3 ms·

BTW. Has anybody ever seen ever one example of sequence of Tweets that are so cleverly constructed by some foreign entity that it might have effect on elections

BTW. Has anybody ever seen ever one example of sequence of Tweets that are so cleverly constructed by some foreign entity that it might have effect on elections? Majority of (European) moderation in Twitter is done in Russia, or Russians residing in Malta or some such place. I used to burn Twitter accounts by the dozens by trolling^H^H^Hdiscussing issues that only Russians have opposing and sentimental view -- like Winter War, or origin of "Rus", or Crimea occupation.

KboPAacDA3 6y ago
Over the last 4 years I have personally tried finding an actual example, but still they allude me. I've seen plenty of bot activity, or news articles talking about bot capabilities, but never a real post in the wild or even a screenshot of one. I'm personally believe this is a mass hysteria used to explain how intelligent voters can make wrong decisions.
- SCHiM 6y ago
  There's an example of how this looks in this teardown: https://gru.gq/2019/12/07/baltic-counter-disinformation-2/ https://gru.gq/2019/12/07/baltic-counter-disinformation-2/ This explains more background: https://gru.gq/2018/11/08/russian-propaganda-isnt-even-good/ https://gru.gq/2018/11/08/russian-propaganda-isnt-even-good/
- kube-system 6y ago
  You might be interested in page 14-35 of the Mueller report. Yes, it's heavily redacted, but there is some very specific information in the unredacted portions, including individual twitter handles, etc. https://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/images/04/18/mueller-report-searchable.pdf https://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/images/04/18/mueller-report-sea...
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
tasty_freeze 6y ago
Your challenge seems misplaced. It isn't that one or a few tweets or likes is clearly responsible for a significant shift of opinion (usually). Your question is like asking, "Has anybody seen the bucket of water which caused the flood?" In 2016 there were Russian accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers. They maintained accounts on both sides of contentious issues and pushed inflammatory stories simply to increase divisiveness. Stories they wanted to promote, whether they created it or not, they could use bots to push to higher visibility. It isn't as if any one vote made the difference.
- timonoko 6y ago
  Why would anybody follow Russians and their discussions? I do not get this. If you desperately wanted to know what American "Alt-right" was thinking 2016, you subscribed to Milo Yliannospullo, Gavin MacInnes or Steven Crowder, but they are all banned everywhere now, and they are not Russians.
  - tasty_freeze 6y ago
    > Why would anybody follow Russians and their discussions You misunderstand the situation. They weren't posing as Russians. They were posing as Americans as individuals, as news outlets, as political organizations: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/russian-trolls-who-interfered-2016-u-s-election-also-made-n1013811 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/russian-t... Quoting a bit from this: They posed as local news outlets, such as "New Orleans Online," "El Paso Top News," and "San Jose Daily." The majority of these accounts were created between May and August of 2014, but lay dormant until January 2015, when most of them started tweeting. This suggests a significant element of advance planning, Symantec said.
    - timonoko 6y ago
      Ok.
dirkt 6y ago
Not for twitter, but on a european reddit: Starting at about the refugee "crisis", I have seen regularly postings using the following script: - newly created account (or, in the more sophisticated variants, an account created some time ago with a few meaningless postings) - ask for help, or ask a question to distract from the actual goal - somewhere in the text, throw in some association that should stick (like "refugees steal", or "refugees sexually assault woman", as a fact that doesn't need discussion) - when confronted, the only answers were contentless excuses, like "but I am really asking this for my mother, who can't use a computer". Never any attempt to engage in actual discussion. The reaction to these is that people usually address the question, don't address the baseless association, which probably then starts to stick in the unconsciousness of at least some of them. And on the political side, at the same time there was an increase in support for extremist and nationalist, anti-foreigner parties. Though of course how much such messages contribute to that is difficult to say.

KboPAacDA3 6y ago

Over the last 4 years I have personally tried finding an actual example, but still they allude me. I've seen plenty of bot activity, or news articles talking about bot capabilities, but never a real post in the wild or even a screenshot of one. I'm personally believe this is a mass hysteria used to explain how intelligent voters can make wrong decisions.

SCHiM 6y ago
There's an example of how this looks in this teardown: https://gru.gq/2019/12/07/baltic-counter-disinformation-2/ https://gru.gq/2019/12/07/baltic-counter-disinformation-2/ This explains more background: https://gru.gq/2018/11/08/russian-propaganda-isnt-even-good/ https://gru.gq/2018/11/08/russian-propaganda-isnt-even-good/
kube-system 6y ago
You might be interested in page 14-35 of the Mueller report. Yes, it's heavily redacted, but there is some very specific information in the unredacted portions, including individual twitter handles, etc. https://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/images/04/18/mueller-report-searchable.pdf https://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/images/04/18/mueller-report-sea...

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

tasty_freeze 6y ago

Your challenge seems misplaced. It isn't that one or a few tweets or likes is clearly responsible for a significant shift of opinion (usually). Your question is like asking, "Has anybody seen the bucket of water which caused the flood?" In 2016 there were Russian accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers. They maintained accounts on both sides of contentious issues and pushed inflammatory stories simply to increase divisiveness. Stories they wanted to promote, whether they created it or not, they could use bots to push to higher visibility. It isn't as if any one vote made the difference.

timonoko 6y ago
Why would anybody follow Russians and their discussions? I do not get this. If you desperately wanted to know what American "Alt-right" was thinking 2016, you subscribed to Milo Yliannospullo, Gavin MacInnes or Steven Crowder, but they are all banned everywhere now, and they are not Russians.
- tasty_freeze 6y ago
  > Why would anybody follow Russians and their discussions You misunderstand the situation. They weren't posing as Russians. They were posing as Americans as individuals, as news outlets, as political organizations: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/russian-trolls-who-interfered-2016-u-s-election-also-made-n1013811 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/russian-t... Quoting a bit from this: They posed as local news outlets, such as "New Orleans Online," "El Paso Top News," and "San Jose Daily." The majority of these accounts were created between May and August of 2014, but lay dormant until January 2015, when most of them started tweeting. This suggests a significant element of advance planning, Symantec said.
  - timonoko 6y ago
    Ok.

dirkt 6y ago

Not for twitter, but on a european reddit: Starting at about the refugee "crisis", I have seen regularly postings using the following script: - newly created account (or, in the more sophisticated variants, an account created some time ago with a few meaningless postings) - ask for help, or ask a question to distract from the actual goal - somewhere in the text, throw in some association that should stick (like "refugees steal", or "refugees sexually assault woman", as a fact that doesn't need discussion) - when confronted, the only answers were contentless excuses, like "but I am really asking this for my mother, who can't use a computer". Never any attempt to engage in actual discussion. The reaction to these is that people usually address the question, don't address the baseless association, which probably then starts to stick in the unconsciousness of at least some of them. And on the political side, at the same time there was an increase in support for extremist and nationalist, anti-foreigner parties. Though of course how much such messages contribute to that is difficult to say.