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Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls
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Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls


Aug 8, 2018, 7:37 PM

One of the more troubling aspects of American discourse lately has been the effective "weaponization" of the social media...Facebook released some 3,500 ads they have removed - many of them in badly-translated Google English - that the alleged Russian trolls posted during the 2016 election. Usually posing as "concerned Americans", the Russian troll farm forwarded these ads to members of both parties, actually, based on political preferences and perceived biases that were collated using Facebook user data illegally obtained by now-defunct consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. Whatever your views were on the ultimate impact it had, nobody can argue that deliberate trolling doesn't cause often heated and vehement disagreement...what we're seeing now is the proliferation of "trolling for a specific purpose."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/05/10/here-are-the-3400-facebook-ads-purchased-by-russias-online-trolls-during-the-2016-election/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ffa3bf9e01fd

Some of them were pretty overt, like inviting members of pro-and-anti-Beyonce supporters to the same spot, at the same time, like kids trying to start a playground fight:



In the case of the Russian troll farm that is now under indictment by the US Department of Justice - which most analysts believe is targeting virtually every Western democracy, the goal seems to be the same: division. Stir the pot. Poke sensitive areas. Start fights. Make people believe they hate one another more than they actually do. It's a distinct and troubling trend and it's effectively a new form of warfare...and one that is actually fairly effective at the moment because as a culture we're simply not immunized to it.

The point is, that archliberal who's posting socialistic dogma even VI Lenin would find extreme, or that racist rightwing derp saying stuff even David Duke would find loathsome might actually not be a fellow 'Merican at all...it could be a Russian troll, deliberately pitting American against American by using the freedom and connectedness of the Internet...paradoxically, to attack freedom and connectedness.

Democracy has enemies. The West appears to be coming to a (belated) realization that it is under a new form of persistent attack, and from the usual Bad Actors - Russia, China, North Korea...even Iran appears to be getting into the game.

What's pretty cool is that a couple of Clemson professors have actually used some pretty sophisticated data mining to collect those tweets, and they're interesting as heck to parse. The stat site Five Thirty-Eight has a real interesting article on it here:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-were-sharing-3-million-russian-troll-tweets/

Definitely worth a lookit for those who are interested in such things.

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Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls


Aug 8, 2018, 8:11 PM

FWIW: The Washington Post is extremely liberal, and basically I tend to dispute everything that that rag prints. JMO.

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Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls


Aug 8, 2018, 8:50 PM

Clemson is turning liberal and it makes me sick to my stomach

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How is this a “liberal” thing?!


Aug 9, 2018, 1:49 AM

There was a day in time when everyone knew Russia was evil. Now it’s a partisan issue. Obama laughed when Romney said Putin was dangerous, and conservatives believe whatever the ##### grabber in chief tells them to believe.

That...makes me sick to my stomach.

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Re: How is this a “liberal” thing?!


Aug 9, 2018, 8:33 AM


There was a day in time when everyone knew Russia was evil. Now it’s a partisan issue. Obama laughed when Romney said Putin was dangerous, and conservatives believe whatever the ##### grabber in chief tells them to believe.

That...makes me sick to my stomach.



It's not a partisan issue. Obama was an idiot for minimizing the threat Putin presented to Romney, and Trump has persistently bled support ever since he's patently refused to acknowledge the obvious threat Russia presents as well.

How can anybody not look at Putin and tell the man is a calculating, cold-blooded vampire? He's interested in one thing: power, and maintaining and expanding that power, and people are nothing but objects to be used and manipulated (and disposed of!) to that end, to him. He'll kill or jail journalists who report things he doesn't want reported. He'll kill or jail political opponents. He uses nerve gas - which is considered a WMD under the Geneva conventions! - to attack former KGB defectors on English soil. He almost certainly used a radioactive isotope to kill (horribly, it's a real bad way to check out) a Russian defector on American soil a decade or so back. He's re-started the Cold War, robbed Russia blind (no one's quite sure how much of Russia's money Putin and the other oligarchs have stashed away in international banks for a rainy day, but it's a significant chunk of the money in Russia), and now he's trying to weaponize our social media. He instituted a state-sponsored Olympic doping scheme and won I don't know how many gold medals by using the FSB (what the KGB evolved into) to swap urine samples through a hole in the wall cloak-and-dagger style.

Putin is a former KGB officer, and the KGB was all about manipulation and dirty tricks. He is no friend to the West...and it's astounding anybody would argue the man is "dangerous"...or can be trusted in any way, shape, form or fashion.

Putin. Is. Dangerous. It's not hard. It's not debatable.

Like most Russians from his era, he respects one thing, and one thing only: strength. And the last president who really stood up to Russia was Ronald Reagan...and poof, hey, there's the Berlin Wall coming down.

Why we as Republicans are arguing that because it appears they may have supported Trump is beyond me. Everything we saw on this issue indicates their second choice - if they couldn't have Trump - was going to be be Bernie Sanders, who's all the way across the liberal spectrum to outright Socialist - and the reason there is very simple: he would have been divisive too...and weak, to boot. They looked at Sanders and saw Jimmy Carter Redux. For those too young - or too senile! - to remember, in the Jimmy Carter era we had gas lines across America because OPEC was yanking us around at the pump for years, and some Student Militants in Iran had grabbed our embassy in Tehran and were parading American hostages with bags over their heads in front of the cameras for the better part of a year while yelling "Death to America!". And Carter looked on...helplessly. And with every passing day under JC, America looked weaker...and weaker...and weaker.

In making Russia's behavior a "partisan" issue we've neatly fallen right into their trap.

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Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls


Aug 9, 2018, 1:51 AM [ in reply to Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls ]

Universities by their very nature are progressive. Trying to create new knowledge is literally the opposite of conservatism.

2024 student level member flag link military_tech thumb_downthumb_up

LOL you accidentally identified the problem.


Aug 9, 2018, 3:09 AM

"Creating new knowledge," instead of factually informing their students. Newspeak for propaganda.

2024 student level memberbadge-donor-10yr.jpg2008_ncaa_champ.jpgbadge-ringofhonor-clemsonpoker489.jpgmilitary_donation.jpg flag link military_tech thumb_downthumb_up

NIXON WAS INNIOCENT!***


Aug 8, 2018, 8:56 PM [ in reply to Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls ]



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Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls


Aug 8, 2018, 9:29 PM [ in reply to Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls ]

So anything that is printed by the Washington Post is not newsworthy to you ?

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DB23


What about the article is partisan?


Aug 8, 2018, 10:24 PM [ in reply to Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls ]

I don't understand how an adult can look at a factual article and dismiss its content because of a partisan slant in other coverage.

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R u kidding? It is all partisan except for the stuff


Aug 9, 2018, 2:03 AM

that, of course, is bi-partisan !! It's so obvious!

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Well, when the president encourages it, doesn't surprise me***


Aug 9, 2018, 9:18 AM [ in reply to What about the article is partisan? ]



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It’s because “I’m right and you’re wrong” mentality.


Aug 9, 2018, 9:33 AM [ in reply to What about the article is partisan? ]

The data shows that these guys posted things to get both sides riled up in order to sow discord among all of us, to their advantage. But the way it shows up in the media is “Russia helped Trump win”. That’s why some people don’t trust anything they read from certain sources.

If the goal was to pit Americans against each other, they succeeded.

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What about the article is partisan?


Aug 8, 2018, 10:24 PM [ in reply to Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls ]

I don't understand how an adult can look at a factual article and dismiss its content because of a partisan slant in other coverage.

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Another fine example of Clemson ingenuity.***


Aug 8, 2018, 8:50 PM



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It's not just "the bad guys either."


Aug 8, 2018, 9:20 PM

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks

https://21stcenturywire.com/2018/01/25/israel-reveals-plan-flood-internet-news-feeds-propaganda/

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Re: It's not just "the bad guys either."


Aug 8, 2018, 11:34 PM

Good point , this has been going on for a while and it's probably just going to accelerate at this point . Both sides can and are playing this game . Welcome to 21st century cyber-warfare .

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DB23


Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls


Aug 8, 2018, 9:43 PM

I oppose the Russian meddling but I think it’s pretty clear they aren’t Trump fans; just anti-American. What is being overlooked in the investigation is that President Obama spent $3 million US taxpayer dollars to try to influence the Israeli election when he was in office. So we can’t be too alarmed that other countries behave similarly. Go Tigers!

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You got a link for that claim?***


Aug 8, 2018, 11:50 PM



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Re: You got a link for that claim?***


Aug 9, 2018, 1:34 AM

Looks like he added an extra zero.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/12/obama-admin-sent-taxpayer-money-oust-netanyahu/

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"Anybody that says Coach Brownell is the best coach to come through Clemson is going to start an argument." -JP Hall


Maybe we should deliver them pallets of money


Aug 8, 2018, 9:54 PM

under cover of darkness ...

Obama did this for Iran and look what that did for Iran / US relations ... They only chant "Death to America" on Mon-Fri now ... they take weekends off.

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Then Trump gets involved and they’re chanting


Aug 9, 2018, 9:40 AM

“Death to the dictator”. Interesting how that happens.

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Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls


Aug 8, 2018, 10:07 PM

If you are so weak, that fake news on social media influences your vote, then you deserve to be "meddled" with.... The biggest abuse of power and collusion EVER, occured between the DNC, justice dept, and christopher steele, but no one cares. What is more annoying is that my one reprieve "tigernet" is now full of hippie propoganda about garbage island "those pics are post tsunami in japan and the phillipines" and russian meddling... unless they are changing the vote count, who cares! Take your concerns over to Huffington Post if you need a pat on the back.

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Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls


Aug 8, 2018, 10:55 PM

Hear, hear....Keowee! You have very correctly nailed it....

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Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls


Aug 8, 2018, 11:09 PM [ in reply to Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls ]


If you are so weak, that fake news on social media influences your vote, then you deserve to be "meddled" with.... The biggest abuse of power and collusion EVER, occured between the DNC, justice dept, and christopher steele, but no one cares. What is more annoying is that my one reprieve "tigernet" is now full of hippie propoganda about garbage island "those pics are post tsunami in japan and the phillipines" and russian meddling... unless they are changing the vote count, who cares! Take your concerns over to Huffington Post if you need a pat on the back.



Thanks for emphatically reinforcing my point. Discourse in this country seems...uncivil. And certain people seem convinced the real enemies of America are actually...other Americans.

I disagree. I think the enemies of America are pretty much the same guys who have always been the enemies of America. I just think they're trying new stuff on us now.

By the way, I'm a registered Republican, not exactly a "hippie" or a "liberal". I believe - very strongly - in a vigorous and bristling defense, and attacks on this country concern me. In this case I'm concerned by what's called a "memetic" attack. If you don't know what that is, and how it can affect the course of discussions, google it. But it's a real thing and various agencies are more and more dipping into it...and we need to immunize ourselves because the noise is getting overwhelming.

We probably will never know the extent to which the 2016 election was influenced by Russia. I'm not speaking to that. This isn't a political post.

What concerns me is that it appears enemies of the United States are attempting the old "divide and conquer" strategy...and it's succeeding.

The American next to us - regardless of race, color, religion, sexual orientation, income level, whatever - is all we have to bulwark us against those who would destroy us...and I think sometimes it would behoove all of us to remember that fact.

All I'm saying. If that's "hippie nonsense", well, peace and love, brother, and I'd urge you to get some yourself.

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Beautifully stated. We'll disagree, doesn't mean we have to disregard or disrepect


Aug 8, 2018, 11:57 PM

everything about our brothers and sisters.

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null


Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls


Aug 9, 2018, 1:47 AM [ in reply to Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls ]

But what about Hillary!?

I think they proved your point and kudos to you for a well-articulated message.

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Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls


Aug 9, 2018, 1:55 AM

1st. Many of these Facebook ads, etc typically are so off the wall most people typcially dismiss them. The ones who bite on these are typically the fringe of both parties and their minds are typically made up without any influence from these "ads". 2nd Russia (and a host of other countries) has been trying to influence our elections for decades. This isnt something new. So then why all the attention now? Seems the answer is pretty obvious.

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Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls


Aug 9, 2018, 2:44 AM

It is nothing new, you're right about that . Russian interference in US elections does go back decades .
The interest from my vantage point however... now ... is were they assisted by traitors to this country ? There is a very real possibility of that being the case . Some would argue that there is no doubt .

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DB23


Re: Interesting from Clemson professors: Russian trolls


Aug 9, 2018, 10:46 AM

You lost me at Washington Post. Everything they write is extremely partisan with an agenda. So whatever assertion they make, must be taken with a very large grain of salt.

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Screw Calford.


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