3 ms·

Germany unearths pro-Russia disinformation campaign on X

15 points by hn1986 3y ago

hn1986 3y ago
> Investigators uncover concerted onslaught on Berlin’s support for Ukraine involving more than 1m posts
h2odragon 3y ago
Whatever happened with all the "Russian Twitter Bots" that were promoting "conspiracy theories" like vaccine ineffectiveness, the contents of Hunter's laptop, Maui roadblocks and land purchases, East Palestine Ohio, and so on? The previous history of reporting on "disinformation campaigns," especially on twitter, show how no one comes clean out of a bullshit slinging contest.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  Plenty of them are still there and they get a nice boost from the fifth column as well.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
jacquesm 3y ago
This isn't limited to Twitter (sorry, X, whatever). You'll find perfect English language, Dutch, French and just about every other language posts that originate in Russia and that play to locally popular themes to sow dissent and confusion, to make it appear as though an unpopular opinion is popular or the reverse. The degree to which social media and comment sections (including HN, which definitely isn't immune to this sort of effort) has been weaponized is severely under appreciated by the operators of these sites. For instance, the dutch news site nu.nl has had a long running campaign on it where no matter what the news is on Ukraine there are immediately a large number of pro-Russia posts at the top of every article in the comment section.
- hn1986 3y ago
  In the age of AI, most sites with comment sections are helpless and hopeless.
- ncr100 3y ago
  Do you have insight on the vulnerable networks? Like, which are "doing better than another" at managing weaponization? I assume X is worse as it has gone through a dramatic restructuring this past year, losing employees and the overt mission of being responsible management of its content. What are the other networks' performance in this regard?
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    None that I know of stand out for 'doing well'. Once you start paying attention it is pretty clear that this is a concerted effort, not something incidental or accidental. That doesn't say much about the magnitude by they're pretty successful in getting their message out. The fact that people tend to follow the loudest voices in shaping their opinion certainly doesn't help and that fact has definitely not been lost on propagandists of all plumage.

15 points by hn1986 3y ago

hn1986 3y ago

> Investigators uncover concerted onslaught on Berlin’s support for Ukraine involving more than 1m posts

Whatever happened with all the "Russian Twitter Bots" that were promoting "conspiracy theories" like vaccine ineffectiveness, the contents of Hunter's laptop, Maui roadblocks and land purchases, East Palestine Ohio, and so on? The previous history of reporting on "disinformation campaigns," especially on twitter, show how no one comes clean out of a bullshit slinging contest.

jacquesm 3y ago
Plenty of them are still there and they get a nice boost from the fifth column as well.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

jacquesm 3y ago

This isn't limited to Twitter (sorry, X, whatever). You'll find perfect English language, Dutch, French and just about every other language posts that originate in Russia and that play to locally popular themes to sow dissent and confusion, to make it appear as though an unpopular opinion is popular or the reverse. The degree to which social media and comment sections (including HN, which definitely isn't immune to this sort of effort) has been weaponized is severely under appreciated by the operators of these sites. For instance, the dutch news site nu.nl has had a long running campaign on it where no matter what the news is on Ukraine there are immediately a large number of pro-Russia posts at the top of every article in the comment section.

hn1986 3y ago
In the age of AI, most sites with comment sections are helpless and hopeless.
ncr100 3y ago
Do you have insight on the vulnerable networks? Like, which are "doing better than another" at managing weaponization? I assume X is worse as it has gone through a dramatic restructuring this past year, losing employees and the overt mission of being responsible management of its content. What are the other networks' performance in this regard?
- jacquesm 3y ago
  None that I know of stand out for 'doing well'. Once you start paying attention it is pretty clear that this is a concerted effort, not something incidental or accidental. That doesn't say much about the magnitude by they're pretty successful in getting their message out. The fact that people tend to follow the loudest voices in shaping their opinion certainly doesn't help and that fact has definitely not been lost on propagandists of all plumage.