READ THIS FIRST
Russian trolls??? Chinese trolls???
What sort of cyber warfare is this?
To what extent are the swirling conspiracy theories and political polarization not only the work of social media AI algorithms and confirmation bias ... but actually deliberately deployed disinformation by hostile foreign powers with a nefarious agenda?
Why bother bombing or invading a nation, or committing terrorist attacks, when you can so easily weaponize social media and turn a populace on itself, to destroy one another?
A few meme trolling psy-ops later, a little destabilization of democracy and undermining of institutions - and the unwitting targets of your cyber attacks are only too willing to do your dirty work for you - escalating from "culture wars" to actual "civil wars".
What if it's not actually "Q level intelligence" and "revelation from God"?
What if it's mostly cooked up conspiracy theories from Russian troll farms in what they call "4th Generation Warfare"?
Is it patriotic to be "useful idiots"?
Is collaborating with the generators such internet mischief really the way to "end tyranny" and secure "freedom"?
Twitter Bots Drove the Push to 'Reopen America,' Study Finds
In case you thought it was implausible that Russian operatives would use the stupidity, gullibility and bigotry of Americans against themselves, and exploit the stresses of the pandemic to widen politico-social divides. I give you:
Foreign Minister Marise Payne hits out at Chinese, Russian 'disinformation'
She said it was "troubling that some countries are using the pandemic to undermine liberal democracy and promote their own, more authoritarian models".
Russian troll accounts purged by Twitter pushed Qanon and other conspiracy theories
Trolls and bots are flooding social media with disinformation encouraging states to end quarantine
US officials: Russia behind spread of virus disinformation
Russian intelligence services are using a trio of English-language websites to spread disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, seeking to exploit a crisis that America is struggling to contain ahead of the presidential election in November, U.S. officials said Tuesday.Two Russians who have held senior roles in Moscow’s military intelligence service known as the GRU have been identified as responsible for a disinformation effort meant to reach American and Western audiences, U.S. government officials said.
Facebook removes troll farm posing as African-American support for Donald Trump
Facebook also removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to conservative media outlet The Epoch Times. The foreign pro-Trump troll farm was based in Romania and pushed content on Instagram under names like “BlackPeopleVoteForTrump” and on Facebook under “We Love Our President.” Troll farms — groups of people that work together to manipulate internet discourse with fake accounts — are often outsourced and purchased by foreign governments or businesses to push specific political talking points.
ROMANIA??!
And yet, here in Australia, we have people re-sharing content generated and disseminated by such "troll farms', then avidly re-shared all over the place by the religious Right in America - then congratulating themselves on their super-Woke, amazing critical thinking and ability to "research" beyond the "MSM" and to hold "special knowledge", so that as social media "influencers", people might look to them for leadership and "real Truth".
Special indeed ...
After two days on a thread respectfully debating and continually asking him what country he was in, he complimented my writing style and came clean.
It was kinda sad actually. He lives in Venezuela. I won’t go into a lot of detail about him but even with everything happening here he thinks we’re lucky to live in the states, and we are.
Some tips on spotting profiles that are paid to troll and sow discord, division and disinformation:
1) Read the comment sections of their posts and look at their friends profiles.
2) Look at the profiles of the people who “liked” their posts.
3) Search “happy birthday” on their profile.
‘Cambridge Analytica’ disinformation campaigns are paying people all over the world to spread divisive and out of context memes and information. Their accounts can sometimes be their own, sometimes they’re old dead accounts that are hacked, and sometimes they’re newer accounts created specifically to spread discord.
👉 Propaganda happens on ALL sides. The goal is to simply push things to the extremes in any direction. Force black & white thinking.
🛑 If you’re aware this is happening you’re less likely to fall for it.
- Rape trafficking is a problem (not so much of people stealing your kids, look up how it really happens. Do actual research instead of relying on memes).
- We do have systemic racism and oppression in this country. Statistics on poverty, incarceration and homeownership rates prove it. Police brutality is a problem and they have a really difficult job, and have been tasked with lots of social/mental health/homelessness/poverty/addiction work.
- There are lots of peaceful protests and there was a smaller number of people rioting. Most areas dealing with this are also struggling with poverty and homelessness. Sometimes the fires and destruction is caused by real life “trolls” trying to divide and amp things up more. Sometimes they’re started by white nationalists who want to frame BLM. And sometimes it’s people who’ve just had enough and are vulnerable.
- The virus is real. Masks work at reducing the spread. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from COVID. Most people will be fine but millions (out of 328 million) are vulnerable to hospitalization or death.
- Most politicians get into politics to do good. Some lose their way.
- Capitalism is good, so are social programs funded by our taxes. We need regulations on large corporations and the banking industry. When things get big, it’s easy for no one to feel responsible. The more money and power you have the easier it becomes to dominate and gain more wealth.
- If we look at how all of the US’s wealth and property ownership spreads out, we’re in concerning territory. Our largest employers are allowed to pay poverty wages, forcing safety net programs to fill the gaps.
- The United States has sometimes been the ‘bad guy’ in the world. Our government and country has made some poor choices. We’ve taken advantage of vulnerable countries at times. We’ve also done a lot of good. Nothing will change until we learn to look at the grey areas and be honest about things.
🤷♀️ I could go on but hopefully you get the point. Stop being fooled by propaganda. If you find yourself in ‘black & white’ thinking, recognize it. Look for the grey.
Russian troll accounts purged by Twitter pushed Qanon and other conspiracy theories
24 August, 2020:
Russian-backed organizations amplifying QAnon conspiracy theories, researchers say
September 2, 2020:
Russian Media Turns to QAnon Conspiracies to Help Re-Elect Trump
14 September, 2020:
‘Unholy alliance’: Conspiracy theorists are circulating Russian and Chinese disinformation about COVID-19 on social media
28th October, 2020:
Hoodwinked: Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour on Facebook
2 November, 2020:
QAnon posts were promoted by Russia-linked accounts as early as November 2017
A conservative blogger named Tracy Diaz was helped by Russian-linked Twitter accounts to promote QAnon as early as November 2017, records show
30 November, 2020:
QAnon Gains Traction in Russia
The coronavirus pandemic has boosted the popularity of the pro-Trump viral conspiracy theory.
There is a track record of Americans flagging to their enemies overseas that they are susceptible to disinformation and can be easily manipulated to further the interests of their foes. Here's an example: the Jade Helm exercise.
People's fears that the Jae Helm exercise was somehow nefarious were due to “Russian bots and the American alt-right media that convinced many Texans Jade Helm was an Obama plan to round up political dissidents.”
I wonder if anyone remembered that. This puts out a welcome mat to Russian troll operations that Americans are easy meat.
Is that really so "patriotic"?
Let's consider how many fake troll accounts and inauthentic Facebook pages have been removed from social media platforms.
It's in the billions.
How do you know this troll farm activity never affected or influenced you, or your loved ones?
July 2018
Twitter 'shuts down millions of fake accounts'
Many of the accounts are thought to be used by trolls or remotely controlled bots that abuse the service.
Twitter is sweeping out fake accounts like never before
Twitter suspended more than 70 million accounts ...
February 2019
Twitter and Facebook say they removed thousands of troll accounts in run-up to 2018 midterms
Twitter said the Russian operation mirrored the tactics of the 2016 campaign by the Internet Research Agency.
June 2020
Twitter deletes 170,000 accounts linked to China influence campaign
Content focused on Covid-19 and the protests in Hong Kong and over George Floyd in the US
February 2021
Twitter bans 100 accounts linked to Russian troll farms
The networks got caught up in a larger sweep involving 373 accounts.
October 2022
Twitter trolls bombard platform after Elon Musk takeover
Platform says 300 accounts carried out 50,000-plus tweets in ‘organised effort to make users think firm has changed content policy’
I experienced this myself. If I ever posted anything that implied that Fascism or anti-Semitism is wrong, my posts would be bombarded with comments that reeked of a distinctive "red pill" incel vibe. But, when I checked on the profile of such commenters, they would have all the hall-marks of fake accounts - post Musk, late 2022, no profile pic, very few followers, inflammatory posts and no links to any external website that could confirm the person's real IRL identity.
November 2022
Twitter has removed 1,500 accounts following coordinated trolling campaign
According to 'Bloomberg,' though, most Twitter employees had been locked out of its moderation tools.
This was just after I joined Twitter. This was when Musk was restricting the ability of moderators to confront & curb fake troll activity, and when he allowed millions of fake trolls accounts smearing anti-Semitic, misogynistic and Fascist content to swarm back onto the platform.
Over the following several months, I collected screen shots and evidence of inauthentic troll activity on Twitter. My Twitter thread exposing and reporting trolls was hundreds of posts long.
Then in March 2023, with no warning or reason given, I was summarily suspended from Twitter.
Around this time, thousands of other people (with real names, real profile photos, lots of followers, genuine engagement, verification - unlike the fake troll sock puppet accounts) were purged from Twitter.
They were all people deemed "woke" or "progressive" by Musk's standards.
The Nazi-fication of "X" was deliberate, not accidental. It was astro-turf, not grass roots. It was orchestrated, not as a result of an organic shift in the views & opinions of the "public square".
That story HERE
And here:
1/ TROLLS ON FACEBOOK: another thread!
I exposed trolls "in the wild" on Twitter, who were smearing anti-Semitic, misogynistic, homophobic & transphobic and racist violence rhetoric, conspiracy theories, Covid disinformation and far right talking points (lies) on Twitter.
As a result, Musk (et al; remember he fired all his decent staff) permanently suspended ME, while allowing his hateful trolls to continue their political manipulation and mass radicalization "rage farming" activity on 'his' platform.
However, organized troll activity occurs across all social media platforms.
Facebook removed 583 million fake sock puppet accounts in the first three months on 2018.
I'm sharing my experience to add to our collective cyber literacy & understand of just how much fake and manipulative activity occurs on the platforms we use every day.
DE-RADICALIZATION RESOURCES
How to help loved ones avoid disinformation tactics and come back to reality.
Freedom of Mind - Steven Hassan
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