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Russian Influence Campaign Sought To Exploit Americans' Trust In Local News (npr.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: The information operatives who worked out of the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg did not stop at posing as American social media users or spreading false information from purported news sources, according to new details. They also created a number of Twitter accounts that posed as sources for Americans' hometown headlines. NPR has reviewed information connected with the investigation and found 48 such accounts. They have names such as @ElPasoTopNews, @MilwaukeeVoice, @CamdenCityNews and @Seattle_Post. "A not-insignificant amount of those had some sort of variation on what appeared to be a homegrown local news site," said Bret Schafer, a social media analyst for the Alliance for Securing Democracy, which tracks Russian influence operations and first noticed this trend. Another example: The Internet Research Agency created an account that looks like it is the Chicago Daily News. That newspaper shuttered in 1978. The Internet Research Agency-linked account was created in May 2014, and for years, it just posted local headlines, accumulating some 19,000 followers by July 2016.
Another twist: These accounts apparently never spread misinformation. In fact, they posted real local news, serving as sleeper accounts building trust and readership for some future, unforeseen effort. "They set them up for a reason. And if at any given moment, they wanted to operationalize this network of what seemed to be local American news handles, they can significantly influence the narrative on a breaking news story," Schafer told NPR. "But now instead of just showing up online and flooding it with news sites, they have these accounts with two years of credible history."
Another twist: These accounts apparently never spread misinformation. In fact, they posted real local news, serving as sleeper accounts building trust and readership for some future, unforeseen effort. "They set them up for a reason. And if at any given moment, they wanted to operationalize this network of what seemed to be local American news handles, they can significantly influence the narrative on a breaking news story," Schafer told NPR. "But now instead of just showing up online and flooding it with news sites, they have these accounts with two years of credible history."
Good thing there isn't a major, national media group that controls a whole bunch of local news channels and can force them to run pre-written stories to push a political narrative. That would be awful!
=Smidge=
Why? To erode U.S. politics and disrupt NATO.
Russia's biggest restriction on expanding their influence has always been NATO. NATO's balls have been cut off without reliable American participation.
Someone ought to swing for this. As a cynic I know that powerful people often don't bear the consequences of their actions. But make no mistake, this is as much of an attack on America as 9/11 was.
Sinclair broadcast group owns many "local" stations, often multiple in a city. They force the "local" news shows to run their stories, commentators, and have the local hosts read corporate produced statements. They also force stations to run their national produced "news" shows like Full Measure.
They even run commercials about how independent and reliable local new is. It's funny to see these same ones on multiple stations.
I thought he sounded like a Russian.
Are there Russian Nazis?
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
I see every time this comes up that political process hacking is somehow not seen as a big deal, because injustice in the name of conservatism is somehow sacred and above such considerations.
Well, the digging won't stop. This isn't some 'Bengazi' investigation - this is about the heart of our election process, about how much influence foreign interference had.
I know that conservatives have power over the mechanisms of power now - and plenty of folks like that idea, and want it to continue at all costs. But if it comes at a cost of ignoring damage to our democracy, it won't be remembered well at all.
This is not going away.
None of these issues are going away.
Ryan Fenton
So it would be "honorable" and "decent" to ignore possible Russian meddling in our elections?
How about this: no, we're not going to ignore it
Yes, Jesus Christ, we know the Russians are spying and up to no good. Thank you.
They have been doing this for nearly a century now. Running this story every other day, OTOH, is destroying what little credibility the media has left. No, I'm going to automatically feel outrage and vote for whatever cunt piece of shit you favour. Please shut the fuck up about it. It's like being amazed that blue looks blue.
Yes they are/have been/willcontinueto etc etc etc.
Please. Shut the fuck up about it.
"The information operatives who worked out of the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg did not stop at posing as American social media users or spreading false information from purported news sources"
This feeds into the MSN narrative as to how Putin influenced the US election through Facebook and Twitter posts. The truth being that across the board the media was totally opposed to Trump and fully positive for 'Hillary'. The American decided to not believe the MSM message and voted in Trump. This BS being designed to distract from the lobbying system that really influences things in Washington. No one believes your bullshit anymore.
'The Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan, transatlantic initiative housed within The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF)'
Curious how deeply researchers dug into these accounts. Another possibility would be for them to have also posted 'fake news', allow it to get shared while relevant, and then delete those posts to continue the appearance of a semi-legit news source...? Very troubling either way. What would be really helpful now is news sources documenting how to detect these questionable sites....the willingness of people to trust what they see on Twitter and elsewhere is another side of the problem that needs attention.
this is about the heart of our election process
Exactly, this is precisely the problem. People spreading lies and getting away with it has been at the heart of the election process in many democracies for far too long. The only change is that now foreign governments are getting involved - including the US government which got involved in the Brexit debate. It's going to be hard to elicit a big response from people about a torrent of lies from foreign agents when they are already used to listening to a torrent of lies from their local politicians.
Yvgeny, get the bots to attacking!
called Sinclair news just bought virtually all local stations (and were allowed to do it by our current FCC) that's not really an issue.
I keep saying this, but when it comes to economics the media has a distinct right wing, pro-corporate bias.
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You forgot to log off or click "post anonymously" Yuri.
These accounts apparently never spread misinformation
There is no need for fake news or misinformation. Very good results are obtained by just choosing what subjects are covered or not. This is what mainstream media do andit works very well.
So you're claiming that additional evidence that Russia has an extensive framework set up to interfere with US democracy through manipulating citizens' knowledge and views somehow doesn't support the narrative that Putin influenced the 2016 US election through Facebook and Twitter posts? Sounds like you're too far gone to see the issue objectively.
Side note: The media hardly ever talked about Hillary. They spent most of their time feeding into an underdog story for (privileged self-professed billionaire) Trump. And, sadly, this country values naive "thinking from the gut" over well-thought-out plans from people with experience and a proven record. The difference in detail (how goals could be accomplished) of plans for the country listed on their campaign pages was laughable as if Donald didn't want to win from the start.
The lobbying system is absolutely a problem though. And people desperately wanted change. But hiring a rich grifter is not a very logical way to change that compared to electing a moderate liberal judge who could help overturn Citizens' United.
Sinclair Media has already done a pretty good job of making local news more distrustworthy than Fox News.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
The truth is far, far worse.
Don't worry Russia shills, keep digging that hole. Get plenty of practice, because soon, you'll be digging your own graves. Poka!
Yep, these sneaky barbarians do think they're so awfully clever... well, anybody can write a script, but it takes a special kind of sickness, moral disease and depravity to pull that Russia pulled on the free world in 2016.
We know that Russia did far, far worse than has been made public, and that when the truth is revealed, Trump and his enablers will be tarred and feathered and run out of town. When the truth is out, all the free people of the West will be baying for Russian blood. And they'll get it.
Oh yes, and they have the full support of the Russian government.
https://www.theguardian.com/ne...
You are welcome on my lawn.
The links could provide facts from deep within the USA?
Only a short list of trusted news sites that party political social media staff approve of?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Lol that's like your 10th Russia post, on slashdot? You worried or something? Cuz the way it reads your full of shiff
it's a bonus if it is, but it doesn't have to be. That's not it's purpose.
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The article says these accounts never actually posted misinformation:
Another twist: These accounts apparently never spread misinformation. In fact, they posted real local news, serving as sleeper accounts building trust and readership for some future, unforeseen effort.
It's strange that Tim Mak opens the article with this:
Russia's information attack against the United States during the 2016 election cycle sought to take advantage of the greater trust that Americans tend to place in local news..
You can't have it both ways. Either the Russians did, or didn't, and the article itself says they actually didn't, an dthat it's likely they were playing the long game, waiting for the right time.
However, the last presidential election doesn't look like it was what they were aiming to derail.
"We'll need 2000 crickets, 4 cans of Easy Cheese, and the fluid from 18 glowsticks for this plan to work...." - ph0n1c
Russian agents manipulated citizens' knowledge and views in ways that undeniably influenced votes. There is no "may or may not have." It is proven and accepted by the U.S. government. Even Trump has acknowledged it before (though he much more often downplays its significance or denies that it took place at all since he's the beneficiary and is accustomed to having an advantage in life instead of competing on an even playing field).
Interesting how you dramatically overstated the frequency at which the news organizations you mentioned print incorrect stories. Also interesting that you left Fox and organizations like it off your list. Your bias is clear.
the media gave Trump massive amount of coverage, much more than Hilary. What matters in an election as close as this is coverage, not the quality of the coverage. But even if we're talking quality Hilary stories were non-stop negative. How many hours were devoted to your emails? So many that it's become a meme ("But her emails...").
The media didn't really care who got elected as long as it wasn't Bernie (they were caught doing a Bernie Blackout when the guy who runs the youtube Channel "The Young Turks" refused a sweet gig in exchange for shutting up about Bernie). The media sided with Trump because they wanted a horse race (so long as there was no risk of an anti-corportist getting elected). And they're loving the results. Hilary was a safe, boring choice. Trump is a ratings bonanza.
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quite the opposite. The nations with the highest standards of living are Democratic Socialist nations (Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, Canada etc). America, with it's Dog-Eat-Dog capitalism ranks far down the lists in virtually everything (including infant mortality).
I can already here a chorus of shouts yelling "But Venezuela!" to which I reply "But the American Great Depression!". If the entire basis of your entire economy collapse in on itself no political system in the universe will save you. Venezuela had the market drop out from under them, so did we. The difference is Venezuela is doing better than we did at that time and that's accounting for the sanctions we put on their country (which I have never once heard a good reason for why those exist. Seriously, why are we sanctioning a country that is no threat to us who isn't engaged in banned research on nuclear weapon? I'm just kidding, I know the answer, we can't bear to see Socialism work so we'll sabotage it every chance we get).
Seriously?
At the height of the US Depression, people weren't fleeing the country. Toilet paper hadn't turned into a currency.
Index of economic freedom rankings
Sweden - 15
Norway - 23
France - 71
Germany - 25
Canada - 9
US - 18
And the dog-eat-dog capitalist hell-holes:
New Zealand - 3
Switzerland - 4
Cuba - 178
Venezuela - 179
North Korea - 180
Your examples of "socialist" countries really aren't socialist at all - they're freer economically than the US - which you characterized as "Dog-Eat-Dog capitalism".
Ooopsie.
And this is fucking hilarious:
we can't bear to see Socialism work
We can't bear to see unicorns either.
Nobody's has ever seen those, either.
I wonder why.
Grow a brain.
because people _couldn't_ flee the country. Most of them were still using corn stalks to wipe their asses. Even the best educated couldn't just up and leave. What makes Venezuela odd is they're a modern nation that looks to be regressing. That probably wouldn't be the case without the sanctions. They could have just barely weathered the oil collapse. But as always we Americans have to stick our noses in where they don't belong and force our world view down everybody's throat (often at the barrel of a gun, RE: Iraq & Afghanistan).
Imagine what would have become of America if, during the Great Depression, the most powerful nation on the world decided to take a dislike to us?
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So you're claiming that additional evidence that Russia has an extensive framework set up..
The "extent" of the "extensive" network is supposed to be up to a total of 1000 employees of one company (Internet Research Agency) with a budget of about $500,000, whose tasks included a large portion of non-political commercial promotional efforts.
Top US-based PR outfits employ in excess of 5000 people and have budgets measured in tens of millions of dollars each. And there are literally hundreds of them active during election time.
US Political ads alone during 2016 elections totaled in excess $10 BILLION dollars.
"russia-gate" cultists are simply insane.
If you want to suppress the truth because you don't want it influencing elections I have no idea what to say.
Actually this is the crux of the matter. The US (and many other Western countries) Political scene is ready for wholesale silencing of "inconvenient" and "disruptive" and "hateful" truths for the sake of preserving cherished social illusions and National Myths. Many in the halls of power eye China with envy.
And while it is the Democrats at preset who are the torch-bearers of this "innovation", make no mistake, the whole of US corrupt political machinery, from the deep-state operatives, through the MSM corporations, lobbyists, government contractors and the Republican party profiteers, would be very glad if this is met with success.
All those close to the veins of power all love the idea.
In fact, some ancient dude had something to say about this ... something about power and corruption...
> The nations with the highest standards of living are Democratic Socialist nations
The nations are also physically smaller, have different histories, etc. There is no silver bullet to every society. Pretending there is one, is a problem on a different scale.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
That story would be so much more credible if it was delivered by Glenn Beck with a chalkboard.
Sweden is only ahead of the US in that list because, get this, they have very low government debt due to actually having taxes and a great economy. It's not the best argument. But what can I expect from someone who says 23 (Norway), 25 (Germany), 71 (France) are higher than 18 (US)
Your ad here. Ask me how!
The media hardly ever talked about Hillary.
They spent decades attacking her and her husband and gave massive amounts of coverage to the FBI investigations right before the election that ultimately went nowhere.
Not saying they were necessarily nicer to Trump, they certainly called out a lot of his bullshit, but Hilary didn't get an easy ride by any stretch of the imagination.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I was listening to VoA in Poland in those days. Comparing to the present day trolling the most obvious differences are:
- VoA acted in their own name and did not pretend to be a local commie insider.
- They did not aim to affect elections as the voting results were "counted" independently of the votes being thrown.
- They did not lie about the state of communism as the truth harmed the communism more than any artificial efforts.
As it comes to the financial efficiency it is obvious that cheating and stealing are more cost effective than the traditional ways of producing wealth. Nothing to be impressed about.
Conspiracy theories too often lack any affirmative evidence to swat it away. It doesn't matter if Mueller comes up with no indictments of individuals soliciting Russian aid. If the investigation ends like that then people will just insist that it was kept well hidden or that people are lying.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
There is a case to be made that anonymity online is not desirable. I don't necessarily agree, but things like this point out the drawbacks of allowing anonymity. Usually opponents of anonymity say something like 'we don't allow people to anonymously drive cars, so..'
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
It just shows what she thinks of her supporters that they could be so easily swayed by "fake news."
The way to both respect freedom of association and freedom of speech while disarming foreign propaganda is simple. Force all media companies offering content to the public to publish what geographic area the comments (or media content) is coming from. Knowing which city/country comments are coming from would not violate anyone's privacy.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Not to beat this dead horse again, but how exactly did they try to throw an election? None of those claims have ever been substantiated. Any request for details is always met with either "it's classified" or "it's an ongoing investigation". Either you personally have access to classified information or you bought into this not-too-carefully-orchestrated hysteria which for a while has been feeling like a Big Lie.
Now assuming that they were in it for profit, it's more likely that they would be planning a future astro-turf marketing campaign of some products. This would make them a commercial marketing firm. Albeit it would make them a commercial marketing firm which lacks any scruples. But that's still a far cry from what's being alleged.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
We do know it? I thought it was classified.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
It would be dishonorable and indecent to claim it without presenting strong evidence for it. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
PseudoAnon: "So you're claiming that additional evidence that Russia has an extensive framework"
:]
What 'evidence', that story concocted by some front organization being funded by the neocons, follow the money
Seriously, I have to think that a number of the trolls here are coming from places like Russia and China.
The problem is that many of them are manipulators and ppl need to read in-between the lines.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Look, red tide/porky, India is adding 38 GW of new coal for 2 undeveloped nations. Personally, I am opposed to that. BUT, India is saying that they will replace these with Nuclear power plants. And that is the ONLY company in India that adds coal.
OTOH, China has LOADS of companies that are adding over 300+ new coal plants in china alone, along with another 350+ coal plants in other nations, most of which does not have a lick of coal. IOW, China is setting it up so as to export their coal to these nations when ppl REALLY take this seriously and force China to shut down their coal plants. It would be far far better for CHina to quit installing these coal plants ANYWHERE, and instead, use that funding for putting in wind/solar/hydro/etc.
The world’s largest coal plant developer, India’s National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), is planning to build over 38,000 MW of new coal capacity in India and Bangladesh.
Next in line are the Chinese companies SPIC (31,587 MW), China Datang (28,945 MW), Shenhua (26,014 MW), China Huadian (25,810 MW), China Huaneng (20,750 MW) and China Guodian (17,250 MW). All in all, Chinese companies account for 45% of the projects in Urgewald’s database, but around 1/7 of these projects are located outside of China. “If the Chinese government truly wants to position itself as a global climate leader, it needs to rein in its state-owned companies that are flooding the world with new coal power plants,” says Trusha Reddy, Coordinator of the International Coal Network.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Again with the anti China lies WindTroll. CoalSwarm
Aiqun Yu, an analyst with CoalSwarm, a think tank that tracks coal-fired electricity generation globally, said that in just the past two years, the Chinese government has essentially cancelled or suspended some 444 gigawatts of new coal-fired generation capacity. The program has been enforced rigorously, she said, and to the point that several completed coal plants have been barred from hooking up to the transmission grid, effectively placing them in mothball status. The policy has pushed down the amount of new coal capacity coming online from 60 gigawatts in 2015 to 34 gigawatts in 2017—the lowest number in more than a decade.
Still trolling your anti-China nonsense. Even when the very study you cite no longer says what you want it to say.
You still constantly lie and claim China's government is pushing coal.
How can you say with a straight face that a country that halved its coal use to the lowest level in a decade is pushing coal?
Is this your idea of pushing coal?
China is the world's leading country in electricity production from renewable energy sources, with over double the generation of the second-ranking country, the United States.
China's renewable energy sector is growing faster than its fossil fuels and nuclear power capacity.
China added 35 gigawatts of new solar generation in 2016 alone. “That’s almost equal to Germany’s total capacity, just in one year,” Myllyvirta says.
Certainly sounds like China is pushing coal. No, wait, it sounds like China is pushing renewables, and you are pushing lies.
China isn't my country, but you knew that already too didn't you...
halved its coal use
Sorry not halved coal use, that would be nonsense. Halved the number of new coal capacity, still to the lowest level in a decade.
Hardly pushing coal. If they were pushing coal they would be increasing coal faster not the slowest in a decade. And certainly wouldn't have cancelled or suspended some 444 gigawatts of new coal-fired generation capacity.