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Posted
  On 11/27/2019 at 3:51 PM, Anastasis said:

Interesting new study related to the influence of Russian social media activity on political attitudes and behaviors.

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/11/20/1906420116

Assessing the Russian Internet Research Agency’s impact on the political attitudes and behaviors of American Twitter users in late 2017

Abstract

There is widespread concern that Russia and other countries have launched social-media campaigns designed to increase political divisions in the United States. Though a growing number of studies analyze the strategy of such campaigns, it is not yet known how these efforts shaped the political attitudes and behaviors of Americans. We study this question using longitudinal data that describe the attitudes and online behaviors of 1,239 Republican and Democratic Twitter users from late 2017 merged with nonpublic data about the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) from Twitter. Using Bayesian regression tree models, we find no evidence that interaction with IRA accounts substantially impacted 6 distinctive measures of political attitudes and behaviors over a 1-mo period. We also find that interaction with IRA accounts were most common among respondents with strong ideological homophily within their Twitter network, high interest in politics, and high frequency of Twitter usage. Together, these findings suggest that Russian trolls might have failed to sow discord because they mostly interacted with those who were already highly polarized. We conclude by discussing several important limitations of our study—especially our inability to determine whether IRA accounts influenced the 2016 presidential election—as well as its implications for future research on social media influence campaigns, political polarization, and computational social science.

Some of the key findings.

Fig. 1 presents standardized coefficients from this model, showing that the strongest predictor of IRA interaction is the strength of respondents’ echo chambers (measured as the percentage of political accounts they follow that lean toward the respondent’s own political party). The 2nd strongest predictor of IRA interaction is overall political interest, followed by frequency of Twitter usage. Though Republicans appeared more likely to interact with IRA accounts than Democrats, this association is not statistically significant. To summarize, our initial analysis indicates that the respondents most likely to interact with trolls were those who may be least susceptible to persuasion effects—because of their more entrenched political views.

Fig. 2 reports the ATTs of interacting with IRA accounts on each of the outcomes in our model with intervals derived from the 97.5th and 2.5th quantiles, respectively. These effects were standardized to have a mean of 0 and SD of 1 to facilitate interpretation. As this figure shows, IRA interaction did not have a significant association with any of our 6 outcome variables. Figs. 35 plot the individual treatment effects of troll interaction against the variables associated with troll interaction, collapsed into binary categories to facilitate interpretation. Fig. 3 shows no substantial differences in the effect of troll interactions, according to level of political interest across each of our outcomes. Figs. 4 and 5 report no substantial differences for frequency of Twitter usage or party identification, though there is a suggestive difference between Republicans and Democrats in change in the number of political accounts that respondents followed. We observed no other heterogeneous treatment effects by all other covariates in our models either (SI Appendix).

 

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They polled people who were already affiliated with a political party to draw a general conclusion that's also inclusive of undecided/unaffiliated voters? Call me crazy, but I don't think that's supported by their data.

But your enthusiasm in posting something (in armybrat size font, nice touch) that's arguing the russian's weren't all that bad is duly noted. Perhaps you'd like to tell us that both sides fuck with democracy so it's all gucci mayne?

Posted

Sorry about your neurological damage ant. It must really be a pain in the ass to have your knee jerk so much. Also sorry that you don’t like the font size used by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Posted (edited)

It’s easy to argue the Russian influence operations have a nominal effect at the surface level because it’s impossible to accurately measure.  

However, with a population already ideologically divided, a nominal influence is all a bad actor like Russia needs to alter the course of world events. 

Moreover, if their tactics are so ineffective, why are they dumping so many resources into it?  I’d love to think they are blowing their money and manpower but they have a decent track record of success in Eastern Europe that goes back 10+ years. 

Edited by Hugo Stiglitz
Posted

I think that there were plenty of people of the right leaning persuasion that would not have bothered to vote who may have gotten swayed by social media into thinking there was some nefarious force ready to destroy the universe and they got off their ass to vote because of this narrative.

Posted (edited)
  On 11/27/2019 at 8:55 PM, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Our division is what makes our democracy most vulnerable. 

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On this we agree 100%. The Russian seek to amplify the divisions that we created out of our own dysfunction. What these data also appear to suggest is that the most polarized, those that have created a social network echo chamber, have greater exposure to these attacks. Which I assume would only solidify the divisive polarization further.  While this may or may not translate into a measurable effect at the ballot box, it certainly only further erodes our social structure. 

Edited by Anastasis
  • Like 2
Posted
  On 11/27/2019 at 8:48 PM, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Moreover, if their tactics are so ineffective, why are they dumping so many resources into it?  I’d love to think they are blowing their money and manpower but they have a decent track record of success in Eastern Europe that goes back 10+ years. 

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These operations are cheap. How many pictures of Jesus and Hillary arm wrestling can you fit inside a MiG-35?

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
  On 12/7/2019 at 2:53 AM, JimmyJames said:

There’s a reason why trump met with Zuckerberg. 

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  On 12/7/2019 at 2:55 AM, JimmyJames said:

There is no doubt that people who work for Facebook read this board. Your company is a major part of the problem. You ok with that?

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  On 12/7/2019 at 2:58 AM, JimmyJames said:

Probably too afraid to post. Can’t blame them i suppose. They would know who you were immediately.

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Posted

Sorry I missed this; that is a very good question and I wish I could put a number to it. When you combine this information with the knowledge that they also have the voting records database from the hack I posted about on the previous page, they listed some of that data as worth about $20 million. That was credit/debit card data of around 150,000 users and the value was assigned to the fraud. So apples and oranges, but one of the co-conspirators listed in the indictment was trying to sell a database with American records of about 190 million people. I didn't read the whole indictment, so I don't know for how much it was selling and since the case was in Virginia whether it only focused on the portion of those records that belonged to citizens that resided there.

So in this case, there is a distilled version that has been groomed to focus with precision for your ad targeting. They know everything about you and with the phone tracking, wherever you go.

Crazy!

Posted
  On 12/14/2019 at 2:12 PM, Mrs Whiggins said:

Is this a politics thing or Daily Texan? I didn't see anything there. Computer gurus, please weigh in with your thoughts:

 

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Not much info in that article, but I'd bet they got hit with ransomware like every other major city. 

Posted (edited)

Long but informative dive into an entity that was news to me, TheSoul Pulishing. 

Lawfareblog

The Biggest Social Media Operation You’ve Never Heard of Is Run Out of Cyprus by Russians

What the heck is TheSoul Publishing? I’m still honestly not sure.

Here’s what I do know: Measured in terms of views and subscribers, it had the third-largest reach of any group of entertainment channels on YouTube in November—outranked only by Disney and WarnerMedia. It is run by Russian nationals and based in and managed from Cyprus, with U.S. operations housed in a shared work space in New York. It funds itself with ad revenues from YouTube and Google worth tens of millions of dollars. And in 2018, it purchased a small suite of Facebook advertisements targeting U.S. citizens on political issues—and it made those purchases in rubles.

Edited by Degenerate Gardner
a/an
  • Like 2
Posted
  On 12/21/2019 at 9:40 PM, Degenerate Gardner said:

Long but informative dive into a entity that was news to me, TheSoul Pulishing. 

Lawfareblog

The Biggest Social Media Operation You’ve Never Heard of Is Run Out of Cyprus by Russians

What the heck is TheSoul Publishing? I’m still honestly not sure.

Here’s what I do know: Measured in terms of views and subscribers, it had the third-largest reach of any group of entertainment channels on YouTube in November—outranked only by Disney and WarnerMedia. It is run by Russian nationals and based in and managed from Cyprus, with U.S. operations housed in a shared work space in New York. It funds itself with ad revenues from YouTube and Google worth tens of millions of dollars. And in 2018, it purchased a small suite of Facebook advertisements targeting U.S. citizens on political issues—and it made those purchases in rubles.

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Is this why we have Anastasis? 

Posted
  On 12/21/2019 at 9:40 PM, Degenerate Gardner said:

Long but informative dive into a entity that was news to me, TheSoul Pulishing. 

Lawfareblog

The Biggest Social Media Operation You’ve Never Heard of Is Run Out of Cyprus by Russians

What the heck is TheSoul Publishing? I’m still honestly not sure.

Here’s what I do know: Measured in terms of views and subscribers, it had the third-largest reach of any group of entertainment channels on YouTube in November—outranked only by Disney and WarnerMedia. It is run by Russian nationals and based in and managed from Cyprus, with U.S. operations housed in a shared work space in New York. It funds itself with ad revenues from YouTube and Google worth tens of millions of dollars. And in 2018, it purchased a small suite of Facebook advertisements targeting U.S. citizens on political issues—and it made those purchases in rubles.

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Here’s what I do know: Measured in terms of views and subscribers, it

had the third-largest reach of any group of entertainment channels on YouTube in November—outranked only by Disney and WarnerMedia. It is run by Russian nationals...

TheSoul’s numbers are undeniably impressive. Its largest channels have millions of subscribers and billions of views, according to information publicly available on the YouTube channels themselves. As of Dec. 16, 2019, 5-Minute Crafts had more than 62.8 million subscribers, and a total of 16,648,886,677 viewsBright Side had more than 32.3 million subscribers and 6,286,157,368 views.

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All pages started 2015, or later. Now has the third largest reach behind only Disney and WB. That should get everyone's attention and is fucking staggering. They are making tens of millions of dollars and can pay for themselves many times over. Producing and distributing Russian propaganda is now highly profitable. 

 

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What type of things are they discussing on these Russian propaganda channels?

Russia occupying the bulk of Asia and Europe. 

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Josef Stalin was actually a Robin Hood like crusader for the poor.

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  • Like 2
Posted
  On 12/26/2019 at 8:30 PM, Degenerate Gardner said:

Get fucked, Chuck. Man I miss Russert.

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Its not just Chuck.  All of these shows (not on FOX) want to be seen as in the middle so they don't call out the lies.  Would it be too much to ask for any of the hosts to show a spine and to call Ted Cruz for an example a liar if he lies?  How hard would it be to say, "Why are you lying to the American people about this?", or "Why are you lying to the fine people of Texas that you represent?".   

  • Like 1
  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

I don't know if this is authentic (despite the person's handle, I tend to question a lot on Twitter) but this is an account supposedly from a protestor that was part of the group thrown out of the Ohio rally last evening. She is from Columbus, and waited in line with the rest of the attendees:

And look, there's Brad P:

I don't know that this type of info is talked about enough, the absolute encouragement to close your eyes and ears to what you are seeing. The cult tactics. The protestor did not say who exactly was passing out this literature, it could have been anyone but it is still a crazy example of some of the way media is being used and abused. Nothing new, but at the same time, never have people been so distrustful of the news either. The fake news strategy has been a success in that regard.

  • Like 1
  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
Posted

https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-state-media-freak-over-joe-bidens-election-resurrection?ref=home

 

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Former Vice President Joe Biden’s Super Tuesday victories in 10 out of 14 state primaries caused shock waves not only in the United States, but in Russia. 

State media there have been confidently predicting the Democratic Party's nomination of Bernie Sanders, which would lead, they are sure, to the re-election of their favorite, President Donald J. Trump.

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Joe Biden’s win in South Carolina gave those Russian media pause, but his buoyant resurgence on Super Tuesday left the Kremlin’s mouthpieces nearly speechless. 

Reporting on the U.S. elections for Russian state TV channel Rossiya 24, Alyona Pivkina made a gesture of surprise and said: “Suddenly, Biden surged ahead.” The revelation was followed by an awkward moment of silence between Pivkina and the seemingly stunned host of the news broadcast.

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The pro-Kremlin newspaper Vzglyad complained that Biden “rose from the ashes like a phoenix,” prevailing “in spite of the corruption scandals” that have long been alleged and cultivated by the Russians—and the Republicans—concerning his son, Hunter, and his own activities in Ukraine. 

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With notable irritation, Vzglyad griped about Joe Biden’s state primary victories in North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Alabama, claiming that the pro-Biden votes in rural states were secured by “rednecks, who shoot skunks for fun, bowl, beat their wives and associate the word ‘socialist’ with the communist threat.” The newspaper bitterly surmised that through Biden’s anticipated nomination, the U.S. elites won yet another Cold War against socialism.

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Posted

This is a pretty weak attempt.  There's no logic to it.  Why would he say that?  Is their spin that he doesn't really want to be president and is a dotard plant or something?

Posted
  On 3/8/2020 at 1:51 PM, Francisco 2.0 said:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-state-media-freak-over-joe-bidens-election-resurrection?ref=home

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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LOL.....quoting an article from a far left-wing web site with far left-wing opinions. Seems about right for this fucking board.

Posted

Siap

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/07/politics/fiona-hill-russia-putin/index.html

President Donald Trump's former top Russia adviser is warning that President Vladimir Putin has America "exactly where he wants us."

"Putin, sadly, has got all of our political class, every single one of us, including the media, exactly where he wants us. He's got us feeling vulnerable...on edge, and he's got us questioning the legitimacy of our own systems," Fiona Hill told CBS' Lesley Stahl in an interview set to air on "60 Minutes" Sunday.

Posted
  On 3/8/2020 at 3:13 PM, Turkleton said:

LOL.....quoting an article from a far left-wing web site with far left-wing opinions. Seems about right for this fucking board.

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Worth noting, while daily beast does indeed have a definite bias to the left I wouldn't characterize them as far left and they have a history of accurate and factual reporting.

And the article linked was actual journalism with sourcing and not a shitty op-ed, and includes citations to sources for each of its claims.

But don't let that stop you from ad-hominem attacking it without actually considering the content.

Posted
  On 3/8/2020 at 3:13 PM, Turkleton said:

LOL.....quoting an article from a far left-wing web site with far left-wing opinions. Seems about right for this fucking board.

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Worth noting, while daily beast does indeed have a definite bias to the left I wouldn't characterize them as far left and they have a history of accurate and factual reporting.

And the article linked was actual journalism with sourcing and not a shitty op-ed, and includes citations to sources for each of its claims.

But don't let that stop you from ad-hominem attacking it without actually considering the content.



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