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60-80% of Tweeters posting on Russia-Ukraine war are bots, 90% pro Ukraine

theprint.in

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Re: 60-80% of Tweeters posting on Russia-Ukraine war are bots, 90% pro Ukraine

#91
post #76

Reddit is weirdly overflowing with pro Ukraine propaganda and people don't seem to notice. Any even neutral story about Russia brings out vitriol about how obvious Russia's propaganda is. But somehow they miss the same effect when the story is pro-Ukraine, no matter who the sources are, how unlikely the content is to be true, etc. This was to be expected in the first months of the war, but after so many months of a s…

It's obviously better if people always look at things with a sceptical eye but it isn't weird to me people want to support the Ukrainians. Pair the narrative of the smaller country being invaded by the belligerent dictator next door with (in my case) a country where Russia is already unpopular due to various assassinations, sabre-rattling, and so on, its not hard to understand the current balance of In the UK the mai…

> In the UK the mainstream (serious) news has been fairly reliant on reporting based on estimated troop movements illustrated by video so there hasn't been too much potential for egregious nonsense.

I'd agree with this. The BBC's Ukrainecast podcast seems to be very conservative here as an example. I don't listen all the time, but when I do it reports things as new days behind OSINT sources. And they're always very clear about what they can and can't independently verify, and specifically call out when Ukrainians are stopping journalists getting places to verify their claims.

Re: 60-80% of Tweeters posting on Russia-Ukraine war are bots, 90% pro Ukraine

#92
post #76

Reddit is weirdly overflowing with pro Ukraine propaganda and people don't seem to notice. Any even neutral story about Russia brings out vitriol about how obvious Russia's propaganda is. But somehow they miss the same effect when the story is pro-Ukraine, no matter who the sources are, how unlikely the content is to be true, etc. This was to be expected in the first months of the war, but after so many months of a s…

It's obviously better if people always look at things with a sceptical eye but it isn't weird to me people want to support the Ukrainians. Pair the narrative of the smaller country being invaded by the belligerent dictator next door with (in my case) a country where Russia is already unpopular due to various assassinations, sabre-rattling, and so on, its not hard to understand the current balance of In the UK the mai…

Unless the entire narrative you laid out is the result of a propaganda campaign. I don't think it is in this case, but the presence of this quantity of bots pushing a certain perspective does make me question my assumptions and worry how I'm being influenced in cases that are not nearly as black and white as Ukraine vs Russia.

Re: 60-80% of Tweeters posting on Russia-Ukraine war are bots, 90% pro Ukraine

#93
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate Putin and his regime in Russia right now but Ukraine (atleast from the pictures I’m seeing) seems to be overrun with explicitly neo nazi groups. In my ideal scenario they both take each out without effecting the actual EU.

> Ukraine [...] seems to be overrun with explicitly neo nazi groups So is the US. Rising fascism is simply the state of the world right now. To pick the first story at the top of my feed right now: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/us/jan-6-camp-auschwitz-h...

In the US you don't have regiments with swastikas on their flags. In Ukraine you do.

Re: 60-80% of Tweeters posting on Russia-Ukraine war are bots, 90% pro Ukraine

#94
It is not a surprise. Ukraine propaganda is spectacular in terms of reach and effectiveness. Frankly, both US, Russia and China are likely taking notes. Even mild indication of pro-Russia stance ( say, spelling Kiev the wrong way ) might result in heavy pile on depending on the forum.

I don't like it and I am not fond of Russia. However, I have learned to accept we now share public spaces with various interests that now include spooks and the private parties they hired.

Re: 60-80% of Tweeters posting on Russia-Ukraine war are bots, 90% pro Ukraine

#95

Reddit is weirdly overflowing with pro Ukraine propaganda and people don't seem to notice. Any even neutral story about Russia brings out vitriol about how obvious Russia's propaganda is. But somehow they miss the same effect when the story is pro-Ukraine, no matter who the sources are, how unlikely the content is to be true, etc. This was to be expected in the first months of the war, but after so many months of a s…

Reddit has gotten...weird. It's at the point where I almost consider that most of the people I'm talking to there on the mainstream subs actually are bots.

I agree. I've been using Reddit heavily for 15 years and it's almost unbearable now. Whatever shred of credibility it had at the beginning is being intentionally destroyed to drive shareholder value. Sadly its decline is happening in tandem with Google's decline, meaning that Reddit is one of the last places to find real feedback from real people about a wide range of products, services, and topics.

We really need some decent alternatives, to lots of services.

Re: 60-80% of Tweeters posting on Russia-Ukraine war are bots, 90% pro Ukraine

#96

Reddit is weirdly overflowing with pro Ukraine propaganda and people don't seem to notice. Any even neutral story about Russia brings out vitriol about how obvious Russia's propaganda is. But somehow they miss the same effect when the story is pro-Ukraine, no matter who the sources are, how unlikely the content is to be true, etc. This was to be expected in the first months of the war, but after so many months of a s…

The explanation for that is easy.

Most of the people knew with which side to side long before the war started.

No amount of propaganda is going to convince an average west European or American that Russians are good guys who just wanted to protect Russian-speaking people in Ukraine. Moreover, no amount of "western" propaganda will convince someone in a country that was hit by the USA or NATO bombs that Ukraine supported by "the west" is fighting for freedom and democracy.

With propaganda, you can soften these opinions a bit, but that's the limit.

And it just happens so, that both Reddit, Twitter and HN are dominated with the users from the first group, so they tend to believe Ukraine side more.

Re: 60-80% of Tweeters posting on Russia-Ukraine war are bots, 90% pro Ukraine

#97

So, the million (or trillion) dollar question is, who controls them?

World needs new Snowden, god knows what U.S. Intelligence Community has been up to lately ? If U.S. supply lots of military intelligence to Ukraine[1], why not also help them win the information war? [1]: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Anytimes.com+u.s.+intelligen...

... umm you say that like the CIA helping defend freedom and democracy in allied countries is a bad thing...?

Re: 60-80% of Tweeters posting on Russia-Ukraine war are bots, 90% pro Ukraine

#99

Reddit is weirdly overflowing with pro Ukraine propaganda and people don't seem to notice. Any even neutral story about Russia brings out vitriol about how obvious Russia's propaganda is. But somehow they miss the same effect when the story is pro-Ukraine, no matter who the sources are, how unlikely the content is to be true, etc. This was to be expected in the first months of the war, but after so many months of a s…

I hate Putin and his regime in Russia right now but Ukraine (atleast from the pictures I’m seeing) seems to be overrun with explicitly neo nazi groups. In my ideal scenario they both take each out without effecting the actual EU.

^this commenter is an example of a pro-russian troll and /or bot

Re: 60-80% of Tweeters posting on Russia-Ukraine war are bots, 90% pro Ukraine

#100

Reddit is weirdly overflowing with pro Ukraine propaganda and people don't seem to notice. Any even neutral story about Russia brings out vitriol about how obvious Russia's propaganda is. But somehow they miss the same effect when the story is pro-Ukraine, no matter who the sources are, how unlikely the content is to be true, etc. This was to be expected in the first months of the war, but after so many months of a s…

I hate Putin and his regime in Russia right now but Ukraine (atleast from the pictures I’m seeing) seems to be overrun with explicitly neo nazi groups. In my ideal scenario they both take each out without effecting the actual EU.

If you spend a fair amount of time living in Ukraine, you're unlikely to encounter or notice Neo Nazi groups. They certainly do exist and you'll see a swastika spray-painted on abandoned buildings here and there. You can probably find and join a Neo Nazi group more easily than you could in the West, sure.

But generally people don't seem to have much problem with Jews (at least publicly). Middle-aged people and older don't like homosexuals, but the younger generation is totally LGBQ-friendly, albeit not sure about 'T'.

Black people aren't revered or hated- if anything they're so rare that they're either a subject of curiosity or ignored when walking by on the street.

WW2 never left the public consciousness. Older people remember cowering from Nazis and seniors remember fighting them.

It's not "overrun" with Neo Nazi groups. Ya they exist though, but they don't seem to have much sway if any at all.

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