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This topic comes up frequently, and I think it would be nice to start a thread where we can compile these statistics. People often ask for "evidence" that Russian bots had their hand in influencing people's minds on social media, so I think it would be good to provide some of that for everyone (in a single thread).
It is also worth mentioning that this extends well beyond the US election, as other elections (such as France's and Germany's) and other movements (e.g. Brexit) have been targeted heavily in similar ways.
Some links and snippets (A LOT more at the links):
The day Donald Trump was elected president, nearly 2,000 Twitter accounts that had pumped out pro-Trump messages in the run-up to the vote suddenly went dark. Then, in spring 2017, these bot-controlled accounts reemerged to campaign en français for Marine Le Pen in the French election, and then once again this fall, to tweet auf Deutsch on behalf of the far-right party in Germany’s election.
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And the bots were just as effective at spreading messages as human-controlled accounts were, says USC professor and lead researcher Emilio Ferrara, who has studied the influence of bot networks since 2012. “Botnets accrued retweets at the same rate as humans,” he says of the pre-election activity. His most recent research explores how bots are particularly effective at getting a message to go viral among authentic human users.
To what extent — and how successfully — did Russian backed agents use social media to influence the UK’s Brexit vote? Yesterday Facebook admitted it had linked some Russian accounts to Brexit-related ad buys and/or the spread of political misinformation on its platform, though it hasn’t yet disclosed how many accounts were involved or how many rubles were spent.
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The Times reports that the study tracked 156,252 Russian accounts which mentioned #Brexit, and also found Russian accounts posted almost 45,000 messages pertaining to the EU referendum in the 48 hours around the vote.
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You do have to wonder whether Brexit wasn’t something of a dry run disinformation campaign for Russian bots ahead of the US election a few months later.
The research paper, entitled Social media, sentiment and public opinions: Evidence from #Brexit and #USElection, which is authored by three data scientists from Swansea University and the University of California, Berkeley, used Twitter’s API to obtain relevant datasets of tweets to analyze.
After screening, their dataset for the EU referendum contained about 28.6M tweets, while the sample for the US presidential election contained ~181.6M tweets.
Between December 1 and December 8, we examined 60 articles that were among the top URLs shared by Kremlin-oriented accounts on Twitter. The most prominent theme (featured in 18% of examined URLs) was an attempt to discredit the FBI, especially after it was revealed that an agent had been demoted for sending anti-Trump texts.
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The Michael Flynn plea was the subject of 15% of URLs; of those URLs, 45% attacked the credibility of the FBI and the remaining 55% criticized ABC for an erroneous Trump-Flynn report or the Obama administration for allegedly “green lighting” communication between Flynn and Ambassador Kislyak.
At the start of November, the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence provided a list of 2,753 suspended, Russian-linked Twitter accounts.
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Many bot accounts have been traced to the Internet Research Agency, in St Petersburg. The Russian government-backed agency reportedly runs social media accounts disseminating "disinformation".
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After the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack in March 2017, Twitter user @SouthLoneStar - who described themselves as "Proud TEXAN and AMERICAN patriot" - posted an image of a young woman in a headscarf on the bridge in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
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The Twitter user @TEN_GOP posted a digitally altered image of "moderate Muslims" reacting to the news of the London Bridge attack on a Facebook Live stream from the Al Jazeera news network.
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While not confirmed, there are accusations @DavidJoBrexit is a Russian bot posting pro-Brexit and anti-immigration content to its more than 100,000 followers. The Times reported the account was a "Russian stooge", citing the activity of the account and analysis by Twitter user @conspirator0.
Of the 450 accounts released by Facebook as part of its investigation, Twitter was able to match 22 of those to accounts on its own site. All 22 were immediately suspended. What's more, Twitter found another 179 accounts linked to or associated with the original 22 that had no ties to any of the 450 Facebook ones.
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According to Twitter, the RT accounts spent $274,100 to promote 1,823 ads directed at followers of major media outlets and sought to promote RT's own coverage of trending news events.
Famous for: Her uncompromising views, as expressed through a spiky Twitter account that gained 70,000 followers.
What sort of views? “To those people who hate the Confederate flag, did you know that the flag and the war wasn’t about slavery, it was all about money.” Also: “I’m not pro-Trump. I am pro-common sense.” And: “Manspreading isn’t an issue. Stop pandering it into politics.”
Congressional investigators discovered Jenna Abrams, who went by the username @Jenn_Abrams, was the creation of employees at the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg. The government-backed agency employs hundreds of trolls, tasked with disseminating content that would destabilise the U.S.
Like many Russian bots, Abrams spent most of her time online talking about the most divisive issues in America today. The account would opine on topics such as the Confederate Flag and the flaws of political correctness.
Fox News’s Sean Hannity is getting support from Russian-linked social media accounts after they began amplifying a protest by the American far right against Keurig coffee machines when the company pulled advertising from Hannity’s show.
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The Russian influence linked accounts—some of which are bots, some individuals—are amplifying Gage’s message against Keurig and those of other Hannity supporters who posted videos of themselves across social media demolishing the company's single-serve coffee machines. The network of social media accounts was identified after key American intelligence agencies found the Kremlin worked to interfere in the 2016 election.
As part of the investigation of data handed over by Twitter, Facebook and Google, lawmakers have released a full list of 2,752 now-deactivated Twitter accounts suspected of being Russian bots.
The accounts, which include references to the U.S. election, President Donald Trump, Russian domestic politics and Ukraine, were all linked to the Internet Research Agency, a Russian firm that operated hundreds of fake accounts to spead divisive political messages ahead of the 2016 election.
Last edited by HockeyMac18; 12-19-2017 at 07:25 PM..
Welcome to the new age of cyber war. It's as brilliant as it is evil. No shots need to be fired, no lives taken. Just lies, propaganda, and the control of world leaders. I have to admire it in a way. Why didn't we think of it first?
Russians didn't make people want Trump, Obama and Hillary did, as well as the mainstream media and their open contempt for the common working man.
Brexit, a similar story, the people feel they are losing their voice.
You underestimate the degree to which people's views can be swayed with information (whether true or untrue), particularly if the information confirms some preconceived notion about something.
The power to manipulate is real. And it should concern you.
You underestimate the degree to which people's views can be swayed with information (whether true or untrue), particularly if the information confirms some preconceived notion about something.
The power to manipulate is real. And it should concern you.
Hillary had a billion dollar campaign to overcome Twitter bots. Including her own Twitter bots from the Correct the Record campaing
but I am glad Democrats keep excusing Hillary's loss and saying she had the election basically stolen from her thanks to Russia. It might encourage her to run again
Hillary had a billion dollar campaign to overcome Twitter bots. Including her own Twitter bots from the Correct the Record campaing
but I am glad Democrats keep excusing Hillary's loss and saying she had the election basically stolen from her thanks to Russia. It might encourage her to run again
I wouldn't say that is true - it's very possible, perhaps likely, that Clinton would have lost had there not been this coordinated campaign by Russia. But we don't have another planet to run that experiment on, so it's a fairly useless topic to think about.
You're thinking too specifically about this being a "Republican vs. Democrat" discussion. It is not.
This is about the integrity of our election systems worldwide. Western democracy is under attack from a foreign agent that does not have our interests at heart, and it is not something to be ignored - which it isn't.
I wouldn't say that is true - it's very possible, perhaps likely, that Clinton would have lost had there not been this coordinated campaign by Russia. But we don't have another planet to run that experiment on, so it's a fairly useless topic to think about.
You're thinking too specifically about this being a "Republican vs. Democrat" discussion. It is not.
This is about the integrity of our election systems worldwide. Western democracy is under attack from a foreign agent that does not have our interests at heart, and it is not something to be ignored - which it isn't.
BS. Democrats didn't care about Russian interference and the US interfering in other elections until Hillary lost. It's their excuse for her losing. Plain and simple
BS. Democrats didn't care about Russian interference and the US interfering in other elections until Hillary lost. It's their excuse for her losing. Plain and simple
I don't care who is using it as an excuse for anything. I'm not a Democrat or a fan of HRC.
We have documented PROOF that this has happened, that it is still happening, and that it has taken place in other countries.
Why do you not seem to care about it? Is it only because they are currently "favoring" your "side"?
Russia isn't our friend - they don't care about you, Trump, or anyone else in power in the US. They care about their interests, and if someone else comes along that they would rather have in power, they will exploit the system again, perhaps for the "other side". Would you care then?
Last edited by HockeyMac18; 12-20-2017 at 12:45 PM..
You underestimate the degree to which people's views can be swayed with information (whether true or untrue), particularly if the information confirms some preconceived notion about something.
The power to manipulate is real. And it should concern you.
Except it is the American liberal media that is doing all the manipulation. CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, Wapo, NYT, LAT and pretty much all the newspapers across the country are nothing more than liberal propaganda wings of the democratic party.
Don’t even get me started on the indoctrination of the country’s youth by the liberal colleges and universities. These are the real concerns, not Russia.
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