Russian Trolls Tweeted Disinformation Long Before U.S. Election
Source: Wall Street Journal
An analysis of 221,641 tweets The Wall Street Journal was able to find from the now-blocked users shows that prior to their election activity, they attempted to incite chaos, fear and outrage about fictitious events, with success that at times spilled into the real world.
The Journal’s analysis included messages posted by 2,170 Russian-controlled accounts. Sometimes they worked alone, spreading news, chatting about politics or popular culture and retweeting others. Other times, dozens of the accounts, even hundreds, flocked around a single message.
Taken together, the activity—much of which has now been wiped from the internet—presents a rare perspective on an external effort to manipulate American minds. Those behind the efforts took advantage of an array of social-media platforms, broadcasters, fake-news websites, Wikipedia and in one case, a federal regulator.
Many of the users who took part in the early campaigns went on to participate in the U.S. presidential-election attack, mostly supporting Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders while disparaging Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush, as early as the middle of 2015.
Read more: https://www.wsj.com/graphics/russian-trolls-tweeted-disinformation-long-before-u-s-election/
There are apparently still some actual journalists working at WSJ. This is a meticulous analysis of primary source material related to Russian attempts to influence US citizens' perceptions, beliefs, and views of reality, news media, the government, etc.
It details how they established online identities and tools throughout websites, social media fora, Wikipedia, etc., using multiple avenues to create perceptions of actual 'events' that did not happen at all, as well as twist perceptions of actual events to shape beliefs about their significance, source, etc.
Russian spooks doing what they've always done-- trying to weaken what they perceive to be powerful opponents or roadblocks to their goals, using disinformation. The Internet has given them new and powerful tools that are incredibly cheap and easy to use. They'd be stupid not to go all-out on this effort.
There is much more to be revealed, I'm sure. This is a large and complex attack in a long-prosecuted war that has succeeded largely because we've refused to even imagine the possibility that they're trying, much less winning.
somberly,
Bright
= new reply since forum marked as read
Finally some numbers, but it won't let this freeloader in to read the whole thing. 
Kickin' anyway so others can see.
