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Russian Trolls Used Vaccine Debate to Sow Discord, Study Find

nytimes.com

21–25 of 25 posts

Re: Russian Trolls Used Vaccine Debate to Sow Discord, Study Find

#21
post #13

I don't know, but if something like: >“Don’t get #vaccines. Illuminati are behind it.” is actually given any credibility and can actually contribute to form or shift an opinion, there is then IMHO an underlying (bigger) problem with the gullibility of the people.

Yes, there is, and much of the issue comes from the way our brains work. We have an entire branch of science dedicated to it: psychology. Knowing about it doesn’t mean you can wave a magic wand and fix it though, so you need to attack the problem at every level you can.

Re: Russian Trolls Used Vaccine Debate to Sow Discord, Study Find

#22
post #2

Has it been conclusively shown that these are actually russian trolls or do people just repeat that factoid? I feel like a lot of things get attributed to the Russians with little more than "trust us" as proof.

The paper[1] says that they use "accounts known to be bots or trolls and identified in 7 publicly available lists of Twitter user IDs" such as this list ...

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/now-available-more...

A lot of what gets reported as "Russian trolls" is based on the data from this site ...

https://dashboard.securingdemocracy.org/

which monitors 600 twitter accounts that link content "relevant to Russian messaging themes." You can read more about their methodology here ...

https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/the-methodology-of-the-h...

[1] http://media1.s-nbcnews.com/i/today/z_creative/WeaponizedHea...

Re: Russian Trolls Used Vaccine Debate to Sow Discord, Study Find

#23
post #6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it is well established that this was Russian trolls. Some of the accounts were the same ones that interfered with the US election.

I didn't follow the US election thing in much detail. Was there proof that those accounts where controlled by Russian trolls?

Yes.

If you want an in-depth examination of Russian trolls this document about Latvia is useful.

https://www.stratcomcoe.org/internet-trolling-hybrid-warfare...

Or you can read this: https://euvsdisinfo.eu/disinfo-review/

These accounts are either from Russian state media, or linked to the Kremlin.

Re: Russian Trolls Used Vaccine Debate to Sow Discord, Study Find

#24
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is never any proof offered, only blatant assertions. And its working very well as a propaganda point too - now, any time someone questions the powers that be and the way they operate, well .. obviously that person is a Russian troll. The irony in how quickly Americans seem to have picked up this authoritarian control mechanism (propaganda==truth) seems to have been lost on a lot of people. Do they still teach O…

Current Russian government are pro at playing this "but there are no proof offered" game. Lithuania, where i live, is pretty close to armed conflict in Ukraine where Russian backed (no proofs here according to Russia) separatists are fighting (as in war) to declare independent republics from Ukraine. Crimea (part of Ukraine) was "liberated" by "little green men"[0] and then coincidently decided to join Russian federa…

So, where is the evidence then? Like, actual evidence.

Not propaganda, which is what your links are really.

Real evidence. Something tangible, which leads to the conclusions being promoted by the propaganda. I'm yet to see any. Like, there is literally ZERO evidence preferred, every single time.

Re: Russian Trolls Used Vaccine Debate to Sow Discord, Study Find

#25
post #23
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't follow the US election thing in much detail. Was there proof that those accounts where controlled by Russian trolls?

Yes. If you want an in-depth examination of Russian trolls this document about Latvia is useful. https://www.stratcomcoe.org/internet-trolling-hybrid-warfare... Or you can read this: https://euvsdisinfo.eu/disinfo-review/ These accounts are either from Russian state media, or linked to the Kremlin.

Thanks, I really appreciate this.
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