How Russia used social media to divide Americans

[Independent voter]

Twitter Was Warned Repeatedly About This Fake Account Run By A Russian Troll Farm And Refused To Take It Down

The account was one of hundreds created by Russia's Internet Research Agency and drew 136,000 followers by tweeting divisive messages in the name of the Tennessee Republican Party.

Twitter took 11 months to close a Russian troll account that claimed to speak for the Tennessee Republican Party even after that state's real GOP notified the social media company that the account was a fake.

The account, @Ten_GOP, was enormously popular, amassing at least 136,000 followers between its creation in November 2015 and when Twitter shut it down in August, according to a snapshot of the account captured by the Internet Archive just before the account was "permanently suspended."

[Elim Garak]

Albright agreed that “there needs to be some kind of oversight”.

In case anyone wonders what is this all about. Americans are too fragile to have an unrestricted access to information, Democracy is in the Danger Zone.

[Doctor Amadeus]

But they could've indoctrinated you into hating them. Kept pushing your buttons with fake stories over and over again. Overemphasizing certain events that are trivial. Perfect example is the "miracle" comment Trump recently made that tons of radical leftist misinterpreted and used to viciously attack anyone and everyone on the right. Your hatred is mostly irrational. It's my personal opinion that you're an unknowing pawn that's dividing the US.

No Don’t blame Russia. Trumpsters earned my hatred and that is my choice and there is no going back. Racism, blind hatred and declaring war on the left wasn’t Russia that was Trump and Trumpsters.

Nothing dividing for me its divided.

McCain is a man of honor who I disagree with. This man in the middle of his own campaign corrected the stupidity and rhetoric of the delusional and fucking Critically stupid calling Obama a Unamerican and a terrorist. Trump embraced this kind of shit and those that voted for this clown or protest voted that was their choice.

No other Republicans had violence at their rallies like Trump and no others would have this country where it is now. Trumpsters choose this. So I’m not going to accept any bullshit excuse.

Anger, hatred and violence that’s where we are. All because of people who bitch about giving a little when they have a lot more. Now I rather they lose everything at any cost. So forget the Russian bots.

[Strawberry]

Neither Trump nor Clinton are very popular, that's why so few Americans voted. It was a crazy republican vs warmongering democrat.
It's better Trump won, as Clinton would only have created more chaos in the world. Hopefully next year the Americans get sensible candidates, although I don't really care as I'm not American.

[AeneasBK]

You don't see that ever.

Didn't the whole Ferguson thing kick off because the chief of police had a "bag a n*gger" days and things like that? Seems pretty institutionalised in that example...

Assuming you don't get to be the top dog in that area by drawing straws.

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Who the fuck is claiming that they're leaving minorities to die? What the fuck are you even talking about?

I guess his point is as long as one minority receives healthcare or police protection any accusations of racism are clearly unfounded. That or he's an idiot.

[Zmaniac17]

Russia or the people themselves? Maniford chose to work with the Ukraine out of his own reasons. Congress will probably not release that info of what actually went down. Flynn obviously worked for Turkey which is odd given his flammable anti Islamic rhetoric but that’s him. Everyone else it’s their own choice and seems they did it before trump recruited them.
The way this is turning out it was a fluke in the system they ignored the clearance and that’s why they have this mess. For actual Russian influence Facebook and Twitter are held world wide I highly doubt Russia is the only one bottling the system with fake news. Also their sites not really designed for actual information their hangouts a way to talk to people and feel as a part of something greater. For them to be worthy of news that’s odd.

Maniford and Flynn were getting paid lots of money. The people signing those checks were not doing it for fun. Do you think American citizens would just decide to represent Russian interests for kicks and giggles? There is allowing for the possibility of coincidence and then there's just sticking your head in the sand.

Twitter and Facebook may not have been designed to disseminate news but that is what they do. That is what people do when they hang out and talk to each other. They share news.

I remember talking to some acquaintances ahead of the 2016 election and being shocked by the things I heard them say about Clinton. I had no idea what pizza gate was at the time. But apparently they had heard a lot about it in their circles and seemed to believe it. I have a feeling if you asked them now they would say they didn't believe it. But it was enough to reinforce the negative views they already had about Clinton at the time. We shouldn't underestimate the power of information.

[Elim Garak]

Do you think American citizens would just decide to represent Russian interests for kicks and giggles?

Wait, are you implying that American interests should be exceptional? Never shared by some other country?

[Zmaniac17]

Wait, are you implying that American interests should be exceptional? Never shared by some other country?

I can be more specific if you like. American citizens, especially those at high levels in the government don't have much to gain by representing a hostile foreign power. And they have much to lose. They don't do it without being offered a lot of money. That is why you can't get a security clearance if you have financial problems.

[Hiricine]

If Russia helped us realize what terrible policy the Left was pushing then we should be thanking them, its not like they put a gun to anyone's head and told them to have an opinion they didn't want.

[ati87]

Polls are opinion based. When you have media telling people the reason they are struggling in life is simply their race after awhile of the lie being reinforced people start to believe the lie. If racism was actually institutional than shouldn't police and ambulances and everyone else just leave minorities in the streets to die? It's BS. You don't see that ever. This is about as fake as russia overturning our election.

First go back to school...polling isn't opinion is statistics please learn how statistics work before you call that a opinion.

Second part about ''struggling in life because of race'' is brilliant coming form a person who tries to deny the existence of racisme. Every right-winger plays identity poltics because of who they attack. If you translate what the likes Trump or the Brexit camp says then you get the following

You aren't struggling because of what you do, you are struggling because of ''insert random minority'' screwing you over''

How is this not god dam blaming race? You lot (yes you to) blame everything on ''insert random minority'' from you're housing to the point women don't like you.

Also are we going to lower the bar of racisme so much to the point where the government killing minorities? So shooting them in the back or imprisoning them at the disproportional rate while the crimes committed is relativity the same doesn't count?

[Elim Garak]

I can be more specific if you like. American citizens, especially those at high levels in the government don't have much to gain by representing a hostile foreign power. And they have much to lose. They don't do it without being offered a lot of money. That is why you can't get a security clearance if you have financial problems.

Well there are several issues with that:
1. Russia is not hostile, it's just a foreign power USA is hostile towards out of a blue.
2. If high level American citizens don't have much to gain and poor don't have the neccessary clearance - then there's no problem?
3. If a foreign power wants global prosperity and US citizens want global prosperity - nothing wrong in them sharing the same interesets, hostile or otherwise.

[FireVoodoo]

Yep! Pretty much it. We also flooded Huston with Harvey (top-secret KGB tech). Watch out for that Yellowstone Volcano.

Seriously though. They say in Russia this days "America is big Ukraine". Guess why

[Zmaniac17]

Well there are several issues with that:
1. Russia is not hostile, it's just a foreign power USA is hostile towards out of a blue.
2. If high level American citizens don't have much to gain and poor don't have the neccessary clearance - then there's no problem?
3. If a foreign power wants global prosperity and US citizens want global prosperity - nothing wrong in them sharing the same interesets, hostile or otherwise.

1. Uhh, have you been paying attention to anything that has happened in the last 60 years? Or most recently to Ukraine in regards to Russia? "Out of the blue..." I don't know what to say to that.

2. I don't understand what you said here.

3. No there's nothing wrong with sharing interests. In fact we cooperate with Russia to maintain the international space station which is amazing. We could not do it without them. However, those shared interests are not the ones that Maniford and Flynn were paid to lobby for. They wanted to remove sanctions imposed for the invasion of Crimea in Ukraine.

[Guyv3r]

And America made it easy for the Russians by having one of the worst educational systems of the First World.

To be fair, education does not increase intelligence.

[Elim Garak]

1. Uhh, have you been paying attention to anything that has happened in the last 60 years? Or most recently to Ukraine in regards to Russia? "Out of the blue..." I don't know what to say to that.

2. I don't understand what you said here.

3. No there's nothing wrong with sharing interests. In fact we cooperate with Russia to maintain the international space station which is amazing. We could not do it without them. However, those shared interests are not the ones that Maniford and Flynn were paid to lobby for. They wanted to remove sanctions imposed for the invasion of Crimea in Ukraine.

1. Have you? Or are you gonna just parrot your media that parrots what your government says? It's out of the blue.
2. That's sad.
3. Haha, that's exactly what p1 is about. US is hostile towards Russia out of a blue, but it is not in the best interests for USA to be enemies with Russia, and some people understand this and you accuse them of collusion with the "enemy". Carry on.

[Zmaniac17]

To be fair, education does not increase intelligence.

Critical thinking can be taught and improves with practice. Education isn't the memorizing of facts and that is where our education system fails us. It is more important to know how to solve a problem than it is to remember the solution. The most important questions are the ones that have not been solved yet. There is a reason most genius inventors and Nobel prize winners were most productive in their late 30's and 40's.

[Guyv3r]

Critical thinking can be taught and improves with practice. Education isn't the memorizing of facts and that is where our education system fails us. It is more important to know how to solve a problem than it is to remember the solution.

I know. But it doesn't make them smart enough to know the difference between what's real or fake.
They just ride the emotion rollercoaster everytime some word triggers them and don't even think about the veracity of it.

[Elim Garak]

Critical thinking can be taught and improves with practice.

It requries a certain level of IQ. Most people don't have it.

[Strawberry]

I also find it fucking hilarious people STILL somehow think Clinton would have created more chaos and think Trump is better. What delusional world do you live in?

The world affected by Clintons.
What world do you live in?

[Zmaniac17]

I know. But it doesn't make them smart enough to know the difference between what's real or fake.
They just ride the emotion rollercoaster everytime some word triggers them and don't even think about the veracity of it.

I understand what you mean, but I think you underestimate people in general. In my opinion, most people are smart enough, but they lack the experience they need to analyze what they see. Social media is a fairly new development. It might not have as big an impact next time as the current generation learns from past mistakes. We can only hope.