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2019-04-19 -Lurid Crime Tales-
The Bombshell In The Mueller Report Is Russia's Social Media Campaign
[The Federalist] It’s over. The Mueller Report is upon us and it says what Attorney General William Barr said it would say. Nobody in the Trump campaign‐in fact, no American citizen at all‐colluded or conspired with the Russian government to impact the 2016 election. This is obviously good news for the country and a vindication for the president who has protested his innocence quite vociferously from the beginning.

But the findings of the report were not unalloyed good news. In one area, in particular, Mueller found deeply troubling activities from the Russians. The section on Russia’s informational campaign using social media to influence the election is damning and shocking. Much of the information it presents was already known, but seen summarized by Mueller, what they achieved was astounding.

Conducted by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian government-backed social media troll farm, the extent and reach of the operations is astounding. Collectively, the report says, "The IRA’s social media accounts reached 10s of millions of US persons." It also controlled Facebook groups such as "United Muslims of America," that had 300,000 followers when it was shut down in 2017.

In total the report says that at least 29 million and perhaps as many as 126 million people were reached by the propaganda campaigns. The danger of this is not merely that the propaganda might help determine the outcome of viewers’ voting decisions. What is far worse is that, on that scale, the Russians can make fringe, divisive positions and rhetoric appear to Americans to be, if not mainstream, at least vastly more prominent than they really are.

Even the news media was not immune to these efforts. The report outlines that on multiple occasions "U.S. media outlets also quoted tweets from IRA-controlled accounts and attributed them to the reactions of real U.S. persons." It is very possible, if not likely that the real target of the IRA was not to sway an election, but rather to sow discord and distrust among Americans. And it looks like the news media was an unwitting accomplice.
Posted by Besoeker 2019-04-19 01:27|| || Front Page|| [12 views ]  Top

#1 The Russians Intelligence agencies utilize social media. Who knew ?
Posted by Besoeker 2019-04-19 01:37||   2019-04-19 01:37|| Front Page Top

#2 How Chinese internet trolls go after Beijing's critics overseas
Posted by Skidmark 2019-04-19 07:28||   2019-04-19 07:28|| Front Page Top

#3 Facebook bans British far-right groups and their leaders
Posted by Skidmark 2019-04-19 07:30||   2019-04-19 07:30|| Front Page Top

#4 Facebook collected 1.5 million users' email contacts without their knowledge
Posted by Skidmark 2019-04-19 07:31||   2019-04-19 07:31|| Front Page Top

#5 Your concerns are unfounded. All texts, calls, and fotos are safely archived at the Utah Data Center.
Posted by Besoeker 2019-04-19 07:38||   2019-04-19 07:38|| Front Page Top

#6 Babylon Bee - Twitter To Improve User Experience By Requiring Every Tweet Be Accompanied By A Picture Of A Puppy
Posted by Besoeker 2019-04-19 07:47||   2019-04-19 07:47|| Front Page Top

#7 Even more shocking is how Baraq stood by and let it happen.
Posted by Abu Uluque 2019-04-19 11:46||   2019-04-19 11:46|| Front Page Top

#8 Ref #7: "Baraq stood by." I believe he was in recline during most of his time in office.
Posted by Besoeker 2019-04-19 12:49||   2019-04-19 12:49|| Front Page Top

#9 Do people vote because of groups they've joined, or do they join groups based on how they already expect to vote.

I think this article has things backwards and I'd be surprised if the Russians switched a single vote in such a polarized environment.
Posted by rjschwarz 2019-04-19 14:51||   2019-04-19 14:51|| Front Page Top

10:28 Chesney+Sleting4519
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