4 ms·

I've never understood this conspiracy theory. If Russia does have bot farms, and they're effective, surely the US has much, much larger bot farms - their budgme

I've never understood this conspiracy theory. If Russia does have bot farms, and they're effective, surely the US has much, much larger bot farms - their budgment for this sort of thing completely dwarfs Russia. Or is the US just too much of a moral actor to do this?

therouwboat 2y ago
No, US is the one that gives them platform.
levzzz 2y ago
[dead]
simion314 2y ago
Say it is true, then both are wrong and evil. But from my POV Ruzzia has more interests in destabilizing my country and region then do a invasion they would call liberation and grab some strategic lands.
jazzyjackson 2y ago
Russia was just flowing USA's lead, Centcom was contracting out influence operations through sock puppet accounts since 2011, no different than Radio Free Asia really, influence hearts and minds, now with just a little automation. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-op...
wqaatwt 2y ago
> Or is the US just too much of a moral actor to do this? US government has massively more oversight because of still somewhat functioning legislative and judicial systems. Also free press is still a thing (compared to Russia anyway..). Ao any large scale program like this would inevitably be leaked and scrutinized (of course if they keep it somewhat low scale it will probably pass under the radar). So effectively.. yes? It is?
cyberax 2y ago
It's not a conspiracy theory. We know where the farms were located and several former bot farm workers spoke about them. The US government can barely make a comment telling people that they're not horses.
low_tech_love 2y ago
This underlying idea that the US state is “just the same” as Russia, China, etc. (and that as such they will function in the same way) is imho one the biggest factors on the decline of the quality of western democracy today. I’m not American, have only been there once a couple of days, and have no special sympathy for the country, but the fact that so many people do not understand that the US democracy is fundamentally different than the Russian or Chinese regimes is such a sad, depressing thing.
- LAC-Tech 2y ago
  They're "just the same" in the sense that they would surely both use similar tools in the information war. Just like they're "just the same" in having submarines, fighter jets, etc etc. The content of the information war or different, but it's still a war, and the idea that the US would just cede all advantages to Russia because they're above using bots strikes me as faintly ridiculous.
  - simion314 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - LtWorf 2y ago
      We're talking respective to foreign policy here. Thanks for straying the conversation though :D
      - simion314 2y ago
        OK, why only external policy? we are talking if the Ruzzian regime and the USA state would do the same stuff, if they are the same, because the topic was "if Ruzzia is doing it then USA is also doing it" a contra example or more should shut this idiotic take and we can find some other evidence for this invisible USA bot farms.
        LtWorf 2y ago
victorbjorklund 2y ago
That does not make any sense. "If germany had concentration camps and they were effective then surely US has much larger concentration camps" Why do you assume that US must be worse than the worst in everything? US is not perfect but russia, iran, north korea etc are on another level.
LgLasagnaModel 2y ago
And what’s the point you’re trying to make? If Russia was trying to drop bombs on DC and the US was trying to drop bombs on Moscow, would you think it strange for the US to try to prevent the bombs from being dropped on DC?

therouwboat 2y ago

No, US is the one that gives them platform.

levzzz 2y ago

[dead]

simion314 2y ago

Say it is true, then both are wrong and evil. But from my POV Ruzzia has more interests in destabilizing my country and region then do a invasion they would call liberation and grab some strategic lands.

jazzyjackson 2y ago

Russia was just flowing USA's lead, Centcom was contracting out influence operations through sock puppet accounts since 2011, no different than Radio Free Asia really, influence hearts and minds, now with just a little automation. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-op...

wqaatwt 2y ago

> Or is the US just too much of a moral actor to do this? US government has massively more oversight because of still somewhat functioning legislative and judicial systems. Also free press is still a thing (compared to Russia anyway..). Ao any large scale program like this would inevitably be leaked and scrutinized (of course if they keep it somewhat low scale it will probably pass under the radar). So effectively.. yes? It is?

cyberax 2y ago

It's not a conspiracy theory. We know where the farms were located and several former bot farm workers spoke about them. The US government can barely make a comment telling people that they're not horses.

low_tech_love 2y ago

This underlying idea that the US state is “just the same” as Russia, China, etc. (and that as such they will function in the same way) is imho one the biggest factors on the decline of the quality of western democracy today. I’m not American, have only been there once a couple of days, and have no special sympathy for the country, but the fact that so many people do not understand that the US democracy is fundamentally different than the Russian or Chinese regimes is such a sad, depressing thing.

LAC-Tech 2y ago
They're "just the same" in the sense that they would surely both use similar tools in the information war. Just like they're "just the same" in having submarines, fighter jets, etc etc. The content of the information war or different, but it's still a war, and the idea that the US would just cede all advantages to Russia because they're above using bots strikes me as faintly ridiculous.
- simion314 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - LtWorf 2y ago
    We're talking respective to foreign policy here. Thanks for straying the conversation though :D
    - simion314 2y ago
      OK, why only external policy? we are talking if the Ruzzian regime and the USA state would do the same stuff, if they are the same, because the topic was "if Ruzzia is doing it then USA is also doing it" a contra example or more should shut this idiotic take and we can find some other evidence for this invisible USA bot farms.
      - LtWorf 2y ago

victorbjorklund 2y ago

That does not make any sense. "If germany had concentration camps and they were effective then surely US has much larger concentration camps" Why do you assume that US must be worse than the worst in everything? US is not perfect but russia, iran, north korea etc are on another level.

LgLasagnaModel 2y ago

And what’s the point you’re trying to make? If Russia was trying to drop bombs on DC and the US was trying to drop bombs on Moscow, would you think it strange for the US to try to prevent the bombs from being dropped on DC?