Anatomy of a Russian Propaganda Troll

[Aeula]

You do know there are ways to have your IP appear as something else, right? Russia is a pretty common one, especially on cheap free versions of things like VPN's.

[Ravenblade]

That's what he had on his twitter handle before. And he joined in 2011... that seems like way too deep for "troll operation" that didn't even get sufficient following.

I don't see what exactly name shows in this case... is that somehow damning?

And as he had no location on older tweets, obviously he had to enable it on his own... sounds like something American would do to "troll liberals".

It can be a hint, not always, I knew Russians who had actually German names. I think he is just one of those rabid activists with a hand full of time, we've had them during the Bush era as well. The era of the Freepers... Anyway, my point is that truly trolls probably wouldn't use Twitter or even be as loudmouthed. Soviet tactics usually did not involve being very verbose, that too but it was more about smokes&mirrors but only in conjunction with focus on manipulation of facts, planting false evidence, confusion and disruption. These days these things are even easier to orchestrate as has been seen in the Ukraine crisis, remember the congregation of well-equipped hobby hunters with a penchant for the same type of UAZ SUV turning out to be in fact special units even after intensive campaigns of denial by officials, activists and supporters alike?

[GennGreymane]

We didnt need a thread for this

also

That was fast. Its like the bat signal.

[Lolgo]

Cause you just had to poke the wasp nest...

Now we're not gonna hear the end of it, how Putin is the greatest sun-god ever to bless this Earth with existence, russians are holier than thou and the West is corrupt and festering and nazi and "LIESYOUDONTHAVEPROOFHURRDURR".

To the OP: this kind of thing might be new to Western people, but it's a pretty common thing for them to do. An opinion on internal affairs of somebody who is a citizen of your own country is valued more than that of a foreigner.
Remember that current russian propaganda is a direct descendant to Soviet propaganda, and that one was the best at what it did.

[Allybeboba]

There is no such account, photoshop? Also how hard would it be to make a fake account by this journalist to be convinient for his fake news story?

- - - Updated - - -



Everyone who didn't vote hillary is paid russian troll? Take off ur tinfoil hat.

Stock in aluminum foil just went up!!

[GennGreymane]

Stock in aluminum foil just went up!!

Can I borrow yours?

[fengosa]

Stock in aluminum foil just went up!!

The best part of this is it's not even subtle anymore. Trump is such a bad candidate anyone who is still supporting him is a schill.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/poli...icle-1.3207520

President Trump may be buying some Twitter love.

The tweeter-in-chief has picked up roughly 3 million Twitter followers in recent days, most of which appear to be recently created Twitter bots.

Screenwriter John Niven pointed out Tuesday morning that Trump's account saw a big spike in followers over the weekend, most of them newly created accounts without photos or tweets — telltale signs of Twitter bots.

Trump's Twitter following is now up to 31 million. According to Twitter Audit Report, a website that analyzes how many of an account's followers are real people, just under half of those aren't real: 15.9 million are authentic, and 15 million aren't, for a 51% reality rate

That's a big dip in the percentage of real people following the president. Just over a year ago he had just 7.6 million followers, but only 8% were fake,

For comparison's sake, President Obama's Twitter account has 89 million followers — and 79% of them are real.

Hmm, where have we seen this before? Maybe the independent voters can tell us? Also CNN is just the same as Fox guys.

[Adolecent]

Russian meddling in French, German, Brexit, US, Dutch democratic votes hurts Russian international integrity. Only an incompetent regime would do a thing like this that will damage Russian relations with the West for years to come.

Destabilising The West brings up a whole lot of other opportunities for Russia. And it is succeeding, as was expected when the devil was crowned January 20, 2017.

[Independent voter]

Cause you just had to poke the wasp nest...

Now we're not gonna hear the end of it, how Putin is the greatest sun-god ever to bless this Earth with existence, russians are holier than thou and the West is corrupt and festering and nazi and "LIESYOUDONTHAVEPROOFHURRDURR".

To the OP: this kind of thing might be new to Western people, but it's a pretty common thing for them to do. An opinion on internal affairs of somebody who is a citizen of your own country is valued more than that of a foreigner.
Remember that current russian propaganda is a direct descendant to Soviet propaganda, and that one was the best at what it did.

The Russians are shooting themselves in the foot. Your honesty, credibility and integrity as a nation is hurt by meddling in the democratic elections of Germany, France, Denmark, US and who knows else?

This will affect relations between Russia and the rest of the world for generations, every time a deal is negotiated people will say "you can't trust the Russians, they are a rogue nation."

I'm not sure why the Russian government would make such a huge mistake other than incompetence.

[Lolgo]

I'm not sure why the Russian government would make such a huge mistake other than incompetence.

Incompetence, fear, desperation, greed, stupidity, general predisposition towards warmongering. Take your pick.

[Deleted]

There's a pretty large chance that one of our resident Trumpkins works in one of these troll farms.

The problem is that only our kind host is able to detect them. Most times those people use private proxy networks, and multiple accounts. While there are ten different accounts posting and creating echo chambers with the same opinion, it probably is just one person controling these.

Still they all share the same agenda, the same enemies, the same stereotypes.

[Blue Minuteman]

The Russians are shooting themselves in the foot. Your honesty, credibility and integrity as a nation is hurt by meddling in the democratic elections of Germany, France, Denmark, US and who knows else?

This will affect relations between Russia and the rest of the world for generations, every time a deal is negotiated people will say "you can't trust the Russians, they are a rogue nation."

I'm not sure why the Russian government would make such a huge mistake other than incompetence.

Probably because there is a larger plan in place where they know they already have an advantage. Largely due to the influence they already wield over many minds, and not just in the US.

Putin is taking chess pieces off the board one by one without firing a shot: setting up the ideal scenario for him to launch his war.

And let's not forget about that half a trillion dollar oil deal between Putin and Exxon, which is also why 45* really pulled out of the Paris Accord. An oil deal of such magnitude during a time of military escalation could only be a prelude for mass mechanized warfare.

[fengosa]

Probably because there is a larger plan in place where they know they already have an advantage. Largely due to the influence they already wield over many minds, and not just in the US.

Putin is taking chess pieces off the board one by one without firing a shot: setting up the ideal scenario for him to launch his war.

And let's not forget about that half a trillion dollar oil deal between Putin and Exxon, which is also why 45* really pulled out of the Paris Accord. An oil deal of such magnitude during a time of military escalation could only be a prelude for mass mechanized warfare.

Putin has no interest in fighting an actual war, at least not with the west. He wants foreign leaders who are apathetic towards the UN and won't call him out on his BS.

[Moralgy]

Did the account just go "its a prank bro, pranked ya!" when it got caught?

[Skroe]

I've long been rather curious about "Trumpkin Women" twitter posters. They look... how shall I say... rather disingenous. Stop me if you notice a theme.

http://imgur.com/a/lk8J4

(lots of images so I put it in a imgur gallery)

They're all so gushingly political it makes even my stomach churn. They all post the most absurdly loving things about Trump. Oh and one more thing...

(for the most part), they all also tweet or retweet nearly every 15 minutes or so... for 24 hours on end. If these people are to be believed, they live only to traverse the internet, looking for the most scathing political things to tweet or retweet.

Needless to say, they ain't kosher at all. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

[Moralgy]

I've long been rather curious about "Trumpkin Women" twitter posters. They look... how shall I say... rather disingenous. Stop me if you notice a theme.

http://imgur.com/a/lk8J4

(lots of images so I put it in a imgur gallery)

They're all so gushingly political it makes even my stomach churn. They all post the most absurdly loving things about Trump. Oh and one more thing...

(for the most part), they all also tweet or retweet nearly every 15 minutes or so... for 24 hours on end. If these people are to be believed, they live only to traverse the internet, looking for the most scathing political things to tweet or retweet.

Needless to say, they ain't kosher at all. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Jesus christ those people tweet a lot. I tried to scroll down to find the context for the Alice one's profile picture, given the edited on hat and image imposed on a different background, but I barely made it to yesterday before I gave up.

[Mormolyce]

That's a big dip in the percentage of real people following the president. Just over a year ago he had just 7.6 million followers, but only 8% were fake,

For comparison's sake, President Obama's Twitter account has 89 million followers — and 79% of them are real.

Someone bring up how much smaller his Twitter following is than Obama's to Trump. He'll absolutely flip his shit and talk about nothing else for months.

[Deleted]

So I was thinking, about the anatomy of a US propaganda troll...would it be Trump, or would it be Spicer? I mean, clearly they're both trolls, and clearly they both troll people constantly. They also both seem to be spewing a lot of propaganda. But, which one of them is the true propaganda troll?

[Crispin]

So I was thinking, about the anatomy of a US propaganda troll...would it be Trump, or would it be Spicer? I mean, clearly they're both trolls, and clearly they both troll people constantly. They also both seem to be spewing a lot of propaganda. But, which one of them is the true propaganda troll?

Easy

[Xirrohon]

Its pretty hard to believe that somebody would have the Geo Tagging turned off only to accidentally turn it on, esp if they are one of the Trollers. But I guess I can see it happening. Like others have said, its pretty easy to set your VPN to another location. Lots of people use those apps to hide their IP with use of a VPN when doing illegal downloading, etc.