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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow Russia is Using LinkedIn as a Tool of War Against Its U.S. Enemies - Newsweek
HOW RUSSIA IS USING LINKEDIN AS A TOOL OF WAR AGAINST ITS U.S. ENEMIES
By Jeff Stein On Thursday, August 3, 2017 - 07:00
One night in mid-March, Alan Malcher, a British military veteran, dropped into the Queens Arms, a working-class pub in north London. He took a seat at the bar and ordered his customary pint of Fosters. Within a few minutes, a stranger sidled up, ordered a drink and started a conversation. He soon brought up Russian President Vladimir Putin and began saying positive things about the Moscow-backed separatist civil war in Ukraine.
He was going on about Putin being a strong leader, Malcher recalls. Somebody to admire. The strangers comments, delivered with a thick Slavic accent, made Malchers security antennae vibrate: He had recently joined a Washington, D.C.based think tank involved in combatting Russias stealthy infiltration of American social media. So when the stranger made passing reference to Malchers army service, he felt a twinge of apprehension. Theres no way he could have known that except via LinkedIn, Malcher says, referencing the professional online networking site where he and other critics of Moscow had been active in international affairs discussion groups. An expert in information warfare, Malcher reasoned that the Kremlin had dispatched the stranger to the Queens Arms with a message: We know everything about you. Watch your step.
Experts have increasingly called attention to Russias use of covert propaganda factories to subvert democracy, flooding Twitter and Facebook with millions of computer-generated bots posting under false names (often unwittingly picked up and amplified by supporters of Donald Trump). But its battle on LinkedIn to neutralize enemies has gone largely unnoticed. There, however, Newsweek has found that pro-Moscow forces have put constant pressure on the company to suspend or permanently evict a number of its adversaries, many with long, distinguished careers in the U.S. military or its intelligence agencies. Not only has this muzzled credentialed critics and damaged professional reputations, but if Malchers suspicions were right, the Kremlins campaign to combat its adversaries on social media may have moved beyond cyberspace and into the streets.
much more:
http://www.newsweek.com/russia-putin-bots-linkedin-facebook-trump-clinton-kremlin-critics-poison-war-645696?amp=1
dalton99a
(81,599 posts)SonofDonald
(2,050 posts)I'm on linkedin but I retired and haven't looked at it in years now.
Not that they'd even look at me but the above story sure shows how far they will go in their efforts.