Twitter kills pro-Saudi "botnet" spreading Khashoggi disinformation tweets

[FSogol]

Twitter today pulled down a disinfo bot network that was amplifying pro-Saudi talking points about disappeared journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who is presumed to have been tortured and killed on orders of the government of Saudi Arabia.

NBC reports that Twitter became aware of the crisis Thursday, when an NBC News reporter presented the social media firm with “evidence of coordinated activity” in the form of “a spreadsheet of hundreds of accounts that tweeted and retweeted the same pro-Saudi government tweets at the same time.”

More at:

https://boingboing.net/2018/10/18/twitter-nukes-saudi-botnet.html

[Bfd]

1. It's a good start

[FSogol]

3. Yeah, but it's a shame twitter doesn't catch this on their own. It was exposed because of a NBC

reporter.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

17. did twitter follow up?

Did twitter follow up this take-down of the disinformation bot-net with notifications to everyone who received disinformation?

If not, then the targets of the bots are still acting as carriers for that disinformation. In other words, that net has just moved out 1 layer -- the core was cut out but not the body.

[BigGermanGuy]

20. and that right there is the problem

twitter and all social media need a built in kill switch on every post, that deletes any shares or retweets.

[Wellstone ruled]

5. Yes it is,you mean our so called Media

actually did their friggin job.

[Bfd]

7. Hard to believe isn't it. Media plays both sides., they really don't give a hoot otherwise

They just have to keep ratings up.
Election seasons are a gold mine for Media & they're not giving that cash cow up to stand on some silly principle.

They throw us all a bone now & then.

Makes me sick

[Wellstone ruled]

13. My guess is,someone

using the internet got blasted with Bots and decided to call a friend at a NBC and bitch.

[Bfd]

15. Most likely. Step carefully with the ruthless Saudis. It is time their true business in the US is

revealed.

They behead people. They chop people into pieces.
They are friends to no one.

They need to have all the world's eyes opened as to what they are doing with your country.


Remember?


Hand in hand for oil. GWBush & Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah at his ranch in Crawford, Texas,
April 2005

[erronis]

23. And they would never support terrorist attacks against skyscrapers in NYC....

[Bfd]

26. Nope never ever 🙄

Bush 1 & 2, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Condi, Bolton.. the old gang never really went away did they.

[groundloop]

28. Meet the new boss...... Same as the old boss

Won't Get Fooled Again !!!!!!

[Wellstone ruled]

30. Same old Oil for Dollars for

support of Saudi causes. Goes back to the days of meeting the Shake in the Desert with a brief cases full om money. Standard Oil(Rockefeller's) put the fix in and we are still writing History as a result.

[FakeNoose]

24. Give NBC credit for this one

NBC committed many sins in 2016, but I believe they're trying to make up for it now. I hope this is a new beginning for them.

BTW Tom Brokaw has a special news show on the Watergate-Saturday Night Massacre tomorrow (Saturday night on NBC) that happened 45 years ago.

I really believe that NBC News is becoming as anti-Trump as they dare right now. They're committing investigative manpower towards helping the good guys, and hurting the bad guys, like outing these Saudi bots. Look for more of this in the near future!

[Bfd]

27. True.

"as anti-Trump as they dare right now. "

[Cha]

2. Well that's Something!

[asiliveandbreathe]

4. Keep journalists safe.....Twitter became aware....NBC reporter provided Twitter

"evidence of coordinated activity" "a spreedsheet"...this took time...by journalists..

Keep journalist safe....this Khashoggi murder is a BFD!!!!!!

[dalton99a]

6. Mohammed bin Salman knows how to work the social media

[Bfd]

8. Yup. Check out who upped his investment in Twitter in 2015

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2015/10/07/saudi-prince-twitter-stock


Oct 17, 2015
Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed doubles his stake in Twitter

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the Saudi billionaire, doubled his investment in Twitter over the past six weeks, the Associated Press reports.

According to the SEC filing, Prince Alwaleed now holds 30,100,000 shares of the company while Kingdom Holding Company, his investment company of which he’s the chairman, holds 4,850,000 shares.

Combined, this adds up to over 5% of the social media site’s stock and a market value of $1 billion.
He and his company originally invested $300 million in Twitter back in 2011 before it went public in 2013.
------
Twitter wouldn't really risk the billionaire investor who gave the Co a shot in the arm when business was flat, would they?


Wonder who else the Kingdom Holding Company is invested in

[FSogol]

9. NPR did a story on that today

https://www.npr.org/2018/10/16/657724908/after-journalist-disappears-companies-reconsider-saudi-investment

Oops, wrong link, here's the correct one:

https://www.npr.org/2018/10/19/658721670/examining-the-close-ties-between-saudi-arabia-and-silicon-valley

[Bfd]

10. Aha! That's interesting. I had seen chatter on twitter about it too, earlier

How bout Facebook, Google,etc.
How much of US media does the Saudi's Kingdom Holding Company own?

The damage done has been immesureable

[dalton99a]

11. +1

[Bfd]

12. This is a must read. Glad to see some journalist peel back a layer

Am seriously hoping for writer Anand Giridharadas ' 'safety.



Examining The Close Ties Between Saudi Arabia And Silicon Valley
October 19, 20185:07 AM ET

Steve Inskeep talks with writer Anand Giridharadas about the relationship between Silicon Valley and Saudi Arabia. The presumed killing of a Saudi journalist raises concerns about the investments.

Thanks for the Link!

[mathematic]

14. Nice shallow conspiracy theory you got there

Perhaps it'd be better if you knew that Alwaleed was imprisoned on "corruption" charges by MBS and is in no way an ally of the crown prince.

[Bfd]

16. Doesn't matter. The point is how embedded & beholding Twitter,

Facebook, Google & the global media messaging is.

Who else had interest in Alwaleed's Company?
Who own's it now?
I give nothing of credibility to Saudis or Vladimer Putin.

Neither give a shit about their people or anyone elses.
Its about global dominence, however they acheive it.

[nolabear]

18. Same thing happened with Beto. I don't know if they killed it.

After the debate Twitter went berserk with identical messages about some vote he supposedly did. I assume that wasn’t the only one.

[SWBTATTReg]

19. This points out that all of us have a role to play in policing these social networks...

If you see something funny or suspicious, don't assume that someone else has spotted the abnormality too. Report it. Stop it as soon as possible. After all, there are literally 10s of millions of us on these networks daily, and these feeble efforts to influence behaviors and thoughts usually don't go anywhere because of the sheer numbers of people on these networks. Most people too aren't easily influenced by 'crap' and know something is
'crap' immediately.

[FiveGoodMen]

21. Once any bot is identified on a social media site, shouldn't it be shut down immediately

and automatically?

[littlemissmartypants]

29. Not all bots are nefarious. For example, there are art bots. eom

[FiveGoodMen]

31. Hopefully, there's some way for site software to differentiate.

[NJCher]

22. what were the talking points

the article doesn't say. I'd like to know what kind of bs they are spreading.

[FSogol]

25. I'm sure it is the same Muslim Brotherhood crap the GOP and Fox are trying to spread. n/t