Was DU also inundated with Fake Russian bots and Fake news during elections?

[Madam45for2923]

Last edited Thu Mar 23, 2017, 08:55 PM - Edit history (1)

As you all know Rachel Maddow described Putin's assault on the elections entailed fake bots and fake news, disseminated at an industrial level.

Was this a problem here? Is it still happening? What can be done about it? Was the DU election hacking ever solved?

Edit: What about Cambridge Analytica? They probably had a hand in this too.

[Stinky The Clown]

1. I think it happened and that it is ongoing

[Madam45for2923]

3. Sounds like a serious and not-acceptable situation.

The Russian bots and weaponized fake news has got to go.

How can we do something?

[DK504]

19. The intelligence agencies knew we had been hacked and by who, nearly immediately.

They should have known where this crap was coming from and shut them down. Are they so inept they can't go on defense?

[stillcool]

69. who knows?..

it's not like their going to announce it.

[Madam45for2923]

100. That's why am asking. A conversation about this is a must, eh?

[AngryAmish]

97. Nyet.

[Drahthaardogs]

83. Wasn't there some creepy Russian stuff the day of the back?

My blood just ran cold

[pnwmom]

94. Yes!

[Drahthaardogs]

122. This really was a coup wasn't it?

Oh my God we are in trouble

[HipChick]

2. Seems like they are still here..

recent accounts...low post counts...very similar style of posting..

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Yup.

[angstlessk]

5. When we were down, I think they just showed up with thousands of posts

cause we trust those with many posts

[Madam45for2923]

12. Woah? Geesh! Is that a kind of hack....?

[mopinko]

39. sleepers

srsly

[angstlessk]

43. absolutely...russia does it best

I cannot pick out one, but I who knows?

[CountAllVotes]

68. Like a swarm of maggots

I found it to be quite disturbing.

A giant that whole thing was.

Can be found on youtube.com I know.

Freaky IMO.

[Madam45for2923]

8. So Awful! & Hateful! There have to be solutions.

We cannot tolerate this any longer. We all know what happened. Cannot happen again.

[pangaia]

32. I can't even tell who the fakers are.

Guess I'm not so hip,

[Me.]

131. There Was One Person

Who did BS good/Hillary not so much threads several times a day and then suddenly disappeared. I always thought there was something up with him.

[58Sunliner]

132. It's not just newer members-I have seen some weird posts that I would have to describe as

propaganda. It is somewhat subtle, but the technique involves agreeing with an opinion and then framing the second part of the post to effect drive on that/those issue(s). Quote-I'm not sure what we can do about that, or simply we're fucked, we'll just have to wait, the powers that be are moving in ways we don't understand, etc.. One post in itself is not definitive but if you see someone post something like that, check out their other posts. It is a specific technique, and I believe it has a name. The one person I am thinking of has been a member since @ 2005.

[Cha]

6. Hell YES.. and I know of @ least two putin pawns who are

gone now

Good question, girl!

[Madam45for2923]

11. Hi Cha! Thank you, Cha! We ought to decimate all Russian bots! & their crap news.

[Cha]

44. I did my best when the obvious ones were here..

got censored once for cussing out putin for being a homophobic, internet censoring ********.

[Madam45for2923]

57. But now it is out in the open! even on Rachel Maddow's show. Heck it's part of the investigations.

It really happened to us! to our country. Together we have to make sure it cannot happen again.

[Cha]

60. Right! It pisses me off mightyly.

Mahalo, Madam!

[Madam45for2923]

63. Yes me too! Find it disgusting.

[MBS]

65. I noticed a large cluster of them emerge after invasion of Crimea

and eastern Ukraine.
Many of them seem to be gone now (or have perhaps changed their names), but boy were they irritating. Not to mention totally obvious. As they say, subtle as a train wreck.

[Madam45for2923]

74. Interesting and weird timing. Lucky that many ere so obvious.

[Cha]

82. Yeah... loved putin hated President Obama.. not too

OBVIOUS.

[yardwork]

93. I noticed that too. That's when the pro-Putin trolling ramped up here.

[MBS]

95. Yup. IMO this was not a coincidence. n/t

[yardwork]

96. I agree with you.

[Sedona]

7. What about DU being hacked on election night?

Nuked bad enough go take us out for two weeks!

[Madam45for2923]

10. Yes! That was very freaking suspicious! Like they did not want us to compare notes

on election day.

I agree with this:

[pandr32]

9. No wonder some arguments went nowhere

I remember reading some "exchanges" and thought they were no better than "I know you are but what am I."

[Madam45for2923]

14. It was meant to frustrate us... into silence... into demoralization.

[sheshe2]

33. According to Discussionist the other day

https://www.discussionist.com/10151252971

Skinner took it down to purge liberals.

Just in DU wasn't hacked but shut down by the Administration when they learned

that Clinton was going to lose big. They didn't want their site to melt down. They also used this shut down to do some "house cleaning" as I believe Dithers calls it. Purge the unclean.

This is most likely "Fake News" but interesting.

Hair on fire!

[Madam45for2923]

34. OMG! Fake reproduces fake like bunnies! Becomes a claustrophobic vicious circle.

[pandr32]

55. OMGawd...Too funny!

But this was the hope of the whole darn plan in the first place

[sheshe2]

56. Yup...

[Kimchijeon]

18. true, but also consider the source

the person in question might just have been a complete moron lol

[pandr32]

62. Well, there was that, too

...But consider how frustrating it would have been to be so provoked with a nasty comment that one took the trouble to debunk it only to have another equally awful comment come up in response, and on and on.

[Shaddox]

13. My first thought when I saw the story

The general propogation (a non-bot term) of the "Bernie is the Devil Himself" threads during the campaign was astounding. I never quite understood the level of vitriol and animosity between the hill and bern camps.

[Madam45for2923]

15. From what Rachel Maddow said it was targeted against HRC from the start.

[Gman]

24. She means primarily FB and Twitter

She's repeating a story. DU has a much diffrrrnt software architecture than FB or Twitter. It could probably be done on DU but not near as easily.

[Zen Democrat]

118. Including hyperbolic anti-Sanders posters purporting to be Hillary supporters to poison the air.

It worked.

[bigbrother05]

112. Anything that split the Dem side was a plus for Putin

Creating infighting weakens the opposition. Vitriol from both sides was over the top and just seemed to escalate without any logical cause. Classic agit-prop.

It was pretty obvious during the primaries, but neither side was willing to look at it objectively for fear of being seen as "compromised".

[Tanuki]

121. Were you here during the campaign? From your profile,

you seem to have only joined this month. Welcome to DU, or welcome back, as the case may be.

[elfin]

16. I need an explanation of "bots" and how they work

I thought they were automated remarks programmed to post on sites such as ours to stir up trouble and doubt. But if the "bot" reply to a real OP really seems to respond to an OP, then is it a paid agitator stirring things up in sheep's clothing?

Do they do this after being on a site for quite a while in innocuous ways?

While I do know this is a real thing, I am still not clear how it works in order to recognize the difference between a bot or paid agitator stirring doubt and a real member asking a question that seems suspiciously provocative to others.

What are the clues????

And NO, I am not a bot - been here for at least 15 years, despite relatively ow post count.

[Madam45for2923]

21. I think there are automatic bots but also people who act like they are American but are not...

Instead a Russian, Armenian, getting paid so as to sound more a little more real.


It depends what the site in particular entails. A site like DU is different than twitter and Facebook. Different bots or trolls for different scenarios.

I also suspect Cambridge Analytica.

[elfin]

28. Thanks - yes, there needs to be digging into CA. A big outfit funded by the nasties. EOM

[bettyellen]

29. on Twitter some are automated to spit out responses anytime they see a certain word or name. Some

are timed on set schedules to appear as is they are reacting during an event (they screwed the pooch with this once, and reacted to "news" that had not come out yet!!) - during the debates they said 25% of all tweets were bots! They are scripted with an assortement of talking points, and tweaked at times.
I saw loads of people here cutting and pasting the same anti-Hillary talking points again and again. Many seemed like they weren't answering the people they were replying to. This influenced genuine DUers to go pile on too. Hard to say what the percentage was, but there were more than a few who ended up at JPR blatantly shilling for Trump. And they still insist they are "genuine progressives" Ugh.

[elfin]

36. I think I successfully spotted those

I hated our primaries and the division that was wrought by both sides - or possibly bots, on my "home" on the web.

The meddlesome bots from whatever persuasion seem to be able to see a silver and make it a gulch to divide those against them. Not welcome.

While I know discourse can occasionally become coarse by those animated by true convictions, I don't want "others" to be driving our worthy debates.

[bettyellen]

45. Some had a very pro-Russian history and many pushed the Russian meme that HRC was a hawk who would

Start a war with Russia. Many of the loudest and most frequent posters that moved to JPR were idiots if they weren't getting a paycheck for that bullshit.

[elfin]

70. I minored in Russian Studies in the WAY WAY back, so I dismissed those

I just thought they were idiots and never thought about "bots"

Hillary was right about Putin and modern Russia, but not a "war hawk." She knew so many other diplomatic, economic levers to make significant points and influence.

I also had no doubt that Bernie was on the same page with different language to differentiate himself from Hillary a bit on that issue.

[bettyellen]

73. From what I recall sanders was fairly vague and perhaps more of an isolationist on foreign policy-

It seemed to be one of those things where people were filling in the blanks themselves, assuming he would put peace above anything else. I'm not sure I ever saw much of substance from him on that.

But yeah, there were a few posters here who were very into the Wiki and Greenwald stuff and surprise - turned out to be Putin apologists too. Hard to imagine that's a complete coincidence. And the thing is they turned out to be very influential here. It was awful for people who didn't hate HRC.

[elfin]

75. Yes, Bernie was far more emphatic and eloquent on national issues

However, while he crisply delineated his differences with Hillary on banks etc., he didn't question her experience as Sec. St.

That is why I ended up going with her, as much as I lover (and still do) Bernie. His passion moved me, but her overall experience sold me.

[bettyellen]

80. I liked Sanders but felt like the press was using him to be divisive...

and that crap should have ended a lot earlier than it did. It's interesting to wonder how much influence those bots had on people.
I have a few friends who were so into it and they really don't like discussing that part of the whole thing. I wanred them soemthing rotten was going on w Wikileaks.

[Nevernose]

51. I was/am definitely pro-Bernie

But people who bought all of that anti-Hillary bullshit have to be some of the most gullible motherfuckers in America -- and the ostensible anti-Hillary liberals are more gullible than Trump voters, in my humble opinion.

[ColemanMaskell]

35. "Bots" (in this sense) refers to computer programs that are "smart" like "Siri" in an iphone

Apparently some bot programs are also self-replicating, making it hard to get rid of them. Like gnats, if you get rid of one, another appears. It's AI (artificial intelligence) of a sort. So a "bad guy" releases a swarm (many copies) of a Siri-like program specially-tailored to search the net (Google-like) for certain keywords and phrases it has on a built-in list, and then when a copy of the program finds a comment thread with some of the text it's looking for, it joins in and creates a somewhat Siri-like conversation, but more like a nightmare version of Siri, call it Siri's evil twin. I doubt they were targeted directly at Dem U so much as they were targeted to look for certain keywords and phrases that would be found in abundance on DU.

[elfin]

47. Thanks for more elucidation. It sounds like that some bot programs are better than others

In order to infiltrate and do damnable mischief. I suspect the frequent phrases they encounter on DU are profanity related to the Dumpster.

And Siri seems so nice! Damn her. Ha.

Will keep in the lookout, knowing others more well-versed than I will spot the evil Siri and her spawn.

[ColemanMaskell]

71. Here are links to a couple of "how to recognize a bot" articles, if you still want to know that

How Do I Know If I Am Talking to a Bot?
http://www.ehow.com/how_8384450_do-am-talking-bot.html


10 Tricks That Chatbots Use to Make You Believe They're Human
http://io9.gizmodo.com/5901579/10-tricks-that-chatbots-use-to-make-you-believe-theyre-human

[elfin]

72. Thank you! So interesting -- and scary as well.

I "interact" with so few sites that it would be rare for me to encounter these. But so good to know.

I am the type that punches in "0" frequently on the phone to get to a "real" human. I can wait. If I cannot understand their Mumbai accent,I persist. I like humans.

[Madam45for2923]

77. Yes, thanks for the info! and the interesting links.

[PoliticAverse]

128. Bots are more of a twitter thing, where you can repeatedly post the same thing over and over...

under a hashtag. As to an example of a twitter bot, see this article:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-a-conservative-twitter-user-sleeps-his-account-is-hard-at-work/2017/02/05/18d5a532-df31-11e6-918c-99ede3c8cafa_story.html

[Turn CO Blue]

134. There are shills and there are bots. The terms are now interchangeable, but I wish they were not.

Shills are paid humans with multiple accounts and personas, who have training to influence opinion, and occasionally disrupt. There are software programs that they can use to help them keep their personas straight, but the real human writes the posts or responses for the most part (although they will have some boilerplate talking points of the day from their employer that they can cut/paste into supposedly spontaneous responses). There are thousands of shills for high-end consumer electronics, and almost every political campaign and lobbying group hires at least a few shills. The fracking industry has hundreds and hundreds of shills. Just post anything on an environmental page on FB, and the fracking shills will come out of the woodwork.

Bots are software programs designed to mimic humans in a host of accounts, and in terms of influence campaigns, will perform their posting or retweeting automatically, and have very automated posts or responses. For example, you will see a bot network post the same thing, with very few differences, on Twitter all timed to appear that the tweet was so great that there was a domino effect.

Not all bots are about politics or influencing. We had many bot programs in the airline industry that would work through queues automatically (for instance, perform the 1000 command entries needed for seat assignments when the aircraft had to be swapped out).

There are better software programs every day to identify the accounts in bot networks (no matter how convincingly-human the bots are becoming), but I think the paid shills are far more influential, and therefore more unethical.

There has been a movement among communications and public relations professional organizations to prohibit brands, firms and political strategists from membership that use shills as a violation of their code of ethics.

[Kimchijeon]

17. I wasn't active on DU very much last election

(this is a new username) but I know in years past there's always been various trolls, shit-stirrers and general jackassery.

Reasonable to think there's trolls as always, but probably just some alt-right little fascist shitheads fucking around. I highly doubt any "Russian bots" etc. Nothing so sophisticated, I am sure, just the usual crop of bored fuckers having a laugh.

What else can they do in their mom's basement... they might wander to DU occasionally but I'd wager they are far busier making racist Youtube comments and masturbating to Nazi scat porn.

You know, keepin' it classy.

[yardwork]

20. Yes.

[Gman]

22. It happened all over DU from Sanders people

Literally posting the worst right wing shit you ever saw. All coming from RW websites. And they were so convinced they were right because, they are, after all, the smartest people in the room.

[Madam45for2923]

23. and Russian sites? Russian Times?

[Gman]

26. There wasn't that much, if any on RT that I remember

but it came from right wing websites that are all about clicks more than anything else.

[bettyellen]

38. Yes I saw RT here- people argued they had Ed Schultz and other "credible" people on RT

And I don't think anyone understood that was a ploy to make it more palatable. The Jill Stein people were the worst, but BOBers spread it too.

[yallerdawg]

59. Some RT's maintained integrity.

[Doreen]

25. I think one of the things that does keep us mostly safe

is because most of us/you fact check things before you post and make sure the info is coming from a reliable source. There are however even now some really strange posts and comments that would go against what any of us here would think or say. I have noticed most of the time when someone brings something up and can not bring up the information someone else here will do that for them so we tend to work with each other and I think that makes us stronger and be able to flush out or just ignore the fake news of Repuke trolls. My mother kind of questioned me about where I was getting my news and I told her some of it was from DU and she said well I have not heard that on my news or read that in her paper. Well whatever news she get seems to be about half a day or day late from what I get here.

There have been a couple of times in the last week that I had info before her from here and when she got it she had no choice but believe that I was right on the info. I have never found any of the true DU people to put out bad info.

[FreepFryer]

27. Absolutely and they are still here. Their design, to create moods, reveals en masse. (n/t)

[RandySF]

30. Felt that way during the primaries.

I remember DU getting flooded with new users with sole aim of trashing Hillary.

[Tarheel_Dem]

31. Had to be "bots". Repeatedly demanding transcripts from her Walstreet speeches, and now we've got..

Goldman Sachs running the damned country. Whatever demands they were making of Hillary, common sense should have told them they were being played. Many of us saw it at the time for what it was, and many didn't. They still pop up from time to time insisting that she should've worked harder to get white working class voters. As if Putin's propaganda arm, James Comey, and Wikileaks didn't play any role at all.

It's clear that we've got our work cut out if they intend to do this again in 2018 & 2020.

[Madam45for2923]

42. Sounds like this illogical mendacity was meant to frustrate us - & plainly hurt HRC like Comey said/

Hurt the Democratic party.

Yep, we cannot allow this ever again.

[SecularMotion]

37. It was so bad during the primaries

that the admins had to limit which forums were allowed on the Greatest page.

Fake news would be posted and an army of BernieBots would give recs.

[Demsrule86]

40. Yes and it is ongoing in my opinion.

[philly_bob]

41. Is there agreement whether the fake-posting was pro Sanders or pro-Clinton? /nt

[SecularMotion]

48. This was recent news

WASHINGTON ― Last June, John Mattes started noticing something coursing like a virus through the Facebook page he helped administer for Bernie Sanders fans in San Diego. People with no apparent ties to California were friending the page and sharing links from unfamiliar sites full of anti-Hillary Clinton propaganda.

The stories they posted weren’t the normal complaints he was used to seeing as the Vermont senator and the former secretary of state fought out the Democratic presidential primary. These stories alleged that Clinton had murdered her political opponents and used body doubles.

Mattes, 66, had been a television reporter and Senate investigator in previous lives. He put his expertise in unmasking fraudsters to work. At first, he suspected that the sites were created by the old Clinton haters from the ‘90s ― what Hillary Clinton had dubbed “the vast right-wing conspiracy.

Mattes and his friends didn’t know what to make of his findings. He couldn’t get his mind around the possibility that trolls overseas might be trying to sway a bunch of Southern Californians who supported Sanders’ run for president. “I may be a dark cynic and I may have been an investigative reporter for a long time, but this was too dark ― and too unbelievable and most upsetting,” he said. “What was I to do with this?”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-fake-news-russia_us_58c34d97e4b0ed71826cdb36

[Fozzledick]

79. My impression is that it was just anti-Democratic.

Deliberately trying to incite discord and animosity to divide us against each other and undermine party unity by posing as supporters of one candidate attacking the other.

[philly_bob]

88. Remember David Brock's pro-Hillary "Correct the Record" operation?

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correct_the_Record

I'd love to hear from someone who worked for them. The Wikipedia article says they had 12 people -- although that seems low.

I'd also love to hear the administrator's observation of bot and sock puppet behavior, and an analysis of DU's election-time blackout.

Truthfully, these matters are becoming The Story.

[The Sand Reckoner]

46. JPR certainly was

And the assholes who flocked there didn't even realize it, they were so determined to hate Clinton at any cost.

[Docreed2003]

105. Spot on....

It's not as bad as during the election, but there were plenty there at the time who lauded Trump and claimed that his Russian affiliations were a good thing...completely ignoring and, in some cases, applauding the hack of the DNC.

[mopinko]

49. ignore them

srsly. what kind of shit can they stir if most of us ignore them?
i believe admin can see that.

be more hard assed on juries.
have standards.

[Madam45for2923]

53. This is not what is being reported. It was anti-Clinton propaganda.

[Talk Is Cheap]

58. There was also a lot of anti-Sanders propaganda as well...

[Madam45for2923]

61. by the Russians? by Cambridge Analytica? By Breitbart?

Am talking of outside obfuscation.

[bettyellen]

64. by women and POC who noticed that his website and stump speech completely ignored us.

[Cha]

104. From the putin trolls.. never saw any of that. Not one drop.

[joshcryer]

54. Yeah right.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1280&sort=replies

Read the top posted threads here.

[sheshe2]

66. Since Skinner said

The board then was 85% Bernie and 15% Hillary it sure was not a majority of HC supporters.

[uponit7771]

52. YES !!! As soon as you hit them with 3 - 4 facts they'd bow out with a waving hand !!!!

[Maru Kitteh]

67. YES and they are STILL HERE. When you see discouraging posts, posts that

proclaim that it's hopeless, why try, nothing matters - some of those I am sure are trolls.

When you see posters that soft-peddle Republican talking points, when they pull the "Obama/Dems did it too" routine - some of those I am sure are trolls.

[Madam45for2923]

78. This is a DEM site. We have no place for malicious & fake bots and trolls that want to hurt DEMS!

Now we know more what happened. Together I hope we figure how not to let them go at it again. Cannot be repeated.

[Kingofalldems]

81. They do yeoman's work at trolling.

[Maru Kitteh]

84. .

INDEED THEY DO!

[applegrove]

76. DI was inundated with Russian propaganda. There may be some going on right

now here.

[Maru Kitteh]

85. Weren't they just preaching to the choir in that cesspool?

No offense to cesspools.

[applegrove]

86. They certainly are on the same page. Though I don't know that the

self perceived 'alpha male' Trump supporter have figured out their leader is fully owned by Putin.

[bigtree]

89. I think that's probably a yes

...and ongoing.

[muriel_volestrangler]

90. No, because bots are nets of automatic replies, that acheive their effect through numbers

Not the kind of numbers that DU ever achieves. DU is not a huge social network, and people will not bother designing software just for us. We're not a target for them - there may be a few people who read DU to hate it, who might also potentially vote for Trump, but very few, and they'll spend a lot more time elsewhere. "Fake News" gets dealt with quickly on DU.

Many people in this thread seem to be confusing 'bot' with 'troll'. Whether there was any organised troll action on DU is doubtful too; some disgruntled ex-DUers now on JPR, perhaps, or a few Conservative Cave idiots.

[herding cats]

91. It started well before the election.

When the Ukrain crisis started they began sowing seeds here. New members who were pro Russia spreading propaganda, linking to Russian propaganda sites and sowing the seeds they later came back to fertilize during the election.

[Cha]

92. There was putin troll action this board.. pawns for putin. I don't

who tries to deny it.

[Madam45for2923]

99. That in itself is interesting. People denying for some reason.

[Cha]

101. Yesh.. what's up with

that?

I lived it.. I was here paying attention..

They so pushed putin and whined about President Obama.. you know I was in that mix.

[Madam45for2923]

103. Weren't there lots of fake news type being promoted here? Some from Russian sites?

or weird sources. ~or RW sources?

[Cha]

114. They tried pushing RT on us.. and then that got disallowed in

LBN.. but they would still do it in GD

[Docreed2003]

111. Pretty sure one had "Stockholm Syndrome"...

...am I right??? Lol! Love ya Cha!

[Cha]

115. Why not.. he pushed everything

else that was bad for us.

love ya back, Docreed!

[brooklynite]

98. Why would Russia bother?

It's nice to feel important, but honestly, DU isn't driving policy discussions.

[Madam45for2923]

102. DU is driving a good amount of DEMS!

Do you think the 2016 election time at DU was business as usual?

[Cha]

108. Yeah, why bother the fuck to hack us down if we're sooooooo

insignif.

[brooklynite]

136. Yes it was...it drove DU members, but had no influence in the outside world.

Look, I love spending time here, but I'm not under any illusions that debate here changes any significant number of minds

[Cha]

107. Tell that to the putin trolls in the way back machine.

[coco22]

106. Yes,and..

I believe they are continuing. They took over chats on youtube during the campaign and they continue to do it daily Trump's ugly ass face is all over the place..

[Madam45for2923]

117. YouTube became and still is worthless in this regard. A disgusting infestation of fakes!

It is unbelievable. and yes DT's ugly mug everywhere.

[redstatebluegirl]

109. Did they ever find out who hacked DU and brought it down on election day?

That was strangest thing I had ever seen.

[BainsBane]

110. Maybe some

but I think the more relevant point is the disinformation spread by those bots and trolls was also posted here. Even if those posting it weren't trolls, they were influenced by the Kremlin propaganda opp.

[Docreed2003]

113. This!!!

Excellent point and spot on analysis!

[Madam45for2923]

119. Makes sense! The Russian and Breitbart garbage news made it & was promoted here.

This is a DEM site. This kind of news was meant to hurt DEMS and had no business making it here.

[Docreed2003]

116. As for bots...

Forgive me but I was a lurker turned member during the primaries, but I do recall at least one poster who frequently posted with bad grammar and repetitive posts...as a bot would do. As for "fake news", there was tons of that at the time. Many, including myself for a brief time, got swept up in that nonsense.

[Madam45for2923]

120. Since we know what happened this election I hope we can protect ourselves from now on.

We can come with ways to stop this malicious nonsense on its tracks.

[NCTraveler]

123. Fake news. Absolutely.

HA Goodman was often shared here. Many cheered him. It was sickening.

[Madam45for2923]

124. Cannot! Must not! Happen again!

It hurt DEMS! It behoove us not to make it so easy ever again!

[NCTraveler]

125. It was and is complete bullshit. Note: They are still doing it.

I think people need to wake up and see the damage they are doing to us.

Sanders himself is currently in campaign mode and running against the party. He knows his base. We have zero way to stop him from winning the next primary. Jury, please recognize this is in reference to the next election, not the last one. Sanders has set himself up to win the next primary easily. He will then lose bigly in the general. As you well know most of his crew doesn't care. The Democratic Party attacking Independent is the greatest thing ever just for standing in front of a microphone. Results do not matter.

[kentuck]

126. I think DU was hacked for a reason.

It is more difficult to infiltrate the site with bullshit. There are some real eagle eyes that post here and it is more difficult to slip by them than some other sites, in my opinion. They question everything.

But, I don't doubt that that they are here and have tried to corrupt the messages on DU.

[PoliticAverse]

127. DU doesn't lend itself to a bot invasion, that's something that twitter is much more susceptible to.

[Madam45for2923]

138. What about fake news! Did any make it here? From Russian or RW sites?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

129. They all went west.

Young man.

[Lil Missy]

130. I think that's why DU was down on election night. n/t

[Bonx]

133. Since purchasing my Old Glory Insurance, I haven't been troubled by robots

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/old-glory-insurance/n10766?snl=1

[L. Coyote]

135. STILL IS

[Madam45for2923]

139. Awful that this happened here and still it is!

[ucrdem]

137. The Clintogyny looked pretty genuine to me.

So did the Obamaphobia. Which is part of the reason I'm still not sold on the Russia theory. Who needs Russians?

[R B Garr]

140. Good question. This is current news now and goes

back way before the general. We can expect to hear lots more about hacking claims and how they originated. Rachel's show just last week was must-see about this issue, especially in light of current investigations.