The man who taught the Kremlin how to win the internet

[Tommy_Carcetti]

https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-05-07/man-who-taught-kremlin-how-win-internet

The man who taught the Kremlin how to win the internet

America Abroad

May 07, 2018 · 11:30 AM EDT

By Molly Schwartz

Konstantin Rykov understands the art of trolling on the internet. Rykov’s knack for creating caustic, snarky, attention-grabbing content made him millions as an internet entrepreneur and got him elected to the Russian Parliament. And now, the Russian government understands the art of trolling too.

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Rykov was on the front lines of the information war on social media, spreading stories that made Russia look good and Ukraine’s allies look bad. At that point Rykov was active on international social media platforms, like Twitter and Facebook, where he engaged directly with top US officials on foreign policy issues. It was a new kind of information warfare, and the US government had to figure out a new strategy for dealing with it.

“We spent a lot of time thinking about him and his colleagues in terms of what were their objectives,” says Michael McFaul, US Ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014. “He was very active talking about foreign policy in particular. And was he paid, coordinated ... these are the fuzzy lines that the Putin government deliberately keeps fuzzy.”

Rykov builds a website for President Trump

In 2015, Rykov did what he does best, built a new website. This one was called Trump2016.ru. This marked the beginning of Rykov’s active campaigning for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential run. While the impact of Rykov’s campaigning is unknown, Rykov has boasted that he is responsible for helping Trump take the White House. While that claim may be far-fetched, Rykov's influence on Russia's online strategy is undeniable.

[GusBob]

1. Just read Michal Lewis' book: Flash Boys

Interesting to learn: all the best Wall Street computer guys are Russian

That may be their next cyber attack.