Russian troll factories

For discussions on politics and current events.
User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

Only 4 years of feet dragging [in the preliminary notes from the session] when the engineers [@Facebook] were on top of it "from Day 1" as everything on the network is on-line
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46357359
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

abc123
Senior Member
Posts: 2900
Joined: 10 May 2015, 18:15
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by abc123 »

ArmChairCivvy wrote:
abc123 wrote:Kirov-saga
Took the liberty to do reverse order between III and IV in Churchill's 'epic'.
Yeah, thanks, now I understand. :thumbup:

Seriously, Kirov-saga by John Schettler is a nice reeding ( if volumenous ) of naval warfare fiction/alternate history, for those interested in such things.

https://www.writingshop.ws/html/kirov_series.html
Fortune favors brave sir, said Carrot cheerfully.
What's her position about heavily armed, well prepared and overmanned armies?
Oh, noone's ever heard of Fortune favoring them, sir.
According to General Tacticus, it's because they favor themselves…

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

"could contain explosive revelations about Facebook's privacy policy. The Observer speculated that they might have evidence that Facebook knowingly created an environment that enabled Cambridge Analytica to collect the data of up to 87 million users. "

Well, the hearing has been held, and we will soon (?) hear back. The above is a pick from the warm-up act: http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebook- ... ?r=UK&IR=T
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

RE the above post... we know 'who' has done it.

About this one
"The records of 500 million customers of the hotel group Marriott International have been involved in a data breach.

The hotel chain said the guest reservation database of its Starwood division had been compromised by an unauthorised party."
as they, being savvy about the importance of cyberspace, bought the aggregation site Starwood.

Anybody who "is anybody" will have had a stay as this has been running since 2014... and their details stolen (by whom.. could have been the NSA: DO LET US KNOW :) ) and hence been tracked with the details anywhere, around the world
... except in between office and home; and maybe not even in the gym in-between (just think what happened with Princess Diana in the Harbour Club. If people take too much interest in you :( . )
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

Could be interesting if the mentioned parties are proven to have worked on this in cahoots:
"Who was behind attack [massive data leak on German politicians and political commentators]?

Immediate suspicion fell on right-wing groups in Germany as well as Russia
.

In 2015, data was stolen from computers in the Bundestag. And last year the government's IT network came under attack amid reports that Russian hackers were also to blame.

UK-based expert Graham Cluley said the breadth of the latest attack suggested it was a co-ordinated effort involving a determined group over many months.

"This hack clearly isn't about extortion or financially motivated. This is about attempting to destabilise Germany society," he told the BBC."
- quote from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46757009

Timely for elections in some German states, but even more so for ;) the coming euro-elections

Intelligence knew about the posts and sat on that knowledge for a couple of months, to get to the source.

Facebook, on their part, has moved at 'lightning speed, ie. it took them a couple of years:
"Facebook has removed 364 pages and accounts linked to employees of Russian news agency Sputnik from its platform.

The social network's head of cyber security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said in a blog post it had uncovered two separate operations which originated in Russia, with one active in multiple countries in eastern Europe and the other specific to Ukraine.

The pages and accounts were run by the first Russian network and operated in Baltic Sea states, central Asia, the Caucasus and central and eastern Europe."
... or may be these pages had been set up after the 2016 ones were frozen; the story does not tell

Ooh no, we are not in Russian employ, nor in Russia. But we have a short commute home, for week ends :D .
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

ArmChairCivvy wrote:even the main stream media showing signs of having woken up by now, quoting stats, like
"60-80 % of likes" for stories on certain topics driven by Russian sponsored interests.

Greetings to all the good people in St. Pete..
I thought you guys had yr budget doubled... so where is the 'night shift'?

Or is this forum 'of no consequence'? :(
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

A Committee of our MPs doing a bit better than the Electoral Commission (whose investigations were frustrated by the activity crossing borders) and Skynews reporting on some of it:
"Of particular focus to the committee of MPs is the connection between Leave.EU, its founder Arron Banks, and Russia - much of which was covered in an interim report which the committee published, questioning the sources of Mr Bank's wealth.

At the time the committee recommended that there be a criminal investigation into whether Mr Banks sourced his money from abroad.

The National Crime Agency is currently investigating whether any criminal activity took place, after the UK's elections watchdog found "reasonable grounds to suspect" Mr Banks was "not the true source" of £8m loaned to an organisation that ran the Leave.EU group."
- incidentally, some of the folks on this side are of interest in the Mueller inquiry as well

Out of interest, how does a lobby group earn back the money to repay a "loan" as in
"not the true source" of £8m loaned to an organisation that ran the Leave.EU group?
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

A pity this Reuters story does not contain a help line number:
"The U.S. military disrupted the internet access of a Russian troll farm accused of trying to influence American voters on Nov. 6, 2018, the day of the congressional elections, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday."
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

Deborah Haynes includes, while writing about the Salisbury attack and the reaction to it
https://news.sky.com/story/sky-views-mo ... k-11653742 , a wider
" reflection of how difficult it is to deter unconventional forms of warfare at a time when President Putin's Russia regards the UK and its NATO allies a threat.

Within this space, the UK did become a lot better at exposing
a barrage of what officials say is Russian state-sponsored disinformation, spreading an array of counter-narratives and conspiracy theories about the attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin denied his country was behind the killing

But fake claims still appear on social media feeds such as Twitter and Facebook and are carried by pro-Kremlin media channels."

All true, but while it is possible to expose individual troll's messages (these are almost always concerted campaigns) or campaigns on individual topics, it is much more difficult to deal with "shady publishing houses" that provide - and fund, for the lack of such from other sources - blogs and forums for genuine discussion... there can always be a juicy detail to be picked aside as "public domain intel" as a bonus.
- the influence is exerted by redirecting the discussion at a critical juncture by inserting a narrative that fits the wider framework of messaging (if metadata is data about data, this in turn is orchestration of concerted campaigns)
- not that 'everyone' would not be at it, say " by challenging the difficulties of modern warfare using non-lethal engagement and legitimate non-military levers as a means to adapt behaviours of the opposing forces and adversaries". If you would like to move 'to the country' the green hills of Berkshire offer opportunities in 'the field'
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

Rolling back a bit
"when the Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed how, during the Brexit campaign, the Leave side had deployed targeted “dark ads” on the platform to underhandedly influence the electorate. Mere months later, the Commons’ Select Committee on Digital, Culture, Media and Sports, in its interim report on disinformation, recommended that political ads on Facebook should be labelled to clearly show who paid for them – information that had been missing from some of the pro-Brexit ads posted on the social network in 2016. "

So going wider from Defence is Security (and info campaigns that are directly targeting that space), Wired has looked at which sites AKA "shady publishing houses" that operate without anyone - still :!: - not knowing whether the financing is in-country or from sources outside:
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/brexit- ... to%20WIRED
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

About time, too:

Jeremy Hunt says the UK will "name and shame" foreign agencies and governments who use cyberspace to undermine democracy.

By Deborah Haynes, foreign affairs editor

Thursday 7 March 2019 03:42, UK, SkyNews
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

the influence is exerted by redirecting the discussion at a critical juncture by inserting a narrative that fits the wider framework of messaging (if metadata is data about data, this in turn is orchestration of concerted campaigns)
The BBC comes to a similar summary of several internet influencing studies: " changing the online conversation in subtle but important ways could influence journalists and politicians, for example, who in turn may have a broader influence on the rest of society." https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47538021
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

Skynews US correspondent has put a good piece about the ' fake news virus' under Sky Views section. We are still well behind with the symptoms (just simply dismissing all 'experts' out of hand, whether they come from within the Civil Service, or from Academia), whereas over there
"But the phrase fake news has poisoned public life and discourse.

It has become shorthand for "I don't want to believe this so I'll dismiss it because it suits me to do so".

The very idea has led to a measurable increase in threats to journalists :!: "
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

Wired has looked at which sites AKA "shady publishing houses" that operate without anyone - still :!: - not knowing whether the financing is in-country or from sources outside:
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/brexit- ... to%20WIRED
More in-country "stuff" being released (in the US): https://news.sky.com/story/sky-views-ne ... t-11668051
- a new definition for "the enemy within"
- and this is only breaking into the public view (from legal proceedings) because a judge ruled that, on balance, there is "a public interests" vs. the potential damage to the names of "operators" revealed. Just wait for ;) the Trump nominations trickle down in the legal system?
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

With the new law now going into consultation
"harmful material includes that with a "clear definition" such as child sexual abuse and terrorist material, as well as material without a clear definition, such as cyber bullying and disinformation.

Although the lack of strict definitions about what "harmful material" is has prompted civil liberties campaigners to express concerns about the plan, Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright said that this would provide the new regulator with enough flexibility"
I might be able to leave :) this column "in peace"?
- of course, when state actors are concerned, without appropriate "offline" actions nothing will happen by enacting single-country laws
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

The timeline given at the end of this Assange arrest story https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47891737
misses the bit, when the Mueller team took evidence (in Ecuador) from the embassy staff... what a pity the report has already been written (but not published). I am sure all the go-betweens involved in timing and focussing the leaks have been named in it.
- which then only leaves the break-in operators to be named
- hence placing this under the headlined topic
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

Mueller report coming closer to here (with enough Russians involved to make this thread the place for the excerpts): https://www.thedailybeast.com/mueller-r ... s?ref=home
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

A good opinion piece on SkyViews today:
"

Certain elements within EU countries are suspected of using the same kind of disinformation tools - playing on fears about immigration, gender and loss of sovereignty to whip up support at a time of disillusionment with the more traditional political groupings.

Experts say this is helping to boost the popularity of far-right parties at this week's European Parliament elections, which could alter the future course of the entire continent."
- even some of the far right parties (e.g. the leader of the one in Sweden) have warned that the geopolitical positions taken by similar parties in other EU countries are too much in line with Russian's to be a mere coincidence
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

Spain does not need to hide the report... as they are only getting started:
"Spain's High Court, the Audiencia Nacional, has opened an investigation against the group 'Unit 29155', linked to the Russian intelligence services, for its alleged activities during the 2017 Catalan breakaway bid, El País reported. "Russia is trying to use secret operations to influence public opinion through extremist and racist organisations," said the former head of Germany's intelligence service Hans-Georg Maassen earlier this year."
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

A little bit of "action" and the trolls have full wind in their sails
... good fun to watch; those who get salaries for it can x-index, on the opposing side
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

Anyway, the past has not quite caught up with us yet as select committees are not sitting because their chairs have not yet been elected... a continuing delay in publishing the 'Russia report'; the report by the Intelligence and Security Committee on alleged Russian interference in UK politics.
- the select committee on Digital, Culture, Media (anything else?) was quite active in driving these 'look ins' but then again "that" minister will not be there in the Commons when the report... in due course ;) will be up for discussion
- if it wasn't Trump who drove the rupture (only Episode 1), I would be asking how much the Iranians were paid to create the smoke screen :)
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

7 years in an embassy, the 50 weeks in prison will soon be up as well... but it is likely that any real process (2=3 weeks allocated in May?) around whether or not to extradite Assange is still well into the future
- folks in the US would dearly like to have him
- but at the same time having the details in (a UK) court could add some juicy stuff into the more vague parts of the Mueller report?

BTW, where is that other report, about Russian money buying our elites? Sorry, the heading is, or was ;) , about "influence"
- will be interesting to see whether the relevant committee, once reconstituted for this Parliament, will pick up the baton
- an interesting committee as traditionally the members have been 'handpicked' by the PM
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

ArmChairCivvy wrote: at the same time having the details in (a UK) court could add some juicy stuff into the more vague parts of the Mueller report?
The Waugh Zone of tonight is on the scent:
"McDonnell today said he discussed [while doing a prison visit] with Assange a startling claim made by his lawyer this week that Trump’s allies had offered to pardon him if he said Russia was not behind Wikileaks leaks of Hilary Clinton emails. During a visit to London in August 2017, congressman Dana Rohrabacher is said to have told Assange that “on instructions from the president he was offering a pardon or some other way out if Mr Assange...said Russia had nothing to do with the DNC [Democratic National Committee] leaks.”


[HOWEVER... BUT A SQUARE PEG CAN BE MADE TO FIT A ROUND HOLE, I am sure ;) ]
A huge problem for Assange here is that there’s plenty of evidence of his close links to Vladmir Putin and the Russian regime, and that the DNC leaks were part of a Russian state-sponsored hack"
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

As for the header for this thread, looks like there is serious competition around:

"Twitter disclosed three major state-backed networks pushing propaganda for China, Russia, and Turkey.
The Chinese network was by far the largest, comprising some 170,000 accounts.
Twitter found a "core" network of 23,750 accounts tweeting pro-government material, and this was in turn spread by 150,000 "amplifier" accounts."

From BI, by
Isobel Asher Hamilton
1 hour ago
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

User avatar
ArmChairCivvy
Senior Member
Posts: 16312
Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
United Kingdom

Re: Russian troll factories

Post by ArmChairCivvy »

No wonder they've been left behind, in dust. Six years of 'learning by doing' - from Sky News, today

"A vast Russian online deception operation has been exposed, unveiling a co-ordinated and extensive attempt to create tensions between European countries and the US.

The campaign, dubbed "Secondary Infektion", was waged over six years, in seven different languages and on 300 different online platforms."

This thread was started not long there after, but the 4th post on it stated:
"The stuff that was exposed in 2014/ 15 was for everyone to read in the free Russian press in 2013 (how much of it remains today; don't ask me):
http://www.novayagazeta.ru/politics/59889.html"
- and the post also deplored the fact that the Gvmnt had done away with "Kremnology" posts... so there was no one to "read the stuff" when it was still available. Take one of the better known cases (there are just too many):
"Politkovskaya, 48, was shot twice in the chest, once in the shoulder and once in the head as she returned to her Moscow home in broad daylight on October 7, 2006. The fifth anniversary of her death on Friday coincides with Putin’s 59th birthday.

A journalist with the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, she had made many enemies, including in the Kremlin, by writing hard-hitting articles"
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

Post Reply