Pro-Russian Bots Take Up the Right-Wing Cause After Charlottesville

[workinclasszero]

Pro-Russian Bots Take Up the Right-Wing Cause After Charlottesville
Analysts tracking Russian influence operations find a feedback loop between Kremlin propaganda and far-right memes.
by Isaac Arnsdorf ProPublica, Aug. 23, 2017, 8 a.m.

Angee Dixson joined Twitter on Aug. 8 and immediately began posting furiously — about 90 times a day. A self-described American Christian conservative, Dixson defended President Donald Trump’s response to the unrest in Charlottesville, criticized the removal of Confederate monuments and posted pictures purporting to show violence by left-wing counterprotesters.

“Dems and Media Continue to IGNORE BLM and Antifa Violence in Charlottesville,” she wrote above a picture of masked demonstrators labeled “DEMOCRAT TERROR.”

But Dixson appears to have been a fake, according to an analysis by Ben Nimmo, a fellow with the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council think tank.

The account has been shut down. Dixson’s profile picture was stolen from a young Instagram celebrity (a German model rumored to have dated Leonardo DiCaprio). Dixson used a URL shortener that is a tell for the sort of computer program that automatically churns out high volumes of social media posts whose authorship is frequently disguised. And one of her tweets attacked Sen. John McCain for his alleged support of Ukrainian neo-Nazis, echoing language in tweets from Russian outlets RT and Sputnik.

https://www.propublica.org/article/pro-russian-bots-take-up-the-right-wing-cause-after-charlottesville

[emulatorloo]

1. Kick and Rec for Greatest page

[dalton99a]

2. America's hate machine has gained much efficiency thanks to Putin's automation

[ck4829]

3. There has to be some way to fight this

[workinclasszero]

4. America has been under full attack from Russia since before the election last year

And obviously we still are not doing a damn thing about it!

WTF are we going to fight this cyberwar against Putin? The bastard just about owns this country already!

We are going to give Nazi Germany a run for their money in a few years if this shit continues unabated.

[ck4829]

9. I've got ideas, but yes, this is a war. We need to fight back.

We're dealing with an unholy trinity here. Putinists, voter suppression, and "it"; and we need a place to specifically organize against this trinity.

[workinclasszero]

10. I mean damn, the government has the NSA

What the hell are they doing to stop this shit or what is their job exactly??

Of course under Putin's puppet Trump I except him to stop that dead in its tracks. But what about all last year?

It seems like we do nothing to stop this attack by a hostile foreign government against our democracy and way of life.

[ck4829]

11. Keep in touch my friend

Anything can be changed and can be resisted, this is no different.

[Cosmocat]

23. Dems need to get into the game

no levers of government will intercede, cause Rs are running government and they masterbate to this shit.

Dems H A V E get into the internet game. Unlike the Rs, who are insane and peddle absolute bullshit, use the same technology and targeting to put well crafted memes and messaging into to counter this.

Going to take

1) leadership. Someone has to take it on and organize it

2) $$$

[YoungDemCA]

5. Cynical fuckery from Russian or Russian-allied trolls, as per usual.

[Johnny2X2X]

6. His backup plan

The Pro Trump Russian bots have been quieter since the election, but he knows he has them in his back pocket for when things get really bad. One call to his Russian handler and the bots will spread fake news for him. He is already campaigning, the bots will be used occasionally until the Dems start picking candidates for 2020, then they will kick back in full time.

I hope social media and the Dems have a comprehensive plan to disrupt and counteract the bots. They decided the election last year.

[workinclasszero]

7. Agree 100%

I hate that we passively sit back and let Putin/fox/hate radio brainwash millions and millions of Americans 24/7.

This country is doomed if this shit is not stopped or at least countered back as good as we get it.

[NewJeffCT]

21. they've been at it already

any Democrat that they deem a threat gets attacked - we've already seen attacks on Kamala Harris, Deval Patrick and Cory Booker (the misleading statistic about pharmaceutical money and Booker started in Kushner's NY Oberver, one of the big sources of RW Fake News from last year...)

[Cosmocat]

24. No they haven't

Hamilton 68 ...

http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-propaganda-website-tracker-2017-8

"We're not deciding what news and stories to highlight. We're just showing what accounts linked to Russian influence operations are tweeting about."

[meow2u3]

8. Expose this literal right-wing, russkie loving hate machine

Bots and all.

[Sunlei]

12. The Republican party spams their fake crap on emails, social media and TV/radio. They could buy

EVERYONE a herd of ponies with the trillions they spend on propaganda.

[workinclasszero]

13. Koch bros and Sheldon Adelson

bought the party and pay for all that shit.

Chump change for them no doubt.

[Sunlei]

15. and about a thousand "pretend" Republican political "charites" who will spend millionsd to fly Repu

spend millions to fly Republican party members to Israel to back-door deal against American interests. Will fund people to come to Congress to promote Republican party anti-Americans agenda.

[workinclasszero]

16. Funny how the "friends of Israel"

have nazi/kkk as their base voters huh?

[Sunlei]

14. Republicans will ramp up vs any D running in 2018. They've already started" little stuff" to

see what splits up the D voters the best.

Ds only need about 20 in Congress and 3 in senate, should be easy to kick out some of those republicans!

[Dopers_Greed]

18. Don't get overly confident

Way more Senate Dems are up for re-election than Repugs. And the House is heavily gerrymandered.

I'd put it at 100% certainty that we'll lose seats in 2018.

I'd love to be wrong though.

[lark]

17. Drumpfs has 10's of millions of fake Russian bot supporters.

No one with a brain would actually support him and those #'s are dwindling. So sadly, there are way too many Americans who are so ignorant as to be virtually brainless and think every one of them supports the criminal traitor and orange assface.

[BadgerMom]

19. K and R

This needs publicity.

[kimbutgar]

20. I am surprised twitter does not have a algorithm to figure out these are bots

these bots delegitimize twitter making people not trust it. I think this will eventually hurt twitter in the long run.

[Cryptoad]

22. "after" my ass

[Perseus]

25. People don't realize how dangerous this is

Trump, or his enabling republicans, will not do anything to stop the Russians from this attacks, and the more they are able to do it the more power they will feel they have over the USA.

WAKE UP! THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS!