Pentagon announces 2,000% increase in Russia trolls since Friday

[applegrove]

Haley Britzky at Axios

https://www.axios.com/russian-bots-increase-2195bf68-567c-4466-a705-17e69d4b6cad.html

"SNIP........

Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in Saturday's Pentagon briefing that there has been a "2,000% increase in Russian trolls in the last 24 hours," following the coordinated strike against Syria on Friday night.

The bottom line: The problem of Russian actors generating division and conflict among Americans isn't going away. As Axios' Sara Fischer and David McCabe reported last year, they aim to sow confusion and capitalize on political divisions. Senator Ben Sasse said in a statement on Saturday that this illustrates what "the wars of the future will look like...The fog of war will not be limited to our situation rooms and battlefields."

.........SNIP"

[BigmanPigman]

1. How and where do they they find these trolls?

If it is up to individual Americans to be able to spot and discern them for ourselves, then we are screwed. We are not that sophisticated in my opinion.

[Eliot Rosewater]

2. I chat on a youtube show and there are KGB folks there but my fellow chatters REFUSE

to believe me

i.e. they exist, they are out there, but so and so cant be one of them

YES so and so IS one

[BigmanPigman]

3. I believe they are out there but I can't spot them

myself and couldn't if my life depended on it. I would just say to myself, "so and so is just an idiot" or "everyone has the right to their opinion even if I don't agree". Our govt should do public service announcements on how to spot them like they do for citizens in European countries.

[Eliot Rosewater]

8. Excessive criticism of BOTH parties is the first clue.

[Hekate]

9. Yes, bothsideism and whataboutism are a clue.Like Trump's: We're not so innocent; we kill people too

I don't expect a presidential candidate to swear Uncle Sam is as pure as the driven snow -- gods know we have made plenty of mistakes as a country -- but we are not and never have been Russia (or Hitler's Germany, or, pick your own despotic regime).

In a similar vein regarding the Democratic versus Republican parties: saying there's "not a dime's worth of difference" as Ralph Nader did is not just a specious argument but a flat out lie.

[JNelson6563]

22. Read carefully.

If they post enough words it's usually clear English isn't their 1st language.

[Maraya1969]

18. It would be great if you reported them to Youtube if there is a way

[Maraya1969]

17. If you type in some far right hashtag on Twitter you will find some. I always

report them and have gotten confirmation that most that I have reported were removed

First you can tell by their inane remarks. Then you can check how long they have been on Twitter and compare that with how many followers they have and how many tweets they have put out.

If they have been on Twitter for less than a year and they have over 1,000
followers or have made 30,000 tweets, (most of them just go around retweeting right winged shit) then it is a sign that they are fake. They have descriptions like "#ProTrump and #MAGA Many have an icon of the US flag in their description.

[oberliner]

4. A common twitter refrain was blaming Israel, Zionists, or "The Jews"

Not sure if that is Russian trolls or just standard twitter anti-semites.

[applegrove]

5. I wish there was a way to stop them before they start.

[oberliner]

6. The Russian trolls or the twitter anti-semites?

[Hekate]

10. Are you saying we need to pick one?

[oberliner]

12. I wish there was a way to stop both!

[applegrove]

11. I assumed they were the same in this case.

[oberliner]

13. Some overlap

[applegrove]

14. Glad I don't come across that. Don't know what the answer is other than democratic

leadership in the Presidency.

[oberliner]

15. The ugly underbelly of twitter can be really scary

The understanding now that many of them are Russian trolls is only a tiny bit comforting.

It's hard to overstate what happens to people with Jewish surnames who post on Twitter regularly.

[applegrove]

16. I'm so naive. Twitter needs to clean up its act. And ban people who post

those hateful comments.

[applegrove]

19. CBC is playing this documentary tomorrow night:

http://www.cbc.ca/documentarychannel/m/docs/whats-with-the-jews1

[oberliner]

20. Nothing good could come from that

Imagine a documentary called "What's with the Blacks?" - the title itself is offensive.

[applegrove]

21. Oh well. I can't get the documentary channel. CBC does try and run up

Last edited Sat Apr 14, 2018, 11:04 PM - Edit history (2)

against the line. Just found out i have some german- Jewish heritage. Was hoping to find out more. I know nothing. Bupkiss.

[spanone]

7. the 2018 elections will see a 10,000% increase in russian trolls cause nothing's being done about it

nothing at all.