Support NeoGAF

[kirblar]

In the category of "SHOCKING NEWS!": https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...bar&tid=a_breakingnews&utm_term=.1bed78bd61a0

Twitter has shut down 201 accounts that were tied to the same Russian operatives who posted thousands of political ads on Facebook, the company told congressional investigators Thursday and revealed in a blog in the afternoon.

The company also found three accounts from the news site RT — which Twitter linked to the Kremlin — that spent $274,100 in ads on Twitter's platform in 2016.

The meeting between the company and Congressional investigators is part of a widening government probe into how Russian operatives used Facebook, Google, Twitter and other social media platforms to sow division and disinformation during the 2016 campaign. Those companies are under increasing pressure from Capitol Hill to investigate Russian meddling on their platforms and are facing the possibility of new regulations that could impact their massive advertising businesses.

The Twitter accounts, which were taken down over the last month, were associated with 470 accounts and pages that Facebook last month said came from the International Research Agency, a Russia-connect troll farm. Twitter said the groups on Facebook had 22 corresponding Twitter accounts. Twitter then found an additional 179 accounts linked to those 22.

One congressional investigator has said that the Facebook accounts from the International Research Agency are likely just the ”tip of the iceberg." The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the probe freely.

If you were wondering where the stream of leaks were coming from, that last paragraph makes it pretty clear.

 

[Viewt]

WaPo Link

Not surprising at this point, but it's good to have proof.

 

[SlickShoesRUCrazy]

Russia has taken control of the United States without firing a single shot.

They realized that conservative americans are stupid as fuck.

Amazing in a terrifying kind of way.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

Russia has taken control of the United States without firing a single shot.

They realized that conservative americans are stupid as fuck.

Amazing in a terrifying kind of way.

come on.

they helped get someone they preferred elected. thats not the same thing as actively controlling

 

[kirblar]

WaPo Link

Not surprising at this point, but it's good to have proof.

Thanks, forgot to put it in! Editing now.

 

[Ogodei]

Possibly millions out there. And how do you stop it? The sites would never geofilter Russia out because of all the legit users that would block.

 

[The Jazz Cabbage Master]

come on.

they helped get someone they preferred elected. thats not the same thing as actively controlling

To aid an election in your favor by affecting the populace, you have to, at some level, control peoples thoughts and actions. In my opinion, their manipulation of perception through social media is a form of mind control. They straight up hijacked people for their cause.

 

[phoisgood495]

Russia has taken control of the United States without firing a single shot.

They realized that conservative americans are stupid as fuck.

Amazing in a terrifying kind of way.

While I agree that many conservative americans are "stupid as fuck", let's not forget the liberal dumbasses who were also manipulated to lower support for Hillary.

The Russian FB ads were shown to support Bernie, Jill Stein, AND Trump. A large part of the propaganda campaign was to drive a wedge between the progressive left and Democratic establishment.

 

[RinsFury]

Where the hell was this last year while Russians were undermining the election process? Now you're finally doing something? Fuck off.

 

[Lonewolf_92]

Wonder how many had anime avatars.

 

[Muffin1611]

All according to плану. (Translators Note: плану means plan)

 

[WedgeX]

Absolutely no quality control, and it influenced an election. Great job, twitter.

 

[MrChocolate]

Absolutely no quality control, and it influenced an election. Great job, twitter.

If you are influenced that easily, you deserve to lose.

 

[afroguy10]

To aid an election in your favor by affecting the populace, you have to, at some level, control peoples thoughts and actions. In my opinion, their manipulation of perception through social media is a form of mind control. They straight up hijacked people for their cause.

Yeah, definitely a form of social engineering.

 

[Muppet of a Man]

Those companies are under increasing pressure from Capitol Hill to investigate Russian meddling on their platforms and are facing the possibility of new regulations that could impact their massive advertising businesses.

This is the pile of shit that social media is and which silicon valley has become. We are literally in a stranglehold by greedy, short-sighted tech fucks that run social media and search platforms as an advertising racket at the expense of the democracy which enables their existence in the first place.

 

[WedgeX]

If you are influenced that easily, you deserve to lose.

Humans are always influenced by what we read and see. That's why journalists were able to throw the US into war with Spain when a ship randomly exploded in a harbor in 1898.

Its why journalism standards exist. And why propaganda radio stations cropped up during World War 2.

 

[Ricky Ricardo]

All according to плану. (Translators Note: плану means plan)

I LOL'd

Well played

 

[Beer Monkey]

We are the United States of Dunning-Kruger and Confirmation Bias.

"Shares from your aunt" and email forwards from your uncle are all a segment of the population needs to control them.

With the current electoral college if you can successfully manipulate a fraction of 1% of the populace you can control the outcome of every presidential election.

As long as it's the right fraction of 1%.

 

[enzo_gt]

Computational Propaganda is one of the greatest threats that we face in the digital age IMO.

Unfortunately, I don't think enough people care or there are currently good enough ways of dealing with it pre-emptively.

 

[le.phat]

come on.

they helped get someone they preferred elected. thats not the same thing as actively controlling

Crippling the nation IS taking control.

 

[KernelPanic]

come on.

they helped get someone they preferred elected. thats not the same thing as actively controlling

How much of your elected government officials with an (R) next to their name are actively following a president elected by Russia?

Just about all of them I think.

Then you've got all the nutty supporters believing Kremlin propaganda.

 

[jstripes]

Then there was that "Boston Antifa" account that shut down after the idiots running it left location services on and it was revealed they were posting from Vladivostok, Russia.

 

[segasonic]

come on.

they helped get someone they preferred elected. thats not the same thing as actively controlling

Unless they had a video of someone being peed on by Russian prostitutes...

 

[kirblar]

Crippling the nation IS taking control.

No, it's not. Their goal is to weaken the US, EU, China, etc. Not actively take control of them.

 

[KernelPanic]

No, it's not. Their goal is to weaken the US, EU, China, etc. Not actively take control of them.

Their goals are flexible.

They never thought their candidate would get elected but when he did they tried to get sanctions and the Magnitsky act lifted.

 

[Nokterian]

201 accounts? Really? I don't believe that..i believe there is much more and twitter do shit about it.

 

[platocplx]

201 accounts? Really? I don't believe that..i believe there is much more and twitter do shit about it.

probally the only ones established to pay for ads. However im sure there are WAY more that are participating in targeting disinformation on certain politicians tweets etc and/or spreading propaganda.

 

[Dopus]

Then there was that "Boston Antifa" account that shut down after the idiots running it left location services on and it was revealed they were posting from Vladivostok, Russia.

It's probably the same couple from Oregon who are just continuing to troll.

https://itsgoingdown.org/eugene-alt-right-trolls-behind-boston-antifa-exposed/

This was back in March. You can geotag your tweets.

 

[Malvolio]

Republicans have been working for decades to keep 'Merica stupid. Can't cry foul now when someone else hijacks their flock of morons.

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

Rather than nukes, North Korea should have invested in Troll Farms.

Future Hollywood movies would be written about this.

 

[Lord_Byron28]

come on.

they helped get someone they preferred elected. thats not the same thing as actively controlling

Not controlling but manipulating. Given that recent Boston Antifa Geolocation mishap. Stories such as these make me concerned:

Older members of the crowd carried Confederate flags, while the younger, internet-driven masses wore patches with 4chan’s Kekistan banner. Rally-goers in homemade armor and semi-automatic rifles paced Houston’s Hermann Park, waiting for an enemy to appear.
The crowd, several hundred strong, gathered in the park on Saturday to defend a statue of Sam Houston, a slaveholder. They had gathered in response to reports that leftist protesters had planned a rally to remove the statue, despite Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner publicly stating that removing the statue wasn’t “even on my agenda.” But as sniper rifles and Infowars-branded jackets crowded the park, it became evident that the left protesters were not coming. They had never planned to come. The rumors of an antifa protest were actually a hoax, orchestrated by an anti-left group defending Confederate monuments.

“We’re about to have a huge event in Houston June 10 with the combined forces of several large groups, perhaps our biggest ever,” the page Texas Antifa (short for anti-fascists) posted on May 18. “The Fascists better not show up with violence or they will be limping home bruised, broken, hurt, and crying with their tails tucked between their legs.”
The “Texas Antifa” is not a real group. The page is the latest in a growing genre of anti-antifa hoaxes, perpetrated by anonymous internet users on the right.

One such parody account, @OfficialAntifa on Twitter, stirred outrage from the general public after it tweeted pictures of vandalized cemeteries on Memorial Day, purporting to have destroyed soldiers’ graves in an act of protest. The images, which actually contained images of years-old graffiti, were quickly picked up by alt-right conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, and disseminated to thousands of enraged followers. (@OfficialAntifa currently tweets anti-trans and anti-Muslim jokes.) A page purporting to be “Boston Antifa” drew the ire of actual New England antifa after it was revealed to be run by trolls.

“Antifa has come out saying they will be bringing several large (communist) groups together to host a rally around the Museum District in Houston, Texas on June 10, 2017,” This Is Texas organizers wrote in a post to their nearly 4,000 members. “This list includes Black Panther Party, Antifa & more. Their goal is to remove the Sam Houston statue.” (This Is Texas did not return The Daily Beast’s request for comment.)
But the so-called Texas Antifa’s goal was actually the opposite. The page was secretly run by a group claiming to be affiliated with the hacktivist collective Anonymous. In a Facebook conversation with The Daily Beast, the group claimed to have 11 members, although it refused to offer proof that it was affiliated with a larger Anonymous group.
In a video uploaded to the Texas Antifa YouTube channel (not to an Anonymous account) on June 7, the group declared that they had actually created the page as a hoax to drive gun-toting conservatives to defend the Sam Houston statue, which Houston’s mayor has stated is not being considered for removal.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-conservatives-fall-for-anti-antifa-hoax


Much more at the link. This was before Charlottesville too.

 

[Brock Reiher]

come on.

they helped get someone they preferred elected. thats not the same thing as actively controlling

They're still doing it though, and they control the person they helped get elected.

 

[Hylian7]

come on.

they helped get someone they preferred elected. thats not the same thing as actively controlling

Getting someone elected that listens to their leader and will do their bidding isn't controlling?

 

[Ploid 3.0]

Getting someone elected that listens to their leader and will do their bidding isn't controlling?

He couldn't even say Putin is bad, he threw America under the bus instead, and still didn't say Putin did bad things.