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Home Front: Politix
Russian propagandists targeted African Americans to influence 2016 US election
2018-12-18
[Guardian] Operatives used social media to suppress votes for Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump, new research finds

Russian online propagandists aggressively targeted African Americans during the 2016 US election campaign to suppress votes for Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump, according to new research.

Analysts found that Russian operatives used social media to "confuse, distract, and ultimately discourage" black people and other pro-Clinton blocs from voting, using bogus claims such as Clinton receiving money from the Ku Klux Klan.

Black turnout declined in 2016 for the first presidential election in 20 years, according to the US census bureau, falling to less than 60% from a record high of 66.6% in 2012. Exit polls indicated that black voters strongly favoured Clinton over Trump.

The new findings on the secret activities of the Internet Research Agency (IRA), known as the Russian government’s "troll factory", were revealed on Monday in a pair of reports to the US Senate’s intelligence committee. One was led by experts from Oxford University and the other by New Knowledge, an American cybersecurity firm.

New Knowledge said Russia had waged a five-year "propaganda war" against the US public. The Oxford researchers said that while the propaganda was meant to "push and pull" Americans in different directions, "what is clear is that all of the messaging clearly sought to benefit the Republican party ‐ and specifically, Donald Trump".

Both reports faulted the major social media companies ‐ Facebook, Twitter and Google ‐ for what they said were ongoing failures to turn over exhaustive data to US authorities investigating the Russian campaign. They said some executives had "misrepresented or evaded" and "dissembled" in statements to Congress.
Posted by:Besoeker

#6  One was led by experts from Oxford University and the other by New Knowledge, an American cybersecurity firm.

‘Junk News’: Russia Report Done By Anti-Conservative Academics
The Oxford University Computational Propaganda Project had attacked several conservative outlets as “junk news” in previous studies. Those targeted outlets include Drudge Report, NewsBusters, CNSNews, MRCTV, Breitbart, the Daily Caller, Free Beacon, LifeNews, National Review, the Federalist, and the Red State. (Three of those are operated by the Media Research Center, which runs NewsBusters.)

The study on “junk news” drew on “a list of sources that consistently publish political news and information that is extremist, sensationalist, conspiratorial, masked commentary, fake news, and other forms of junk news.”

That study was also produced by Oxford and Graphika. Two of the people behind that study, “Junk News Consumption,” were involved in this latest study, “The IRA, Social Media and Political Polarization in the United States 2012-2018.” Philip N. Howard and John Kelly worked on both projects. On Twitter, Howard has posted that he is against the Second Amendment, and repeatedly pushed that Trump supporters and the Trump campaign work primarily through “fake news.”

Another member of the group that produced the study, Camille Francois, was a former employee of Google, working at Jigsaw as a Principal Researcher.
Posted by: Chaviger Squank3276   2018-12-18 19:59  

#5  The Oxford researchers said that while the propaganda was meant to "push and pull" Americans in different directions

Buggering Oxford researchers was it? More than simply "push and pull", has been for a very long time.

Colonel Theodore Lyman, one of Meade's aides, recorded a postcript of to the visit of two British officers. Left unsaid by Meade was the common knowledge that it had been the output of British factories and mills that had supplied the weaspons, munitions, and supplies, without which the Confederacy would have collapsed in the first year of the war if left to it's own resourses. Mead's aide, Colonel Rosenkrantz - a Swedish immigrant - was the escort for these two officers and less reticent. When asked by them what was the opinion of Americans of the British, he said , "Vell, I can tell you that, so far as I have observed, some Americans do just care nothing about you, and many other say that, when this war is over, they will immediately and very soon kick you out of Canada." The increulous British asked why "Rosie" replied. "Because they had say you have made the Rebs very many bullets." More to the point, in March of the next year Grant forwarded to Stanton a captured ammunition box stamped, "Royal Arsenal Woolwich, " Whether Sharpe had anything to do with this is unknown.

Peter C. Tsouras, Major General George H. Sharpe, and the Creation of American Military Intelligence in the Civil War. Page 333

The Steele dossier, a more contemporary example of "push and pull."

Posted by: Besoeker   2018-12-18 08:12  

#4  0bama was an 8 year war on Americans.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2018-12-18 07:47  

#3  New Knowledge said Russia had waged a five-year "propaganda war" against the US public.

Pretty sure it's been going on a lot longer than that.
Posted by: Raj   2018-12-18 07:12  

#2  I thought minority - excuse me - Democratic turnout - was 4/3, not 2/3.
Posted by: Bobby   2018-12-18 02:12  

#1  I had no idea additional targeting or incentives were required for a voting block that supports democrats 95% of the time.
Posted by: Besoeker   2018-12-18 01:39  

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