4 ms·

how on earth does it benefit Russia to pay people to perform the actions that 4chan people do? I can't imagine posting edgy memes and attempting to "trigger the

how on earth does it benefit Russia to pay people to perform the actions that 4chan people do? I can't imagine posting edgy memes and attempting to "trigger the libs" is a national marketing/propaganda/outreach strategy.

BoiledCabbage 8y ago
Because "trolls" is a horrible term for it. It's propaganda and sow discord. Inflame the far-left and far-right, get people to distrust traditionally more objective sources of information. Repeat lies on social media to reinforce desired narratives. Influence trending topics to direct discussion. All of this is fairly well known at this point. There are even cases of "troll" accounts being accounted and coming clean and sharing their twitter engagement numbers for particularly effective "fake news" tweets before deciding their exposed account. This isn't a few people in a basement it's a professionally run tech shop.
- beaconstudios 8y ago
  From what I've seen, the far-left have been inflamed since the late Obama years and the far-right have been inflamed by the actions and words of the far-left. All this goes back to Gamergate and further, and seems to just be spilling over more and more into the mainstream as the sides get more aggressive (though the severity does seem to have peaked in 2016/17 in my opinion). The Russian agents/bots I suspect I've seen are just adding fuel to the existing fire, though I question the effectiveness of their efforts. Overall the whole political division seems to predate the election and Russian involvement by quite a few years. It just seems to have been snowballing since. I mean, I remember seeing stuff about "feminazis" and "MRAs" like 10 years ago. I keep hearing that fake news and lies are being propagated but as a Brit I haven't really seen that outside the usual political propaganda around the referendum, and Trump's usual crass blathering that occasionally pops up in the news.
eiaoa 8y ago
> how on earth does it benefit Russia to pay people to perform the actions that 4chan people do? I can't imagine posting edgy memes and attempting to "trigger the libs" is a national marketing/propaganda/outreach strategy. Modern day Russia propaganda isn't about trying to convince Americans to take a Russia's POV or have a favorable view of it. It's about sowing generalized discord, mistrust, and internal conflict to weaken the US as a whole. Anything that inflames divisions is useful to that goal, even "trigger the libs" memeing.
- beaconstudios 8y ago
  if that's the case then surely Russia has agents masquerading as the far left too? After all if you're just pretending to be far right to enrage the left you're leaving half your strategy at the door.
  - tivert 8y ago
    > if that's the case then surely Russia has agents masquerading as the far left too? After all if you're just pretending to be far right to enrage the left you're leaving half your strategy at the door. If you weren't aware, Russia did have its agents masquerading as the far left too: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-you-found-in-3-million-russian-troll-tweets/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-you-found-in-3-mil... https://slate.com/technology/2018/05/russian-trolls-are-obsessed-with-black-lives-matter.html https://slate.com/technology/2018/05/russian-trolls-are-obse...
    - beaconstudios 8y ago
      I wasn't aware, I've only really seen the usual narrative that Russian bots are acting as the right wing. Thanks for the links, I'll check that out.
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    > if that's the case then surely Russia has agents masquerading as the far left too? Yes; that's well established (while it's less talked about, the 2016 operation included promotion of Stein and Sanders as well as the more intense promotion of Trump, and also included false-flag promotion of in-person left-wing and right-wing demonstrations at the same time and place with the intent of fomenting political violence.) Russia’s government also had connections to groups pushing “Calexit” after the election, including those pushing it as a defense against Trump. Russia’s government also has connections, and has overtly funded, groups seeking restoration of the Hawaiian monarchy.
    - beaconstudios 8y ago

BoiledCabbage 8y ago

Because "trolls" is a horrible term for it. It's propaganda and sow discord. Inflame the far-left and far-right, get people to distrust traditionally more objective sources of information. Repeat lies on social media to reinforce desired narratives. Influence trending topics to direct discussion. All of this is fairly well known at this point. There are even cases of "troll" accounts being accounted and coming clean and sharing their twitter engagement numbers for particularly effective "fake news" tweets before deciding their exposed account. This isn't a few people in a basement it's a professionally run tech shop.

beaconstudios 8y ago
From what I've seen, the far-left have been inflamed since the late Obama years and the far-right have been inflamed by the actions and words of the far-left. All this goes back to Gamergate and further, and seems to just be spilling over more and more into the mainstream as the sides get more aggressive (though the severity does seem to have peaked in 2016/17 in my opinion). The Russian agents/bots I suspect I've seen are just adding fuel to the existing fire, though I question the effectiveness of their efforts. Overall the whole political division seems to predate the election and Russian involvement by quite a few years. It just seems to have been snowballing since. I mean, I remember seeing stuff about "feminazis" and "MRAs" like 10 years ago. I keep hearing that fake news and lies are being propagated but as a Brit I haven't really seen that outside the usual political propaganda around the referendum, and Trump's usual crass blathering that occasionally pops up in the news.

eiaoa 8y ago

> how on earth does it benefit Russia to pay people to perform the actions that 4chan people do? I can't imagine posting edgy memes and attempting to "trigger the libs" is a national marketing/propaganda/outreach strategy. Modern day Russia propaganda isn't about trying to convince Americans to take a Russia's POV or have a favorable view of it. It's about sowing generalized discord, mistrust, and internal conflict to weaken the US as a whole. Anything that inflames divisions is useful to that goal, even "trigger the libs" memeing.

beaconstudios 8y ago
if that's the case then surely Russia has agents masquerading as the far left too? After all if you're just pretending to be far right to enrage the left you're leaving half your strategy at the door.
- tivert 8y ago
  > if that's the case then surely Russia has agents masquerading as the far left too? After all if you're just pretending to be far right to enrage the left you're leaving half your strategy at the door. If you weren't aware, Russia did have its agents masquerading as the far left too: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-you-found-in-3-million-russian-troll-tweets/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-you-found-in-3-mil... https://slate.com/technology/2018/05/russian-trolls-are-obsessed-with-black-lives-matter.html https://slate.com/technology/2018/05/russian-trolls-are-obse...
  - beaconstudios 8y ago
    I wasn't aware, I've only really seen the usual narrative that Russian bots are acting as the right wing. Thanks for the links, I'll check that out.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > if that's the case then surely Russia has agents masquerading as the far left too? Yes; that's well established (while it's less talked about, the 2016 operation included promotion of Stein and Sanders as well as the more intense promotion of Trump, and also included false-flag promotion of in-person left-wing and right-wing demonstrations at the same time and place with the intent of fomenting political violence.) Russia’s government also had connections to groups pushing “Calexit” after the election, including those pushing it as a defense against Trump. Russia’s government also has connections, and has overtly funded, groups seeking restoration of the Hawaiian monarchy.
  - beaconstudios 8y ago