Russia Accused of Spreading Coronavirus Disinformation (washingtonpost.com) 171
Two associate professors studying foreign trolls online have penned an op-ed in the Washington Post arguing that Russian efforts to stir up antagonisms online "continues to be true with coronavirus disinformation."
In our research, we have found multiple networks of fake accounts — one of which we can attribute to Russia — that use conversations about coronavirus as a tool for political attacks. To right-leaning Americans, these trolls criticize the response from liberals, suggest the coronavirus is being used to take away their freedoms, and point the finger of blame at China. To left-wing Americans, they suggest the administration's response is immoral and inadequate and point the finger of blame at Trump. On both sides, these are arguments that real Americans are also making, typically with honest intentions. The attacks play to the trolls' goals, however, and so they repeat them, making the loudest and ugliest versions more mainstream. In doing so, they dangerously widen existing divisions in a time of crisis, making critical compromise more difficult. As before, these networks rely on hashtags from organic American conversations, such as #TrumpLiedPeopleDied and #ReopenAmerica. They aren't creating the divisions, but they are working hard to make them wider....
Many commentators have discussed various ways in which the United States has acted to make the coronavirus crisis worse than it could or should be. The public's own role in spreading global disinformation needs to be added to that list. We have to address our own culpability in the problems that are fomented by disinformation. At a time when most news and information people digest is socially mediated, we need to create citizens and platforms that are more resilient to lies and more accepting of facts.
Above all, however, we need to stop doing the trolls' jobs for them.
The article also cites "websites peddling conspiracy theories" (including what it calls the "Chinese lab origin theory, among other fearmongering stories related to the virus.")
"Among those accounts circulating the stories are pro-Russian and Russian state media-affiliated social media influencers."
Many commentators have discussed various ways in which the United States has acted to make the coronavirus crisis worse than it could or should be. The public's own role in spreading global disinformation needs to be added to that list. We have to address our own culpability in the problems that are fomented by disinformation. At a time when most news and information people digest is socially mediated, we need to create citizens and platforms that are more resilient to lies and more accepting of facts.
Above all, however, we need to stop doing the trolls' jobs for them.
The article also cites "websites peddling conspiracy theories" (including what it calls the "Chinese lab origin theory, among other fearmongering stories related to the virus.")
"Among those accounts circulating the stories are pro-Russian and Russian state media-affiliated social media influencers."
I am shocked (Score:4, Funny)
I am shocked that Putin would try to undermine the USA.
Re: I am shocked (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
*For large values of Russia.
They don't have to, that's the point. (Score:5, Interesting)
The Russian trolls are repeating the same arguments made by Americans. The divisive attitudes and extremism are already alive and well right here, trolls or no. Honestly I wonder why they bother, given that we are already doing their jobs for them.
Encouraging people to calm down and reach for compromise won't do any good, in my opinion. People with extreme political views usually consider their views to be sensible, and they think that encouraging compromise means shouting loudly enough to get others to agree with them.
In my own opinion the root cause here is a lack of interest in honest objectivity and truth-seeking. It is SO much easier to believe that one already knows all the important things and hence no longer needs to strive, reflect, or (heaven forbid) change one's opinions based on new evidence. Honest striving towards objectivity requires eternal vigilance, so one must actually care.
And after that, one must actually study logic, like for real. By buying books like this [abebooks.com] and actually reading them and actually doing the exercises to train the neural net in one's skull to think this way, and actually using the technique to reflect on the soundness of one's own beliefs.
I wouldn't want to force a political opinion on anyone. But I wish I could force people to actually strive towards objectivity like this.
Re: (Score:2)
I wonder if this is a troll, too. He re-emphasizes the utter incompetence of Trump, then starts dropping buzz words nerds love to seem reasonable and on their side.
Re:They don't have to, that's the point. (Score:4, Insightful)
The single largest cause of this problem is the death of journalism.
It's been dead for a while. It died when they threw integrity overboard in pursuit of "truth to power" and ratings. What is journalism without integrity? It simply can't exist.
Russia ( and other foreign actors ) may be taking advantage of the schism, but they are by no means responsible for it. We did it to ourselves, and we continue to do it to ourselves when we think in terms of absolutes. We need to stop rewarding "news" agencies who participate this kind of divisive behavior, and start thinking deeper than "red vs blue".
Then it won't matter WHAT misinformation campaigns foreign actors initiate; we'll be innoculated against it.
Re: They don't have to, that's the point. (Score:2)
I agree that an objective and open mindset is critical for a productive discourse. But I think your view of what's currently happening is too fatalistic. There's a ton of discourse going on and some of it *is* productive. The Russians are trying to reduce that and fan the flames when they appear. Its simple and cheap and I don't see why it wouldnt have noticeable effect over time.
Re: (Score:3)
Hilarious. You can't be a Russian troll because you're too stupid.
Re: (Score:2)
Hilarious. You can't be a Russian troll because you're too stupid.
How is this better?
Stop with the Bullshit, already.
Forget my word garbage, and just once, shut up and think.
The COVID-19 numbers for the US should go up drastically in the next 60-90 days. Will the percentage of deaths relative to the number infected go up here? How about worldwide? Do the math, and graph the percentages for both as two different lines. Will those two lines be roughly parallel? If so, they're feeding us bullshit - something that's your job.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I am shocked [you might be a troll] (Score:2)
But what sort of troll would post that sort of comment?
Oh, wait. EVERY identity on Slashdot these days could be a troll of some sort. At this point in time, I'm quite willing to consider that even some of the oldest UIDs have been pwned.
As it applies to the comments on this specific story, I'm taking every comment with a GIANT grain of salt. Talk about squirrel bait and troll feed.
Oh well. Divide and conquer has a LONG and distinguished track record of success. For example, Julius Caesar recommended it. He
Re: (Score:2)
I am shocked that Putin would try to undermine the USA.
For once you are right to be. The biggest disinformation campaign related to Coronavirus is not Vlad's. It's ours.
It is financed by NATO and promoted using both Integrity initative and other NATO/US/UK paid resources. This one: https://www.atlanticcouncil.or... [atlanticcouncil.org]
The deal with it is fairly simple. One of the reasons why the deaths in Italy started dropping is not the Russian, Cuban and Chinese doctors, masks, ventilators, etc. It is the disinfectant trucks - both the ones Russia sent and the ones Italians
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
Missing the forest for the trees. Was there some part of "stop believing the shit and doing the trolls' work for them" you didn't understand?
Re: I am shocked (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
But in reality, it was ultimately all about it
Re: (Score:3)
Not at all. It was all about mishandling of a legal situation.
Suppose you get hit by a car (gently), and you proceed to go all Hulk and beat the shit out of the driver who wasn't paying attention, and you go to jail for assault.
You're in jail for assaulting someone, it's because you made bad life choices that led to doing something illegal, not because you got hit by a car.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
But in reality, it was ultimately all about it
No, that was they made you believe to deflect the accusations and it worked, sadly. The rape allegations, the perjury and the obstruction to justice went all down the flush.
Re: (Score:3)
You didn't fix anything. You added completely irrelevant text to a perfectly cromulent statement in an attempt to change the parent's point.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Im amazed at how this guy can spout so much nonsense and is still in office
Trump was impeached n the House and was not found guilty in the Senate, so, not guilty.
Clinton got a blowjob and was almost kicked out, wtf?
Clinton lied under oath in Federal court, and suborned perjury.
He was also impeached in the House and found not guilty in the senate... but was found guilty in a court of law, lost his law license.
The two things are NOT equivalent.
Characterizing Clinton impeachment as being about a "blowjob" would like saying Trump was impeached for making a phone call.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
No, Trump was guilty. The invertebrates in the Senate were too afraid of their constituents to call him on it.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
The Senate properly disposed of the poorly premised Articles of Impeachment passed by the House along party lines after dubious hearings under at least one Chairman who acted in bad faith, lied, and used extraordinary rules that ignored precedent and denied the minority their customary rights. You seem to be a fan though.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Why are you feeding the troll? (That's more polite than the senility interpretation, though there are worse possibilities.)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
> No, Trump was guilty. The invertebrates in the Senate were too afraid of their constituents to call him on it.
The articles of impeachment against Trump did not name any actual criminal statutes, it was purely a political impeachment and it had a political verdict. Clinton was found guilty in court of perjury before getting impeached for it.
Re: (Score:2)
Clinton lied under oath in Federal court, and suborned perjury.
Clinton was an idiot. He just needed to ignore the inquiry and stonewall completely.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And Trump has blazed the path that if you have a sufficient cult following... just obstruct, instruct all witness to ignore subpoenas, and refuse to testify.
Trump is setting the stage for some future autocrat...
Re: (Score:2)
> Trump was impeached n the House and was not found guilty in the Senate
Impeachment is not a criminal trial. Guilty or not has nothing to do with it.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
In Clinton's case you had a fishing expedition that eventually found the affair.
In Clinton's case you had a trial that could have resulted in an inquiry on a serial sex offender, but that was shut down thanks to the fact that he was president. The impeachment trial actually helped Clinton to get out of his situation, in a regular criminal trial it would have not been so easy. That isn't true for Trump, the Russiagate was totally about him being president.
Re: (Score:2)
Lying under oath is a serious thing.
That depends on what your definition of "is" is.
The blowjob was a snowjob (Score:5, Insightful)
> Clinton got a blowjob and was almost kicked out, wtf?
This meme should die. The blowjob was a snowjob. Clinton got sued for sexual harassment and lied in court about whether he was the type of boss to pressure his subordinates for sex or ever had sex in the office (he was). He was convicted of perjury. There's a dress with his DNA on it, so it's not like we don't know for sure that he was a liar. He appealed the ruling, then settled for giving up his license to practice law for a time. A lady named Juanita Broderick has also accused Bill Clinton of rape for many decades now.
So Bill wasn't "impeached for getting a blowjob," but for lying about it in court about using his position as President to pressure the women under him to provide sexual favors. Bill had his day in court, and lost. Hillary and co. naturally defended women's rights by dismissing it as a "bimbo eruption." Every time you guys pull out the BJ card, you just make it clear that your leaders' "support" of women's rights is a hypocritical farce. Your leaders don't actually give a damn about protecting women at all, nor do you believe all women, or your side wouldn't be taking those "believe all women" tweets down now that Biden's been accused.
Meanwhile, on the other side, you have people who have maintained for many years now that all charges should be tried in court before inflicting punishment, but that charges that are upheld in court, regardless of side, should result in some sort of sanction. Weird how that works...
Re: (Score:2)
If you live by the sword you will die by the sword (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
s/Russian/American/
Re: (Score:2)
Heaven help the innocent Russian people when the world decides to fight back.
Given your president is besties with these people I'm not sure why you think the world will fight back.
SubjectIsSubject (Score:5, Insightful)
China is literally to blame. They silenced early whistlblowers and mis-represented the severity of the infection and how fast it was spreading. You can call all of this "Russian bots and trolls" but there are videos and images of the CCP's reaction to the virus, including locking people in their homes and apartments. Now all their data has basically frozen, at the epicenter on the virus, while the rest of the world continues to experience more and more infections. Not buying it. Looks like shit, smells like shit. /s
Not to mention the source just links to news sites like the nytimes that link to articles from the nytimes that quote articles from the nytimes. Amazing journalism.
Trying to say China wasn't in the wrong is the conspiracy theory.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, the Chinese concealment of the severity of the plague should consider the Chinese government's viewpoint. If they had quickly locked up the country and done all the "stop the virus" things they started doing later, it would have meant that China would have been about the ONLY country fighting it.
Given the severity of this challenge, it would have left them very vulnerable to just about every other major country in the world. As with Australia fighting their fire, when you've got a challenge like t
Re: (Score:2)
Not to mention the source just links to news sites like the nytimes that link to articles from the nytimes that quote articles from the nytimes. Amazing journalism.
Its called 'churnalism', where some low paid dipshit is paid specifically to reword other news articles into "fresh new content" that targets the rags particular demographic of uncritical morons.
It is a game of telephone where literally NONE of those blue-checkmarked fucks did any journalism, but they sure as fuck add activism to "freshen" their churn.
Citogenesis (Score:2)
> It is a game of telephone where literally NONE of those blue-checkmarked fucks did any journalism, but they sure as fuck add activism to "freshen" their churn.
This isn't accidental, this is how they do citogenesis and improve their pagerank in the process.
We all know it's nonsense now, but it'll be the only information you can find on the subject when you go to look back on this in a few years, you can thank Google for that one, they've been weeding out all wrongthink from their engine for some time no
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for the info, Ivan. Too bad your deep cover low ID is blown now.
Re:SubjectIsSubject (Score:4, Insightful)
China's action didn't help, but given this thing's penchant for explosive growth seeded by asymptomatic people, it's doubtful they could have stopped this from becoming a pandemic even if they did everything perfectly.
People who study infectious disease have been predicting the emergence of a serious global pandemic for years, if not a coronavirus, then flu. The real shot across the bow was the emergence of MERS-COV in 2012, which started with a jump from Egyptian tomb bats to camels and is in the same genus as SARS-COV and SARS-COV-2.
That's why South Korea was ahead of the curve; they were hit with MERS three times -- 2012, 2015, and 2018 -- so the threat was real to them. People in the US just laughed off the idea of a pandemic. For most Americans that's something that only happens in movies.
Re: (Score:2)
Precisely! This virus starts in Wuhan, be it in a wet market or in one of their medical research labs, gets out and spreads, and the Chinese do nothing to contain it either within Wuhan nor Hubei province. Then they try to pin it on the US military, and then after they seemingly are out of the curve, they start acting as the world's center of excellence on this virus, and try to get the countries they're trying to colonize onto their program, bundling together Huawei 5G, Covid-19 cures and Belt/Road proje
Re: (Score:2)
Your thesis seems to be that since the virus came from one country, another country can't be guilty of issuing propaganda concerning said virus. Sad.
What does China's response to the virus (Score:2)
And of course Russia's spreading misinformation to weaken it's foes. Vlad is an old KGB information spook. This is well known. It's hopelessly naive to think that Putin would let a chance like this pass by. This kind of information warfare was literally his thing during his KGB days.
Stories like this are useful and important because we want our citizenry to be on the lookout for bullshit. Not everyone's a cynical old coot
Re: (Score:2)
China is literally to blame.
Indeed China caused an outbreak. Unfortunately you have the incompetence of Western leaders to thank for the local clusterfuck that is. We had enough notice even with China's attempted coverup. We ignored it. ECONOMY!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Well Spain would probably find South American countries demanding reparations from them too.
In any case historically reparations haven't worked out well for anyone.
Re: (Score:2)
Are you confident that if countries start totalling up the balance sheets of all the stuff they think they owe each other for stuff they did over the years that the US would come out in the black?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
What do you want to do about it?
How about stop lying to ourselves for starters?
Re: (Score:2)
Lying about what? How will it help us?
Business as usual. (Score:5, Interesting)
At this point I don't even consider this work noting.
RT.com for Germany for example reported through an interview with a German doctor that washing hands frequently doesn't do anything good if someone infected coughs into your face. Only self isolation does help. Something that should be quite obvious, but they framed it in a way that made that suggested you shouldn't wash your hands.
If I look at responses from Germans in their comment sections and on other platforms, there's plenty of people who call them out on their shit.
They also regularly show the same footage of Russian trucks shipping supplies into the EU, suggesting that this happens 24/7, while the EU governments are incompetent at handling the issue. And of course the Russian government handles things with high competency.
It's all part of the general "The West is incompetent. Putin is strong." narrative. And while there are still some 'smart' people who distrust western media, but will readily believe what Russian state media reports, a lot of people have become aware that Russian state media is a least as much full of crap than western media is.
Re: (Score:3)
How is this different?
Re: (Score:3)
Agreed. It also goes back to the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. Russia didn't want its former allies and Soviet republic joining NATO, so it did everything it could to undermine faith in western institutions. Like many things that governments do, it took on a life of its own.
It's worth noting because not everyone has heard (Score:2)
Not everyone is getting the message, and having information out there that downplays the severity to the situation is harmful. People need to be aware of their surroundings, as it were.
um (Score:5, Insightful)
The article also cites "websites peddling conspiracy theories" (including what it calls the "Chinese lab origin theory, among other fearmongering stories related to the virus.")
That it may have escaped from a lab seven miles away that just happened to be studying coronaviruses is not a "conspiracy theory", it's a reasonable hypothesis to consider.
It doesn't have to have been a weapon. You do know that labs study wild viruses, right?
Re:um (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want a conspiracy theory, it looks more like this:
America planted the virus in Wuhan in order to hurt China because of the continuing trade war.
The Democrats planted the virus because they cant win the next presidential election unless the economy crashes.
The Republicans planted the virus because they are bigots that hate foreigners.
The global elite planted the virus to kill all the poor people.
I could go on all day. These are conspiracy theories, with the common theme being that there exists a conspiracy.
"A researcher in Wuhan accidentally infected himself, didnt know that he was infected, and spread it to the local market" is not a conspiracy theory. Its simply a theory.
Re: (Score:2)
"A researcher in Wuhan accidentally infected himself, didnt know that he was infected, and spread it to the local market" is not a conspiracy theory. Its simply a theory.
About a secret chinese research conspiracy.
Re:um (Score:4, Insightful)
One person doing something by accident fails to meet 2 of those 3 criteria.
Re: (Score:3)
Indeed. But when you stack simple theories together to start identifying which one is likely you use Occam's Razor.
a) A trained and certified for access to a BSL-4 grade bio-research lab in Wuhan had an accident, didn't realise and spread the virus to an epicentre 7km at a wet bat market (wet markets meaning animals are slaughtered in front of you, very common in China to ensure you're getting something fresh).
b) A virus that is known to be in bats, transferred to a human through direct access to animal flu
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I understand the importance of knowing this from an epidemiology perspective but given that most of the websites peddling the "Chinese lab origin theory" also seem to want to point blame that this is an engineered virus or somehow china's fault, how is this not fearmongering? If we assume that the lab is "just happened to be studying coronaviruses" and that "labs study wild viruses", then the virus isn't "lab origin" is it? It's a wild virus that someone happened to be studying. If it happened to "escape
Name the enemies for what they are! (Score:2, Interesting)
We really need to name the criminals for what they are: Hostile government agents! Calling Russia's Internet Research Agency 'trolls' likens them to the random angry teens rants across the web - annoying but inconsequential - even though they're anything but that! it continuously underestimates their impact on public opinion.
Russian phobia (Score:3)
Stop the nonsense, most the misinformation is by tin foil hatter U.S. citizens. A few foreign accounts mean nothing compared to hundreds of thousands of ignorant anti-vaxers and Alex Jone's disciples.
Pry your Red scare head out of your ass and look around you.
Here we go again (Score:2)
The Russians Are Coming! what bullshit (Score:2, Interesting)
tens of thousands, if not millions, of U.S. tin foil hat and conspiracy crowds are spreading misinformation, they are the main problem. Oh, and politicians in high places who have leadership over things covered in high school classes but they slept, like Trump and that investment wank son in law of his that now is in charge of our healthcare emergency even though he can't find his ass with both hands.
The problem is right here, not from overseas.
subversion (Score:4, Interesting)
Subversion is what the Russians did and still do; even within their nation which is why they've been doomed ever since they got so good at the tactic.
The whole thing isn't hard for most of us to grasp if we bother to think about it. It's based upon the 2500 year old tactics. Help the opponents go too far; like martial arts, guide them into a bad direction and this includes helping with internal strife. Russia will be the one who promotes the worst elements and at most they'll be out there at the right time to have their asset shout something to get the angry mob the nudge.
Russia ideally would be promoting... well, I could list everything I can think of from what I know of the topic but most of you would think I was just summarizing many of Trumps actions.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
The only thing they successfully subverted was themselves and so the communist realm fell apart. They're not a threat. And no, all those silly facebook and twitter posts did not throw the election, exaggerated nonsense.
There is no Russian propaganda threat. There is a great domestic one.
Russia hasn't done shit (Score:2)
Then politicians wouldn't be signing deals with campaign consultants for millions of dollars, they'd just pay these fabled Russian provocateurs a few thousand dollars to end up with the same result. Anyone who ever bought into Russiagate is a fucking idiot.
Re: (Score:2)
They are called "useful idiots". Russia or someone else sows the seeds, makes a few conspiracy theories and memes, and they do the rest. Same as viral marketing.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Anything that weakens Westerns countries helps Russia. Brexit, Trump, the rise of populism and the general strife all make it harder for the West to oppose Russia.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Well look at Crimea. Had NATO and the West in general been stronger and in a better position to respond they might not have dared try that, or not got away with it. We made promises that we couldn't keep because we were too busy dealing with other domestic shit that Russia stirred up.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Because it's cheap, easy and they have enough deniability to avoid any serious repercussions. What have we done to punish them? We haven't even done much to stop them, with half of us in denial of actively courting their "support".
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
And why should he believe a band of allegedly "non-partisan" Obama appointees who turned out to be extremely partisan, spied on the president's campaign and plotted to remove him from power. People like Brennan, Clapper, Comey, McCabe, and Strzok are a disgrace to this country and really should have been tried for treason. Or the so-called "whistleblower" who turned out to be a CIA agent with links to the Obama administration and other democrat politicians. A quintessential example of "deep-state" assholes
You cant make this shit up nowadays. (Score:2)
One out of several? (Score:2)
In our research, we have found multiple networks of fake accounts — one of which we can attribute to Russia — that use conversations about coronavirus as a tool for political attacks.
So that proves what, exactly? Because one out of "multiple" fake accounts can be "attributed to Russia" that means exactly what?
Reading comprehension? You fail it! (Score:2)
One of the networks can be attributed to Russia, not just one of the accounts.
Stop using 'social media' (Score:3, Insightful)
America, it's time for you to abandon all so-called 'social media', because it's just being used as a tool against you, against your right to privacy, and is overall toxic. Be 'social' with people you know. There's still email, telephone calls, and (when the pandemic is over, and it will end) being 'actually social' with people. Wean yourselves off 'social media'; you'll feel better once you get it out of your system, you won't be checking Facebook or Twitter on your phones 100 times a day, you'll be less distracted, more productive, and overall happier in the long run. Do yourself a solid, do it today, and don't look back.
Russia Russia Russia... (Score:2)
In consideration of all the claims Russia was interfering with US elections when the real interference was and is so in your face israel.... I'm more thinking claiming Russia blame is just a default distraction excuse for the real culprit.
Re: (Score:2)
but .... Israel is cooperating closely with Russia. Israel has huge diaspora of (ex-)russian citizens.
Just like several major media outlets? (Score:2)
In our research, we have found multiple networks of fake accounts — one of which we can attribute to Russia — that use conversations about coronavirus as a tool for political attacks.
I've seen several reports that twist interpretations of what Trump actually said and then present it as "fact", does that mean they are Russian operatives?
Re: (Score:2)
>"I've seen several reports that twist interpretations of what Trump actually said and then present it as "fact", does that mean they are Russian operatives?"
Nope, that is just regular USA mainstream media, happens all the time.
although tfa is likely mostly drivel ... (Score:2)
... i am not disappointed at all in this thread making a clear case of the exact vulnerability those mean russian bots (or, duh, "influencers"? what is it?) are supposedly exploiting.
the theoretical attack is interesting, though. polarization can easily lead to authoritarianism. who would actually benefit from the us spiraling into that? russia? china? or maybe those who actually want a more authoritarian regime and see themselves in a position to control it? this obsession with russia and china would be a
Russians told me ... (Score:2)
Can confirm (Score:2)
I have seen numerous postings which talk about "losing freedoms". They are all similar in scope and language.
Have to give the Russians credit, their wording is much better than when they attacked and invaded Ukraine. Back then it was talk about starting a nuclear war and their lack of English skills made them easily stand out.
This time they sound almost like your typical redneck American, but the coherency of their words trips them up. That and their completely irrational defense of the con artist by clai
Or perhaps instead... (Score:2)
Russia noticed what was already being said, decided to amplify it, and some of it might even be true.
To both sides... (Score:2)
The time where it is acceptable to be pointing fingers is long past. We are in a state of national emergency. It doesn't matter who should have won what. It doesn't matter what you think about so and so's position on gay marriage, abortion, gun control, etc. The biggest issue we ACTUALLY have the rest of the time is class and economic divide with those others used to distract you from it, right now even that takes the backseat.
I don't care if the President is Trump, Clinton, Gilbert Godfrey, or that guy who
sanctions (Score:2)
From they very beginning of international sanctions on Russia I've claimed that hitting internet traffic would be more efficient.
Like in 2001 US forced entire world to decide if they are "against terrorism" or "non-response means you're in axis of evil"; or later - with sanctions or Iran.
US has strenght and ability to make all "western" world stop BGP traffic with Russia + threaten to stop routing with those, who don't stop routing with Russia. So for other countries it would be "are you using google/faceb
Bellingcat got there first, again! (Score:2)
Geek's own open source intelligence site Bellingcat have been digging into this for a couple of weeks now. Once against their finding have been vindicated, just like with Ukrainian MH17 & Iranian PS752
https://www.bellingcat.com/tag... [bellingcat.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
IG Horowitz found significant errors in 29 of the 29 FISA warrants he looked into in the previous five years - calling into doubt the argument that FBI incompetence with regard to FISA warrants is not merely a "russian-backed conspiracy theory".