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Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

nytimes.com

31–40 of 96 posts

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#31
So both China, Russia and Israel have state sponsors social media presences that are intended to uphold the state's perspective? I think the US does similar things in Middle Eastern countries as well, although not aimed at domestic audiences.

It this the direction we are headed for the rest of the world?

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#32
post #3

Some part of me wonders if these Russian astroturfers might be behind the recent /pol/ Trump obsession, given that Trump and Putin are on friendly terms with each other. Edit: before Hillary shills jump on this, her astroturfing campaign on reddit is just as deplorable.

>given that Trump and Putin are on friendly terms with each other which im sure is because putin doesn't think trump is going to win, and he likes trump stirring things up. if trump actually wins, i bet he's going to have a change of heart.

Trump has some eastern european partners (Onyshenko) sharing interest in owning beauty pageants with all the fun side activities. Phil Ruffin is married to Nikolaenko who also shares biz interests with Onyshenko. Onyshenko is pro russian ukrainian oligarch and given life style and joint partying has likely enough dirt on Trump passed on to Putin for Putin to feel he has decent leverage over Trump.

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia occupied half of Europe, against the will of the countries occupied, for nearly 50 years. Stop re-writing history.

> Russia occupied half of Europe, against the will of the countries occupied, for nearly 50 years. Good point. Seems like we forget this.

How would you define "against their will"? I mean, their representatives signed the Warsaw Pact without gun to their heads (however I'm aware about Hungary'56 and Chezhoslovakia'68)

This isn't a fair argument. Imagine, tomorrow USA fails, a lot of its former allies get current marginal opposition in power. They'll line up telling how USA occupied them, did this and that against their will. And they'll be partially right. Partially wrong.

The boundaries in Europe after WWII were determined by WWII. That's how it went.

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#34
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One reason that people are suspicious of Russia is that Putin and his state-controlled media have made clear his goal is to restore Russia, to the extent possible, to its former superpower geopolitical status, and there is no way that can be accomplished without a very aggressive foreign policy. In addition, people in the West disapprove of Russia because of its highly oppressive human rights policies, including mass…

Britain is also enacting censorship of its internet. Although pushed by the government on ISPs and only for 'indecent content', who decides what's indecent? The government of course. I don't see Russia being different in this regard, we just don't understand them and we understand the British.

The UK's censorship is still nascent compared to Russia's. (The mechanisms are all in place but the actual censorship remains relatively weak.)

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#35
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One reason that people are suspicious of Russia is that Putin and his state-controlled media have made clear his goal is to restore Russia, to the extent possible, to its former superpower geopolitical status, and there is no way that can be accomplished without a very aggressive foreign policy. In addition, people in the West disapprove of Russia because of its highly oppressive human rights policies, including mass…

Britain is also enacting censorship of its internet. Although pushed by the government on ISPs and only for 'indecent content', who decides what's indecent? The government of course. I don't see Russia being different in this regard, we just don't understand them and we understand the British.

Russian censorship of its internet is much more widespread.

And it is an official law, not some kind of recommendations or special cases or limited measures. "We don't like your site, we block it for good" - that's the law.

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#36
post #4

In an effort to be entirely objective: disagreeing with a person is not trolling, and Russians do not agree with NATO- which makes sense given that NATO was orchestrated specifically against Russia. I can't help but pity them, it's like having a pit-bull in the corner that nobody loves because it defended them before in a savage way, so they keep putting up gates and fences and pushing it into solitude. I agree that…

Sir, I honestly think you do not know what you are talking about.

Disclaimer: I am from Lithuania, which was occupied by SSRS almost by 50 years, my grandmother was deported in Siberia for 10+ years and my mother was born there.

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#37
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To annex part of a country? I don't remember.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo#Declaration_of_independ...

It didn't annex it, they created a country out of it. And it still is a country. Can you say the same about Crimea?

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#38
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To annex part of a country? I don't remember.

Kosovo?

Annexation?

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/annex Simple Definition of annex : to add (an area or region) to a country, state, etc. : to take control of (a territory or place)

There is a big difference between separation and annexation.

In general, do we have many examples of countries changing borders forcibly after some time mid-last century? I certainly don't remember such a thing from G7. In this light, annexation of Crimea stands out as a regression to older - and less civilized by some standards - ways of doing things.

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#39
post #36
post #4

In an effort to be entirely objective: disagreeing with a person is not trolling, and Russians do not agree with NATO- which makes sense given that NATO was orchestrated specifically against Russia. I can't help but pity them, it's like having a pit-bull in the corner that nobody loves because it defended them before in a savage way, so they keep putting up gates and fences and pushing it into solitude. I agree that…

Sir, I honestly think you do not know what you are talking about. Disclaimer: I am from Lithuania, which was occupied by SSRS almost by 50 years, my grandmother was deported in Siberia for 10+ years and my mother was born there.

That's likely, Actually.

My polish great-grandfather was likely too old to mention the numerous horrors of the Russians of today.

Of course he never actually met them so that may be why.

Re: Effort to Expose Russia’s ‘Troll Army’ Draws Vicious Retaliation

#40
post #23
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> disagreeing with a person is not trolling The word troll has evolved to encompass any sort of dishonest internet activity that is designed to manipulate the response and attitude of the larger audience, but I agree: the right term would be astroturfing . > it's like having a pit-bull in the corner that nobody loves because it defended them before in a savage way That hilariously fails to describe Russia in any way…

>> it's like having a pit-bull in the corner that nobody loves because it defended them before in a savage way >That hilariously fails to describe Russia in any way most people would recognize. I agree. And that's a shame, Russia has always vied for peace and used force where peace was impossible. That's a trend we see all thoughout history (especially in Britain). We can't exactly crucify them for it. >That's a pret…

I think Russia's problem is it spent its entire history surrounded by powerful enemies, and was frequently invaded. As a consequence Putin honestly believes NATO has the intention of invading it, and so he thinks Russia has to take aggressive actions to prevent that.

What he doesn't get is that, thanks to nuclear weapons and modern industrialization, NATO is not interested in doing that for either reasons of security or wealth. That is why, when the Cold War ended, NATO nations drastically cut their arms budgets. NATO would like to basically leave Russia alone, but Russia's agressive actions are forcing it to respond.

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