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A hacking and disinformation team meddling in elections

theguardian.com

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Re: A hacking and disinformation team meddling in elections

#41

Post by user3939382 »

pfisherman wrote: post #34
mjfl wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wasn't 'Russia meddling' a planted story by US domestic intelligence, as has come to light in the Twitter files?

“Domestic intelligence”? You mean the FBI? US intelligence agencies by law do not operate within the US. Did the Russians interfere in the US election? This is unquestionably true. The DNC did not leak their strategy docs by themselves. Was Russian interference in the 2016 election decisive? Highly unlikely. Imo, it would be generous to say the effect was marginal at best. In hindsight the whole thing was pretty stup…

> US intelligence agencies by law do not operate within the US

Ever heard of Edward Snowden? I mean that's just for starters https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/06/05/nsas-v...

Re: A hacking and disinformation team meddling in elections

#42

Post by AtomicOrbital »

Nation state government model is obsolete... each person needs to be self governed ... no passport needed... each person must be free to live and work anywhere globally... people must be free to choose who/what they align with... full anonymous... notion of zero trust from information theory to guide all transactions... currency also obsolete... until this full global cutover comes noone is fully actualized ... non human life is the model people need to aspire to ... why let iron age societal dynamics rule is all

Re: A hacking and disinformation team meddling in elections

#43

Post by moremetadata »

baremetal wrote: post #21
ianai wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better article than this. The sad thing is we’re probably trivially close to the tech needed for direct democracy, but the powers that be use tech to confuse and supplant democratic institutions and propose their authoritarian rule.

Direct democracy with full vote transparency for every voter.

Why do you feel the need to hand over your decision making to someone else?

I've seen no evidence that the democracy model employed across large parts of the western world and elsewhere, is anything other than criminal. Its like watching a punch and judy show where the public get to chose their puppets, but the shadowy puppeteers are lurking in the background, mainly wearing or have worn fancy dress.

Re: A hacking and disinformation team meddling in elections

#44

Post by BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 »

US representatives and senators who spoke up against Israeli settlements tended to lose against opponents with AIPAC funding. It's been going on for decades.

What we now see is an evolution into social media.

Al Jazeera had prepared a story on the tentacles AIPAC had into US politics, but at the time Mohammed bin Salman was making serious noises about invading Qatar,one of the reasons being Al Jazeera's reportage.

The story was dropped and MbS was persuaded to back off.

Re: A hacking and disinformation team meddling in elections

#45

Post by sidlls »

ianai wrote: post #17
r721 wrote: post #15

Another discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34803779

Better article than this. The sad thing is we’re probably trivially close to the tech needed for direct democracy, but the powers that be use tech to confuse and supplant democratic institutions and propose their authoritarian rule.

I don't want direct democracy: the problem of voting shenanigans and corruption just expands from a known set of elected officials who vote on laws to...everyone. Aside from that, people in aggregate just aren't that bright: I don't want them making decisions much more substantial than what they'll have for dinner, much less voting on issues that affect me.

Re: A hacking and disinformation team meddling in elections

#46

Post by epakai »

upsidesinclude wrote: post #37
apstls wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this sarcasm, or is there a subset of people here who truly believe that the Twitter “files” prove the significant investigative effort, offensive actions by US Cyber Command against the IRA, direct acknowledgement of the activities by Yevgeny Prigozhin, additional investigation and confirmation by private security companies that all echoed the same, highly-believable conclusion were fabricated in a coordinated ef…

No, the previous comment brought up Trump, which is clearly alluding to "Russian collusion". I'm fine with distaste for Trump and the realities of disinformation campaigns, but the focus of the Twitter files in this regard is clearly specific to the false Russia Trump connection propagated by Dem polticians and leftists.

There's enough there to remain suspicious. The Trump campaign hid their meetings with Russians (see Flynn's transition meetings). They lied about the purpose of the Trump tower meetings. They have claimed financial ties to Russian financial institutions in the past.

None of these things are "false connections propagated by Dem politicians and leftists". They have made these connections evident through their own admissions, and denials.

There is certainly a narrative that drives beyond what we have evidence for, but it's absurd to pretend these things were only propagated from political rivals trying to attack their rivals.

Re: A hacking and disinformation team meddling in elections

#47

Post by tbrownaw »

ianai wrote: post #17
r721 wrote: post #15

Another discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34803779

Better article than this. The sad thing is we’re probably trivially close to the tech needed for direct democracy, but the powers that be use tech to confuse and supplant democratic institutions and propose their authoritarian rule.

> tech needed for direct democracy

Tech isn't the issue, making everyone find time to stay sufficiently informed is.

I already have one full-time job, I don't need 2-3 more (city and county which might be part-time, state, maybe federal).

Re: A hacking and disinformation team meddling in elections

#48

Post by cmh89 »

upsidesinclude wrote: post #37
apstls wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this sarcasm, or is there a subset of people here who truly believe that the Twitter “files” prove the significant investigative effort, offensive actions by US Cyber Command against the IRA, direct acknowledgement of the activities by Yevgeny Prigozhin, additional investigation and confirmation by private security companies that all echoed the same, highly-believable conclusion were fabricated in a coordinated ef…

No, the previous comment brought up Trump, which is clearly alluding to "Russian collusion". I'm fine with distaste for Trump and the realities of disinformation campaigns, but the focus of the Twitter files in this regard is clearly specific to the false Russia Trump connection propagated by Dem polticians and leftists.

The trump crime family is demonstrably highly connected to russian oligarchs and russia generally.

Re: A hacking and disinformation team meddling in elections

#49

Post by hackerlight »

arealaccount wrote: post #8
sph wrote: post #2

First it was Russia meddling with elections (Trump, Brexit), now it's a team led by an ex Israeli special forces guy — which reminds me a bit of the NSO Group story. You know what is terrifying? That upon learning about Russia having a major hand in Western election, nothing concrete was done. In Britain we learned the whole Brexit movement was paid for, and manipulated by Russian money (and it was arguably a crucial…

Russia didn’t have a “major hand” in western elections.

Given how close the 2016 elections were, even a relatively "non-major" influence (via hacking and releasing the DNC emails and running social media campaigns) was plausibly enough to change the actual outcome.

Re: A hacking and disinformation team meddling in elections

#50

Post by SkyMarshal »

BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 wrote: post #44

US representatives and senators who spoke up against Israeli settlements tended to lose against opponents with AIPAC funding. It's been going on for decades. What we now see is an evolution into social media. Al Jazeera had prepared a story on the tentacles AIPAC had into US politics, but at the time Mohammed bin Salman was making serious noises about invading Qatar,one of the reasons being Al Jazeera's reportage. Th…

I don’t understand the link between AIPAC and MBS here. Why would MBS want to suppress a story on AIPAC’s influence on US politics?
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