After Florida School Shooting, Russian 'Bot' Army Pounced

[DonViejo]

Source: The New York Times




By SHEERA FRENKEL and DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI FEB. 19, 2018

SAN FRANCISCO — One hour after news broke about the school shooting in Florida last week, Twitter accounts suspected of having links to Russia released hundreds of posts taking up the gun control debate.

The accounts addressed the news with the speed of a cable news network. Some adopted the hashtag #guncontrolnow. Others used #gunreformnow and #Parklandshooting. Earlier on Wednesday, before the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., many of those accounts had been focused on the investigation by the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

“This is pretty typical for them, to hop on breaking news like this,” said Jonathon Morgan, chief executive of New Knowledge, a company that tracks online disinformation campaigns. “The bots focus on anything that is divisive for Americans. Almost systematically.”

One of the most divisive issues in the nation is how to handle guns, pitting Second Amendment advocates against proponents of gun control. And the messages from these automated accounts, or bots, were designed to widen the divide and make compromise even more difficult.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/19/technology/russian-bots-school-shooting.html

[ffr]

1. Bot of course they did. What do you say, Emma Gonzales?

Just ignore them.

I agree with Emma.


Focus on making change. Any change.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. presumes they're Russian

Just because bots swarm, doesn't mean they're Russian.

[IronLionZion]

7. Did you read the article, comrade?

Those automated Twitter accounts have been closely tracked by researchers. Last year, the Alliance for Securing Democracy, in conjunction with the German Marshall Fund, a public policy research group in Washington, created a website that tracks hundreds of Twitter accounts of human users and suspected bots that they have linked to a Russian influence campaign.

The researchers zeroed in on Twitter accounts posting information that was in step with material coming from well-known Russian propaganda outlets. To spot an automated bot, they looked for certain signs, like an extremely high volume of posts or content that conspicuously matched hundreds of other accounts.

Have a bowl of borscht while you read it



or some fine vodka and caviar

[Hermit-The-Prog]

9. yes I did

And I don't think we're comrades. Have we met?

Re-read the part you quoted. Just because the posted informations "was in step with" Russian propaganda does not mean it came from Russian bots. Copycats abound. Trolls are lazy and bots have been around a long time.

Sometimes hoofbeats just mean horses, not zebras.

[Wednesdays]

13. This subthread is Exhibit A.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

14. let this be Exhibit B

I still remember the New York Times with their pre-election headline proclaiming no link between Trump and Russia. It makes me a little skeptical without corroborating reports. When "slashdotting" was a thing, lots of self-styled experts were certain that web servers were suffering ddos attacks. NYT's expert may be just riding the Russian bot buzz for clicks.

Twitter has shown itself to be a noise machine. I don't care much for noise.

[LanternWaste]

15. You certainly make many unsupported allegations.

You certainly make many unsupported allegations.

They are indeed, very creative rather than mere noise, else you'd appear to be holding yourself to a lower standard than you hold others.

The important thing is you continue to dig in and point everywhere other than Moscow.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

16. supporting link

Took about 5 seconds:

Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia

By ERIC LICHTBLAU and STEVEN LEE MYERSOCT. 31, 2016
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/us/politics/fbi-russia-election-donald-trump.html

Couple that headline with Comey's big announcement of more emails and think about the effect on election day. It's a sensationalistic headline that encouraged a conclusion on the part of skim-readers that the facts didn't support.

I will assume you haven't forgotten all of the false equivalencies and 'both sides do it' from 2016. Just in case that's a bad assumption, here's just one reminder:
https://www.thenation.com/article/how-false-equivalence-is-distorting-the-2016-election-coverage/

Here's another good reason for me to treat the NYT with a bit of skepticism (and, yes, hostility):
In NYT’s Hillary Clinton Coverage, An Obsession With ‘Clouds’ And ‘Shadows’
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/new-york-times-cloud-shadow-clinton-coverage

As to your point about me "point[ing] everywhere other than Moscow", that's not quite so. My comments are so far still available to read, above. The NYT article says, "Twitter accounts suspected of having links to Russia" and "many of those accounts had been focused on the investigation by the special counsel Robert S. Mueller". Does that "many" mean most, half, a number that seems big to the reporter? I believe Mueller. I don't know enough about Morgan to assume that he is as diligent in tracking down the origins of disinformation bots.

We can't tell from the article (1) how much the twitter conversation about the shooting was real, (2) how much amplification went on by Russian bots, (3) how much amplification went on by people sincerely enraged and grief-stricken and looking for someone expressing it in a way they agreed with and therefore re-tweeted, (4) how much Russian bots participated just to sow doubt in everyone's mind about how outraged the nation is about school massacres.

I remain skeptical of the NYT's motives -- they could be riding on the coattails of the stories of Mueller's indictments and the Florida massacre just to get clicks. They could be getting "taken in" by (4) above.

I choose to believe the outrage is real and nationwide.

[GusBob]

17. Good Lord did you mangle that proverb on purpose?

You got it completely backwards, words and intended meaning

It goes like this:

"When you hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras"

It means common things occur commonly i.e. MOST times it is horses, not zebras

[Hermit-The-Prog]

19. um, yeah

Are you saying that perhaps the NYT may be looking for zebras where there are horses?

Interesting.

[GusBob]

20. The NYT article makes it clear from which country the trolls originate

You know what's interesting to me? Russian are really into proverbs

[Hermit-The-Prog]

21. see above

Well, I guess y'all got me. I went through Georgia 4 times back in the '70s, so I reckon I'm a Russian now. Didn't realize the stink of paper mills outside Savannah could transform a body that much, but so be it.

Have fun, now.

[GusBob]

22. There's a Russian proverb that applies here actually

If you defend the wolf, prepare to get bitten

[Beakybird]

3. I could see the Russian bots

making ham-handed attacks on Trump, and then Trump can say the Russians are against him.

[Chemisse]

10. They post on both sides of an issue.

Their goal is to divide us, not just prop up Trump.

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. Twitter sucks!

eom

[BigmanPigman]

8. That's the other "serious issue facing America"...

how to educate people about social media as well as cracking down on those who use it as tech/cyber warfare and not a way to communicate everyday. The governments in other countries, especially Europe, educate their citizens and ban it before elections as a safeguard. I am sure our "freedom of speech"ers will have a problem with that in the US.

[NoMoreRepugs]

5. Couple of million high school and college kids get involved in

in the battle to do something about meaningful gun control the NRA is going to be in a serious fight.

[dalton99a]

6. Kick

[athenasatanjesus]

11. Now that it's obvious that Russian bots exist they will play both sides more.

Just like how years ago CNN and MSNBC were almost as right wing as Fox until the MSM started getting exposed mainly by the Daily Show, all of the sudden MSNBC started moving toward a supposed left, and CNN went toward a phony center.

Yes I know they have been playing both sides the whole time but it has obviously been weighted towards the right.

[C Moon]

12. I keep thinking that there are some here. New users; and their posts seem a little off kilter.

Usually late at night. And the post or reply will be regarding a hot topic that's in the news, and then will end with some silly forced anti-Trump phrase like, "I hate the orange man!" To me it always sounds like some RW nut trying to sound left-wing.

I'm probably paranoid, and I don't know how DU works as far as keeping watch on IPs from foreign countries.

[Blue_Tires]

18. Folks should be used to this by now...

[workinclasszero]

23. I think they pounced on DU as well

Look around. Just sayin.