Germany unearths pro-Russia disinformation campaign on X
theguardian.com
Germany unearths pro-Russia disinformation campaign on X
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Re: Germany unearths pro-Russia disinformation campaign on X
#2> Investigators uncover concerted onslaught on Berlin’s support for Ukraine involving more than 1m posts
Re: Germany unearths pro-Russia disinformation campaign on X
#3Whatever happened with all the "Russian Twitter Bots" that were promoting "conspiracy theories" like vaccine ineffectiveness, the contents of Hunter's laptop, Maui roadblocks and land purchases, East Palestine Ohio, and so on?
The previous history of reporting on "disinformation campaigns," especially on twitter, show how no one comes clean out of a bullshit slinging contest.
Re: Germany unearths pro-Russia disinformation campaign on X
#4Whatever happened with all the "Russian Twitter Bots" that were promoting "conspiracy theories" like vaccine ineffectiveness, the contents of Hunter's laptop, Maui roadblocks and land purchases, East Palestine Ohio, and so on? The previous history of reporting on "disinformation campaigns," especially on twitter, show how no one comes clean out of a bullshit slinging contest.
Plenty of them are still there and they get a nice boost from the fifth column as well.
Re: Germany unearths pro-Russia disinformation campaign on X
#5This isn't limited to Twitter (sorry, X, whatever). You'll find perfect English language, Dutch, French and just about every other language posts that originate in Russia and that play to locally popular themes to sow dissent and confusion, to make it appear as though an unpopular opinion is popular or the reverse.
The degree to which social media and comment sections (including HN, which definitely isn't immune to this sort of effort) has been weaponized is severely under appreciated by the operators of these sites. For instance, the dutch news site nu.nl has had a long running campaign on it where no matter what the news is on Ukraine there are immediately a large number of pro-Russia posts at the top of every article in the comment section.
Re: Germany unearths pro-Russia disinformation campaign on X
#6Whatever happened with all the "Russian Twitter Bots" that were promoting "conspiracy theories" like vaccine ineffectiveness, the contents of Hunter's laptop, Maui roadblocks and land purchases, East Palestine Ohio, and so on? The previous history of reporting on "disinformation campaigns," especially on twitter, show how no one comes clean out of a bullshit slinging contest.
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Re: Germany unearths pro-Russia disinformation campaign on X
#7This isn't limited to Twitter (sorry, X, whatever). You'll find perfect English language, Dutch, French and just about every other language posts that originate in Russia and that play to locally popular themes to sow dissent and confusion, to make it appear as though an unpopular opinion is popular or the reverse. The degree to which social media and comment sections (including HN, which definitely isn't immune to t…
In the age of AI, most sites with comment sections are helpless and hopeless.
Re: Germany unearths pro-Russia disinformation campaign on X
#8This isn't limited to Twitter (sorry, X, whatever). You'll find perfect English language, Dutch, French and just about every other language posts that originate in Russia and that play to locally popular themes to sow dissent and confusion, to make it appear as though an unpopular opinion is popular or the reverse. The degree to which social media and comment sections (including HN, which definitely isn't immune to t…
Do you have insight on the vulnerable networks? Like, which are "doing better than another" at managing weaponization?
I assume X is worse as it has gone through a dramatic restructuring this past year, losing employees and the overt mission of being responsible management of its content.
What are the other networks' performance in this regard?
Re: Germany unearths pro-Russia disinformation campaign on X
#9This isn't limited to Twitter (sorry, X, whatever). You'll find perfect English language, Dutch, French and just about every other language posts that originate in Russia and that play to locally popular themes to sow dissent and confusion, to make it appear as though an unpopular opinion is popular or the reverse. The degree to which social media and comment sections (including HN, which definitely isn't immune to t…
Do you have insight on the vulnerable networks? Like, which are "doing better than another" at managing weaponization? I assume X is worse as it has gone through a dramatic restructuring this past year, losing employees and the overt mission of being responsible management of its content. What are the other networks' performance in this regard?
None that I know of stand out for 'doing well'. Once you start paying attention it is pretty clear that this is a concerted effort, not something incidental or accidental. That doesn't say much about the magnitude by they're pretty successful in getting their message out. The fact that people tend to follow the loudest voices in shaping their opinion certainly doesn't help and that fact has definitely not been lost on propagandists of all plumage.