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During that time, Reddit forums for several small Alberta cities experienced a sudden influx of accounts downvoting 2SLGBTQI+ related posts and spamming the comments section with inflammatory content. When Reddit’s year end recaps were released — which give statistics on activity for individual subreddits such as top posts and comments — they indicated Russia was the third most common country of origin for users visiting many of these subreddits, causing moderators to rethink what was behind the trolling activity they had contended with a few months before.
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Along with Sherwood Park, the subreddits for Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Red Deer, Grande Prairie, and a handful of other small cities throughout Canada also recorded Russia in their top three countries of origin for users last year — results that alarmed both local users and experts on foreign interference.
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“It might be a new strategy by the Russian trolls, because everyone is looking at the big events, like for example, the federal election, or the major issues happening in urban cities. They are not looking at smaller towns. This is a dark spot. It's under the radar. And that is troubling, because they could sow division, and possibly mobilize people and influence public opinion in a localized context.”
Sweet Jesus, no! Not the 2S. How do those pesky Russians even know what this is if nobody in this forum does. Chrystia and the Golden Boy made it up only last year.
My Facebook as well is getting swarmed with suggested posts for weird posts that I think come from Russia. Anti-feminist stuff about “traditional” female gender roles being more fulfilling like staying at home, having large numbers of kids, etc. Also non stop memes about how “woke” stuff is bad. It’s hard to not be suspicious about the origins of such things when you have Canadian premiers like Danielle Smirh meeting with pro-Putin apologists like Tucker Carlson and federal candidates like Pierre Pollievre making comments like Ukraine being a “far away land” and how Trudeau is a “Marxist”, etc. Russia, whether directly influencing our politicians or not is clearly trying to sway public opinion towards a narrative that is markedly anti-West and pro-isolationism. China has been proven to do the same thing, although the evidence shows they favoured the Liberals in the last couple of elections.
Hmm. If the implied suggestion is that disinformation, vulgar language and thoughtless thoughts wouldn't exist without Russian trolls, then I would have to disagree with that since I've seen versions of bullying going back to kindergarten. It doesn't take much for people who don't read to fall for anything that confirms their prejudices. I notice here there is a tendency for people to think people who agree with them are exceptionally smart. It's human nature.
Secondly, trolls are a problem everywhere since the internet began and I have spent very limited time on Reddit. I would never base an opinion on up voting or downvoting. But I know on this forum when someone with no posting history starts or jumps into a controversial topic like LGBTQ, especially if they use inflammatory language, I don’t pay their posts much attention and I double-check their links if they have any.
They almost always derail a discussion. We have new posters who do that here and I'm not naming names.
I don’t think misinformation is the initial goal of foreign trolls. They simply want to raise the general level of anger. To that end, trolls from the same toll farm may post opposite views to raise the temperature of the discourse. People are more easily manipulated if their emotions are enhanced/elevated. They don’t think logically.
I don’t think misinformation is the initial goal of foreign trolls. They simply want to raise the general level of anger. To that end, trolls from the same toll farm may post opposite views to raise the temperature of the discourse. People are more easily manipulated if their emotions are enhanced/elevated. They don’t think logically.
Isn't that the goal of all trolls? We've had MANY instances where a new poster posts something outrageous and is followed by another new poster opposing that view. In particular when anything francophone related comes up. They are never around at any other time. They entirely trying to derail any civilized discussion of a topic.
Isn't that the goal of all trolls? We've had MANY instances where a new poster posts something outrageous and is followed by another new poster opposing that view. In particular when anything francophone related comes up. They are never around at any other time. They entirely trying to derail any civilized discussion of a topic.
They are malice-driven. I generally skip over their posts and don’t engage. Foreign trolls are paid, and have more sinister, long-term goals.
You’re both articulating things very well, I’d have to agree with both of your points. Only thing I’d add is that anything that fosters discontent with “the system” or “the globalists” as a whole is a win from Russia/China perspective. Hence what I suspect is the heavy push for anti-Israeli narratives targeting the left coming from China as a parallel to the anti-Ukraine/NATO narrative targeting the right that Russia is orchestrating. I’ve heard people plainly say things like Canada and the West is already under a dictatorship so it’s better to support Russia because “at least they support masculinity and Christian values”. The opposite extreme says the same that China should be supported because “at least they don’t exploit the third world like the West”. Probably hundreds of thousands, close to the million mark amount of people in this country believe this stuff.
A quarter of Canadians believe in online conspiracy theories, an expert on radicalization and terrorism told a parliamentary committee Thursday.
David Morin, a professor at the Université de Sherbrooke, said a poll conducted for an upcoming report he is preparing for the Quebec government found that 9 to 10 per cent of Canadians strongly believe in conspiracy theories, while another 15 per cent moderately believe them
What is the difference between conspiracy theory and conspiracy fact? Six months.
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