How Russia used social media to divide Americans

...Such is the focus on Russian meddling that congressional investigators are increasingly aggressive in asking the big tech companies to account for how their platforms became the staging grounds for an attack on American democracy.

Early next month that scrutiny will intensify, with executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter formally invited to appear before the House intelligence committee on Capitol Hill in Washington.

What has now been made clear is that Russian trolls and automated bots not only promoted explicitly pro-Donald Trump messaging, but also used social media to sow social divisions in America by stoking disagreement and division around a plethora of controversial topics such as immigration and Islamophobia.

And, even more pertinently, it is clear that these interventions are continuing as Russian agents stoke division around such recent topics as white supremacist marches and NFL players taking a knee to protest police violence.

The overarching goal, during the election and now, analysts say, is to expand and exploit divisions, attacking the American social fabric where it is most vulnerable, along lines of race, gender, class and creed.

... snip ...

The attackers appear to have a handy, if unwitting, ally in Trump, who is generous in spreading bile online.
In certain recent cases, social media accounts linked with Russian influence operations appear to have taken cues directly and immediately from the @realdonaldtrump Twitter account, according to analysis by the Washington-based Alliance for Securing Democracy, which maintains a daily tracker of the networks in question.

After Trump criticized the “poor leadership ability” of Carmen Yulín Cruz, mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on 30 September, for example, Russian-linked Twitter accounts disseminated articles with “the primary theme of either discrediting” Cruz “or accusing the media of spreading ‘fake news’”, the alliance said.

The week before that, the clandestine network poured accelerant on the fight picked by Trump with the mostly African American players in the NFL who kneeled during the national anthem in protest of police violence.

Instead of simply echoing the president’s demand for a boycott unless the players stood, however, the Russian accounts took both sides of the issue, spreading both the hashtags #TakeaKnee and #BoycottNFL.

How Russia used social media to divide Americans

Dividing to conquer in action !

If Trump really wanted to unite the country
He should be advised to cancel his Twitter account
His tweetering spurs the division ever onwards and downwards

It is not hard to manipulate either side, just play on their preconceived notions of each other.

Russia was not a mastermind to realize this, all governments of the world do this.

...."Russians!!"....
Because all this divisive crap only started with Trump, right?

You guys make my head hurt.

a reply to: Damiel

the dnc and the MSM have divided this country with their PC and race baiting far more than the russians could ever hope for.

the GOP is not innocent either but the DNC is leading the charge.

Just catalysts.

You divided yourself.

a reply to: Damiel

I don't have any serious doubts that Russian-based groups are amplifying the *noise* in western political debates. At the same time, I very much doubt that Trump is affiliated with them or has any say on their activities.

Early next month that scrutiny will intensify, with executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter formally invited to appear before the House intelligence committee on Capitol Hill in Washington.

What can they do about it? They are social media platforms and therefore open to people from all over the world. Their role is not to scrutinise the political opinions of individuals to see if they conform to certain values. I'm not sure what the solution is even though it's a problem that needs addressing.


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a reply to: interupt42

The whole point of article has nothing to do with the MSN, GOP or the DNC
It's about the prevalence of alternative, unverified sources
and how people are being easily targeted and swayed

Pizzagate being just one example......

a reply to: Damiel

People divide themselves. You can blame the Russians. You can blame each other. The fact remains, one must take responsibility for oneself. Todays blame game takes away from self responsibility and places it onto someone else to avoid being responsible for ones actions.

Yeah I took a real good look at this story ala Pokemon Go, and all I saw there (if we're to even trust CNN NYT Facebook Google) was them doing the exact same sort of BS that BLM would have done themselves if they had thought of it.

As if Russian propaganda, in our Society of Propaganda, was the tipping point that got BLM out calling for dead whites, blocking highways & ambulances, and so on.

In fact were it not for their anti-Trump hysteria, SJW's should be rejoicing the free resource cropping, from what I saw looking at this thing.

Not to give Russia free pass, if its even true this latest 'scandal network' story, but oh my noes does it just drip with irony and hypocrisy that liberals of all people are going to do a hair on fire routine over outsiders playing at the social engineering propaganda games they thrive on and lust for, and even sent people their way not merely just Trump's.

Honestly is screams desperate projection fabrication to me, like taking a Soros divide & conquer network, themselves exposing it and then blaming it on Trump & Russia. Which I could totally see them doing after watching Hillary's campaign last year. But the funny thing is, once you peel their framing (spin) of it off the screen, and just look at it from a space alien perspective... they're debunking their own narrative in that the case could just as easily be argued that Russia was just out on a good old fashioned PSYOP campaign. I mean if they're putting out feelers into BLM (alt-left) as they were alt-right then that doesnt exactly jive with the idea they were collaborators with Trump.

Taken outside of their framing, that they were 'right' that Russia was out playing games stirring the pot for their own amusement, but not quite like the liberal media was framing the whole thing. So now they're 'getting ahead of the story' and lumping further partisan tunnel vision BS on top of it all when we're finally getting an actual picture of truth, and yet we're NOT getting the truth of it.

Now I know a lot of people have a hard time with this, its been so normalized by the Two Party + MSM System this idea that its okay to constantly 'spin' truth into Republican / Democrat 'versions', but as said in Cloud Atlas (2012)...

Actual Reality is that there is only one version of Truth. It's "versions" are Mistruths.

So maybe this story did 'happen'. Maybe Russia is in on the existing games of Social Group Warfare (SGW) 'our own' system of power has been dividing US with. What a sad state of affairs that the thing is so wicked to the hilt that when foreign powers get in on the games we still cant even get the actual truth about how to interpret it.

Then again, the whole thing could be a fabrication for all we know. Some ploy to attempt to further radicalize the black liberals towards the anti-Russia hysteria cause. What fun it could just as easily backfire as people see through the BS, because lets face it, the story just doesnt add up to making much sense no matter how you try to look at it. Putin has been 'working for' Hillary all along for all we know if you truly add it all up, just as readily as supposedly was the case with Trump. I've been arguing for over a year that the whole game is is bent on just raw division of the masses (to help conceal a much greater 'conspiracy'). And looking at this, for all we know, Russia's ruling class is totally in on the game with our ruling elites and essentially everything that has flowed out of the MSM's 'news cycle' has been essentially a fabrication towards such ends.

a reply to: Damiel

Yeah, sure thing, it was totally the Russians who started Pizzagate/Pedogate. Cause the Russians actually are so damn devious that they planned this whole thing down to the smallest details a long, long time ago. For instance, somehow they managed to crawl inside the mind of James Alefantos, the owner of Comet Ping Pong, and make him post some seriously disturbing things on his Instagram. Some of the pics can be found here, read the comments too:

themillenniumreport.com...


Also, the Russians totally made a woman called Tamera Luzzatto write an email with a very strange invitation to John Podesta and others. Cause everyone writes stuff like this in invitations, totally normal to offer up small kids as "entertainment" for adults, also totally normal to be very specific about the age of the kids, totally not what pedos would be interested in:

"I am popping >> up again to share our excitement about the Reprise of Our Gang’s visit to >> the farm in Lovettsville. And I thought I’d share a couple more notes: >> We plan to heat the pool, so a swim is a possibility. Bonnie will be >> Uber Service to transport Ruby, Emerson, and Maeve Luzzatto (11, 9, and >> almost 7) so you’ll have some further entertainment, and they will be in >> that pool for sure."

(The above can be found at the Wikileaks site, go to the Podesta emails, click the "Search by Email-ID" button and type in "46736")

Pedogate is real, children are being abused in horrible ways and that has NOTHING, ZERO, NADA to do with Russia. Why don't people also start claiming that the Russians made that Weinstein pig and other powerful Hollywood creeps assault, abuse and rape women (and men) for decade after decade as part of their "audition" prosess? FFS, I am sick and tired of this retarded Russia hysteria.

Rant over.

originally posted by: DAVID64
...."Russians!!"....
Because all this divisive crap only started with Trump, right?

You guys make my head hurt.

Typical misdirection. It was explicitly said that the divisions were already there; Russia simply exploited them, as they have done elsewhere:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

What is disturbing is that Trump seems to have consciously exploited Russia's exploitation in turn.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

what if somewhere deep in the Kremlin, someone wrote a hypothesis describing your exact answer and reaction to this news and how it would all unravel or that the skepticism of opposing parties would suffice to dismiss the Kremlin's efforts ; because Americans are never wrong and they do the 'influencing', no one else.


if someone told you that your answer or post above was perfectly calculated, would you again have another 'rational' partisan skeptical theory?

the thing is about these situations, as these subversive ideas are in application, people never see them. we will be reading about the definitive Russian influence in this past election cycle in about 100 years; when it's in the history books.

there's more than a good chance you yourself picked up on some fake stories from Facebook which was originated in mother russ... do you think thats far fetched? was Hillary really about to die and wearing diapers whilst have seizures...?

originally posted by: DJW001

What is disturbing is that Trump seems to have consciously exploited Russia's exploitation in turn.

Right. But not Hillary. Hillary called for such an Pokemon Go campaign in a speech the same month that "Russia did it".

But that's Trump's fault now.



Have you ever tried listening your your own propaganda in the mirror?

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

You refuse to admit that you have fallen prey to Russian propaganda. It has been proven that state controlled RT deliberately twisted the CNN report that proved that an alleged Black Lives Matter webpage was bogus, designed to discredit the movement. (Not necessarily Russia, incidentally, but it fits their MO.) I recently showed you evidence that a Black Lives Matter page that you frequently linked to in order to support your prejudices may have been hacked.

And that is part of the problem in this raging information war: it is easy to manipulate online sources. Text can be subtly altered to put words in others' mouths. Outrageous claims can be made, blatant lies told, and these can then be made to disappear with a single keystroke.

When the New York Times, or other print publications, make a statement, it is printed on physical paper. It is a "paper of record." If they make a mistake, it is there for everyone to see. Forever. That is why they must be very careful to get their facts straight. That does not apply to the online "journalists" some people turn to.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

Classic diversionary tactic. This is not about Hillary Clinton; it is about how people like you embrace ignorance and allow a hostile foreign power to manipulate you.

a reply to: odzeandennz

I dont have / use Facebook, so I only have 2nd hand knowledge on 'what it was like inside there', not 1st hand wisdom.

But I know that "Russian's" weren't the only ones doing fake stories all day every day therein or et al. It's a part of 'being an American' for some ridiculous amount of people out there of all stripes now, including people just having a laugh or just trying to make some money.

"News" is a branch of The Entertainment Industry now, what did They really expect to happen??

This whole idea from RNC/MSM/DNC that its just outrageous that Russia may have hacked this or trolled that is absurd in that for them to gripe about anybody else doing it besides them is just brazen hypocrisy.

Its the same kind of scapegoating BS they pulled on Russia after the failed overthrow of the Syrian government, a WAR "we" started, to turn it around and go 'oh well because Russia backed their already existing ally there, when our AL Qaeda mercenaries failed the coup attempt well that means all those dead bodies that's Russia's fault DUH!'.

Am I the only one who noticed that this thread was immediately jumped upon by a half dozen members ridiculing the idea that the Russians are waging internet media warfare, and that these posts instantly received a lot of stars... even though it is only five o'clock in the morning in the United States?

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

You don't seem to have direct knowledge of anything, do you? You rely entirely on easily fabricated internet sources that confirm your biases. You are the one who does the scapegoating. People who deal with the real world report responsibly. You reject that in favor of online propaganda.

Wake up! Russia is not the only party creating fake websites and blogging lies... but you seem to prefer them to media with skin in the game.

originally posted by: DJW001
a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

Classic diversionary tactic. This is not about Hillary Clinton; it is about how people like you embrace ignorance and allow a hostile foreign power to manipulate you.

BS!

The ONE AND ONLY assertion the "journalists" (MSM hatchetmen) are giving US about this is IT WAS RUSSIA.

Even though it doesnt add up logically according to this year running narrative that Trump is a Russian agent, or whatever, because the Pokemon Go thing was what I'd expect her people to have done. It didn't hurt the cash flush BLM, it added to their 'warchest'. And as if BLM isn't a Democrat hatchetcrew operation.

And then the same month it happened Hillary of all people doing speech(es) talking about exactly that sort of thing, as if Hillary Rodham Clinton is tuned into modern gaming culture and just came up with the idea and worked it into speeches all on her own.

Guess again.

For her to get up talking about it it had to be a big discussion inside her campaign bus by that time.

And viola, 'as she's up there calling for it' it was actually happening.

Yep, definitely Trump & Putin's idea though. Uh huh.

originally posted by: DJW001
a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

Classic diversionary tactic. This is not about Hillary Clinton; it is about how people like you embrace ignorance and allow a hostile foreign power to manipulate you.

Maybe you should take a long hard look in the mirror and ask yourself how manipulated and brainwashed YOU are by the MSM and their Clintonite propaganda. Do you ever go outside of CNN to get your "news" and "facts"? Or is that too scary for you?