Russian propaganda effort helped spread 'fake news' during election, experts say

[Denzil_DC]

Source: Washington Post

The flood of “fake news” this election season got support from a sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign that created and spread misleading articles online with the goal of punishing Democrat Hillary Clinton, helping Republican Donald Trump and undermining faith in American democracy, say independent researchers who tracked the operation.

Russia’s increasingly sophisticated propaganda machinery — including thousands of botnets, teams of paid human “trolls,” and networks of Web sites and social-media accounts — echoed and amplified right-wing sites across the Internet as they portrayed Clinton as a criminal hiding potentially fatal health problems and preparing to hand control of the nation to a shadowy cabal of global financiers. The effort also sought to heighten the appearance of international tensions and promote fear of looming hostilities with nuclear-armed Russia.

Two teams of independent researchers found that the Russians exploited American-made technology platforms to attack U.S. democracy at a particularly vulnerable moment, as an insurgent candidate harnessed a wide range of grievances to claim the White House. The sophistication of the Russian tactics may complicate efforts by Facebook and Google to crack down on “fake news,” as they have vowed to do after widespread complaints about the problem.

There is no way to know whether the Russian campaign proved decisive in electing Trump, but researchers portray it as part of a broadly effective strategy of sowing distrust in U.S. democracy and its leaders. The tactics included penetrating the computers of election officials in several states and releasing troves of hacked emails that embarrassed Clinton in the final months of her campaign.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/2016/11/24/793903b6-8a40-4ca9-b712-716af66098fe_story.html

[Botany]

1. It was a coup ... end of story.

[RKP5637]

10. It definitely was/is and TPTB don't want to call it out for what is going on. n/t

[Botany]

14. And Comey did not say word one about Trump having a dedicated computer server ....

.... that was linked to Putin in his HQ.

We are in for dark days.

[Grey Lemercier]

22. It wasnt linked to Putin. It was supposedly a bank, and Snopes says its unproven

http://www.snopes.com/trump-server-tied-to-russian-bank/

[Grey Lemercier]

28. are you?

I most assurdedly am not.

[JI7]

2. This was known during the election and should have been the story

[Botany]

4. But what about HRC's emails?

We are seeing a coup and Putin now has a person he owns in the White House.

[yardwork]

5. It was shameful of the media to ignore this. They are culpable.

[RKP5637]

7. Or, some of the media was part of it. Until many Americans learn to think, this is going to happen

likely more and more.

[yardwork]

12. Yep.

[joshcryer]

18. The media profits from the chaos.

From the drama.

Normalcy is not profitable.

So yeah damn straight the media is partially responsible.

[Judi Lynn]

24. Journalism used to be expected to be truthful, even if the truth was dull.

That was the only expectation, their only requirement, the only way media earned respect.

How that ever changed is a tragedy. There's no moral part to it. Like Jeb Stuart Magruder. Watergate co-conspirator, they lost their "moral compass." It all went to hell when the large big-business corporations bought all of the smaller ones and were able to control everything shoved down the throats of the US public.

They have nothing but contempt, disrespect for the readers. They have decided they don't have to, or want to tell us the truth about the big things, although they are delighted to share facts about pure crap entertainment stories that have never mattered, probably not even to the clowns they obsess over.

[Maven]

3. OMG. How do we combat this?

And when are Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey etc going to step up and put a stop to it on their platforms?

[JI7]

6. Can you imagine the media today covering watergate ?

It would be a non issue.

[RKP5637]

9. Really, they would just pass it by unless they thought they could make some money off

of it. This, is what we've come to in the new USA. And some of the media would be complicit by ignoring it all together.

[joshcryer]

19. Watergate would barely make the scroll.

If a late night news drop.

[lapucelle]

8. We no longer have journalists or media.

Instead we have the infotainment industry.

[Adsos Letter]

11. Another DUer posted a link to an interesting Wiki.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028303221

I don't know if it has bearing, but there is some interesting reading there. Curious as to what you all think.

Scroll down to the segment "in the United States." It is under the "Content" heading.

I have no idea about the validity of any of it. Perhaps others do, and can weigh in.

[joshcryer]

20. I can't narrow down how they're doing it.

But it's obviously happening. Scary world we're living in.

[elmac]

13. Putin hired hundreds of bloggers

each blogger has about 100 ID.s. They are the ones on Twitter or facebook who would gang up on any anti Trump posters. It is state sponsored terrorism and I have no doubt the FBI was in on it or just sit back and let it happen.

[LisaL]

21. If you ask me, Comey's letter alone did more damage that all these Russian bloggers.

So, yea, I don't think FBI worried all that much about Russian bloggers on twitter or facebook.

[Little Tich]

15. These are scary times indeed... n/t

[moondust]

16. A new documentary

on Deutsche Welle looking into the polonium poisoning of Litvinenko reveals that Pooty has/had ties to gangsters in St. Petersburg dating back to when he was head of the Committee for External Relations there in the 1990s after resigning from the KGB. The documentary paints a pretty corrupt picture of Putin and Russia reminiscent of Soviet days.

http://www.dw.com/en/moscows-long-shadow/a-36488978

[anamandujano]

17. German Spies Are Alarmed Over Threat To Election From Fake News And Russians

"An intelligence source told BuzzFeed News that they fear 2017’s federal elections could see a repeat of the misinformation and hacking that disrupted the US presidential race."

'Alongside hacking and misinformation, Russia also was adept at influencing politicians who are friendly to the Kremlin’s point of view. The EU diplomat noted a number of European politicians, citing examples from France, the Czech Republic, and Italy, who visit Moscow – and “when they return home their parties become more vocal on issues of interest to Russia or their policies change all together”.'

Got this link via talkingpointsmemo

https://www.buzzfeed.com/albertonardelli/german-spies-are-alarmed-over-threat-to-election-from-fake-n?utm_term=.wb0XZRxRwq#.ytZqMYVYXW

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/don-t-forget-it-happened

[Hugin]

23. It has been a classic Fear Uncertainty and Doubt FUD operation.

It amazes me that more is not being done about it.

[Achilleaze]

25. Republicans and Russians Vs. America

There you have it.

[robbedvoter]

26. that last paragraph in the quote is mind blowing

"The tactics included penetrating the computers of election officials in several states " How isn't this the lede? The headline?

[Sunlei]

29. everyone can post anything on twitter and facebook, and google search is free to use.

all those platforms are so easy to "game", open to view, except in countries without 'press and citizen freedoms'. like Russia, China.

[Sunlei]

30. fake news is propaganda. twitface should allow legit news to 'tag' fake stuff clearly with a

large watermark, for some kind of review or even lawsuit? and google should list pay to view and fake news separately.

[Turbineguy]

31. The Soviets always wanted what we have now.

A political party bent on destroying democracy, "conservative" operatives to destroy American values and millions of useful idiots to bring it all home.