Russian Bots Targeted Clinton, Mueller Before Charges

[DonViejo]

RUSSIAN BOTS TARGETED CLINTON AND MUELLER LEADING UP TO COLLUSION INDICTMENTS

BY JESSICA KWONG ON 11/1/17 AT 10:28 AM

Russian bots spread stories relating to a controversial uranium deal linked to Hillary Clinton in the days before Robert Mueller indicted three former Trump campaign members over collusion in Russia's attempt to influence the 2016 election.

Hamilton 68, a nonpartisan security research project tracing Russia-tied information warfare on Twitter, examined 58 unique URLs promoted by accounts linked to the Kremlin between October 14 and 20 and found that the most prominent theme—making up 24 percent of links shared—was a deal that Clinton and the Obama administration passed giving Moscow control of U.S. uranium while the FBI had proof of Russian bribery.

The original story by The Hill was a top story for a number of days and “all other URLs shared promoted some variation on a theme of corruption, collusion, cover-up by the Clinton-led State Department and/or the Mueller-led FBI (#ClintonRussianCollusion was also a top hashtag last week),” according to Hamilton 68.

Clinton sat on the committee that approved the deal while Russian officials routed millions of dollars to the U.S. benefiting the charitable foundation of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, according to documents the FBI obtained and an eyewitness account from an undercover informant.

Outside of the uranium topic, 17 percent of URLs shared criticized Mueller, former FBI Director James Comey and Clinton.

Hamilton 68 also recorded a spike in attacks directed at Mueller since Friday, when reports indicated his team would proceed with indictments. On Monday, the guilty pleas of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his former business associate Richard Gates and former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos were unsealed.

Russian bots swarmed social media leading up to the November presidential election, and continue to strike before significant political events.

Bots played a role in targeting Twitter users in swing states with more fake news than real news in the 10 days before the presidential election and the false information helped Donald Trump win, an Oxford University study published last month found.

Information on social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook can become inaccessible easily due to the way the companies operate. Officials from both tech giants are testifying before congressional investigators on how Russian propaganda infiltrated the networks before the election.

"You launch a disinformation campaign in the digital age and then all evidence of that campaign can just disappear," Samantha Bradshaw, a lead researcher for the Oxford study, told Mother Jones.

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http://www.newsweek.com/russian-bots-targeted-clinton-and-mueller-leading-collusion-indictments-698160


Full article posted with the permission of Newsweek Magazine -- Don

[lagomorph777]

1. This points out two scary things:

(1) Trump/Putin's disinformation collusion campaign continues unabated.
(2) Mueller may have a mole.

[malaise]

2. What it points out to me is that they have direct links to

Groper Donn the Con and his goons at Fox and RW talk radio in the US

[lagomorph777]

3. Absolutely