginal at best social security safety net. There is no limit to how far down you can fall in the US.
9: The US government is bought and paid for by large corporate interests and has no effective mechanism to remove politicians. Even voting is largely ineffective as they are locked into a two party system.
10: The US pays an enormous social cost that is socialised across the people, while the profits are privitised to the corporations.
11: The US educational system does not equip people with effective critical thinking skills, and thinking about the status quo is heavily discouraged under the guise of jingoistic patriotism.
12: A significant percentage of the US adult population is blithely ignorant of all the above points.
To talk about existing gun legislation in the US is akin to banning urination in the shallow end of the pool, yet wondering how come the whole pool soon starts to smell like pee.
As long as anyone with a car can drive 45 minutes over the state/county/city line to stock up on all manner of untraceable " no questions asked " firearms this problem will continue. How many "background checks" does the guy on craigslist, or in the 7-11 parking lot undertake ?
Finally.....to really, really break it down simple enough for even the most ardent US Yee-haw NRA flag waving gun nut to understand.
Deranged psycho in China can't get hold of a gun so attacks 23 kids at a school with a knife. Result : 23 injured kids that all survived.
Deranged psycho in the US is armed to the teeth by simply picking up the closest AR-15 laying around at home attacks a school at Sandy Hook. Result : 20 dead kids.
When companies start advertising bullet resistant book bags for school kids then even the stupidest people have to realise they're living in a shithole.
In fact he lives in Broward county. Thats 90% DEMOCRAT. its probably going to come out in the wash that both his parents were registered democrats.
What relevance does any of that have? Aside from the fact that the kid can't even vote yet, many teenagers (especially disturbed ones like this kid) rebel against their parents and their ideologies.
Dont stereotype on this shit, it will backfire every time
And yet look at you doing the exact same thing.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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