Thread: Mueller's Russian Interference investigation

^ InfoWars? :eyeroll:

Mr. Earl you're a feeble minded idiot.

Learn how to change text colour.

Not that anyone is interested in what your whackjob hero talks about anyway.

Originally Posted by happynz

^ InfoWars? :eyeroll:

Hey, those shape shifting lizard aliens have a lot to answer for!

Russian Social Media Trolling Hits High Gear After Parkland Shootings
By: Wayne Rash | February 21, 2018


NEWS ANALYSIS: The Russian Internet Research Agency is never really quiet, but with the Florida high school mass murder, the disinformation trolls may have given us a look at their plans for the 2018 mid-term elections.


Within minutes of the first reports that a shooter had killed 17 students and staff at a Florida high school, social media came alive with a tsunami of activity. Of course, most of the messages were expressions of shock, grief, and outrage spreading through on-line communities in the U.S. and abroad. But much of it also consisted of carefully worded postings designed to inflame opinions on all sides of concern over the tragedy.


The hashtags covering all sides of the gun control debate were echoed thousands of times by bot networks, while known Russian propaganda outlets including Russia Today and Sputnik provided additional fodder which was widely repeated in social media.


Then the Russians (sometimes operating in the open) settled in to creating material for conspiracy theorists, providing fake news stories and videos alleging that the shootings never took place, or in some cases, did take place and were carried out by the government. The related hashtag #falseflag was trending for a few days.


What was happening was that the Russian Internet Research Agency, along with similar organizations from countries outside of Russia, was seizing on bizarre theories already on social media and then amplifying them through the use of fake accounts, bots and automated postings that could have hundreds of accounts say the same thing at the same time. At the same time, video of participants in the events were coupled with misleading headlines and used as “evidence.”


But while the Russian trolls and their collaborators were hard at work following the shooting, as they are after many significant events, including the indictment last week of Russian trolls, this time the social media activities seemed to die out quickly, and many of the discussions quietly vanished.


It turns out that the social media were having a practice run of their own. Last year, Twitter announced its approach to bots and misinformation, saying that it would begin building new tools to detect bot activity, and removing misinformation. A few days after the shootings, Twitter carried out a bot purge, removing all accounts that exhibited bot-like behavior, which was about 50,000 of them.


Then today, Twitter announced its policy on automation and the use of multiple accounts, which forbade simultaneous Tweeting and a list of other related activities that were used by the Russian trolls and others during the 2016 election, as was indicated in the Department of Justice’s Special Counsel’s commentary explaining the Russian indictments.


Facebook, meanwhile, was taking actions of its own. “Images that attack the victims of last week's tragedy in Florida are abhorrent,” said Mary deBree, Facebook’s head of content policy in an email. “We are removing this content from Facebook.”


Indeed, the fake news and conspiracy theory content that I’d spotted a few days ago on Facebook was gone.


According to a Facebook spokesperson, the social network is in the process of rolling out a feature that will let users report fake news. While the feature is still being implemented, you can find out how to use it by searching for “reporting fake news” in the help files.


But whether this goes far enough is open to question. The Washington Post is reporting that YouTube’s top trending story is a conspiracy theorist video charging one of the Parkland survivors with being a “crisis actor” thus proving that the shooting never happened. The student has since tried to refute that allegation.


Events such as this cause lawmakers to question whether the social media are doing as much as they should. “Social media disinformation remains a grave threat, and with reports that conspiracy theories and disinformation related to the Parkland shooting continue to proliferate widely on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. I remain concerned that the platforms continue to fall short of taking this threat seriously,” said U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in an email to eWEEK.


Twitter, for its part, says it’s trying to solve this problem. “We are actively working on reports of targeted abuse and harassment of a number of survivors of the tragic mass shooting in Parkland, Florida,” a Twitter spokesperson told eWEEK in an email. “Such behavior goes against everything we stand for at Twitter, and we are taking action on any content that violates our terms of service.”


“We are also using our anti-spam and anti-abuse tools to weed out malicious automation around these individuals and the topics they are raising,” the spokesperson explained, “We have also verified a number of survivors' Twitter accounts.”


Unfortunately, the battle for social media is already getting ready to escalate with the ability to produce fake news videos. A team of scientists and engineers at the University of Washington has demonstrated the ability to create a photo-realistic image of someone for whom there’s a supply of video and make them say anything they want. For their tests they used former President Barack Obama, but it can be anyone else's images that can be manipulated with artificial intelligence to create a fake video.


A spokesperson said that an AI application was able to analyze Obama’s speech patterns from 14 hours of video. The spokesperson said that the same AI technology can also detect fake video. “But even when fake news gets debunked down the road, it can still have profound and damaging effects; what will happen if—but more probably, when—someone makes a fake video of President Donald Trump declaring war on North Korea?” the spokesperson wondered in an email.


If there’s anything positive about the social media manipulation and related fake news that’s surfaced following the tragedy in Parkland, it’s that we had some idea of what to expect.


While there are still many who will gladly consume fake postings and misinformation because they agree with it, most people won’t. Instead, they now know what fake news and misinformation looks like and they can do something about it. Now the challenge is to be ready for the next round of fake news and social media manipulation that is even more convincing.


http://www.eweek.com/cloud/russian-social-media-trolling-hits-high-gear-after-parkland-shootings

Nolte: 13 Things the Media Don’t Want You to Know About Mueller’s 13 Indictments

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Andrew Burton/Getty Images

by JOHN NOLTE21 Feb 20182,051
Last week, the leak machine that is special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian citizens, and our disgraced media disgraced themselves even further by comparing these alleged crimes to Pearl Harbor. The truth, of course, is the exact opposite. Basically, these indictments reveal to us all kinds of inconvenient truths the corrupt media are hiding from the public, and below are 13 of them.

Before we get started, I must credit Byron York for doing most of the work in breaking down the Mueller indictment. You will definitely want to read his full piece here.
We will start with my favorite:

1. Mueller Did Not Indict the Russians for Election Meddling

In the end, although they have been indicted for all kinds of sexy stuff, like identity theft and bank fraud, these 13 Russian citizens (who will never be extradited to America) are not charged with what we are told is their big crime — meddling in the election.
John Hinderaker believes, and not without merit, that Mueller did this to protect Hillary Clinton.

1. The Russians Never Tried to Elect Trump

The biggest lie Democrats and the media wish to spread is that the Russians actively worked to make Donald Trump president. These indictments have exposed that narrative as anti-science hogwash.

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Chaos was the only Russian gameplan, which is why, after Trump’s surprise win, they organized anti-Trump rallies. Before the election, they promoted Trump and Bernie Sanders to gin up opposition to the person whom they believed would be the next president — Hillary Clinton.
Had the polls showed Trump running away with it, the Russians would have promoted Hillary.
The indictment quotes a Russian document that lays out the primary goal — to create “political intensity through supporting radical groups, users dissatisfied with [the] social and economic situation and oppositional social movements … [to] spread distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general.”

1. The Russian Campaign Began Two Years Before Trump Announced His Presidential Run

The indictment clearly states that the Russian operation began in May of 2014 with “the purpose of interfering with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016.”
The media would have you believe this conspiracy centered around Trump. It did not; it never did — at least not until after he won the election, and then the Russians organized events in opposition to him.

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1. Most of the Russian Spending Occurred AFTER the Election

Even though this Russian chaos campaign began in 2014, most of the money spent was still AFTER the 2016 election. According to Byron York, “Just 44 percent came before the election, while 56 percent came after the election.”

1. The Budget for This Operation Was Laughably Small

Starting in September of 2016, two months before the election, the Russians spent a measly $1.2 million a month. When you compare that to the billions spent by Trump, Hillary, special interest groups, and the anti-Trump corporate media, it is like dropping a teaspoon of water into a boiling cauldron.

1. Only $3,200 Was Spent on Advertising in Swing States

Trump is president because he picked off Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. The total Russian ad spend in those three crucial states was hilariously close to zero: $1,979, $823, and $300, respectively.

1. Only 11 Million People Saw the Russian Facebook Ads — Kind Of

While 11 million people saw the Russians’ Facebook ads, the context is important. The 11 million saw these ads between 2015 and 2017, and only 44 percent of the ads were placed prior to the election.
During all this time, the Russians spent a total of $100,000. Compare that to the Clinton and Trump campaigns, which spent a combined $81 million on Facebook advertising.

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1. Vast Majority of Russian Ad Buy Did Not Reference the Election

According to Facebook, this is the truth about that minuscule ad buy: “The vast majority [of the ads] didn’t specifically reference the U.S. presidential election, voting or a particular candidate.”

1. Other Russian Facebook Content Was Even More Hapless

Byron York explains:

Of course, Facebook is more than ads; the vast majority of the material on it is so-called organic content, produced by the people who use Facebook. The company estimates that a total of around 150 million people may have been “served content” from a page associated with the Russians during the two-year period before and after the election. That means that some Russian-produced content was visible on news feeds — not that Facebook users necessarily saw it or engaged with it.
“This equals about four-thousands of one percent (0.004%) of content in News Feed, or approximately 1 out of 23,000 pieces of content,” Facebook executive Colin Stretch said in prepared testimony before the Senate last November.

1. After Trump’s Victory, the Russians Organized an Anti-Trump Rally

To continue to create chaos, after Trump won, the Russians organized competing rallies in New York. One was pro-Trump, the other against.

1. CNN and MSNBC Immediately Became Putin’s Patsies

Newsbusters reports that CNN and MSNBC were Putin’s perfect patsies when it came to promoting Russia’s anti-Trump rally:

One of the revelations in Friday’s indictment handed down by Special Counsel Robert Mueller was that alleged Russian attempts to sow disunity in 2016 included the organization of both pro- and anti-Trump rallies in New York City on the Saturday after Election Day.
A check of their November 12 coverage showed both CNN and MSNBC gave enthusiastic coverage to the Russian-organized anti-Trump rally that day, with live reports every hour. Correspondents celebrated the idea that it was “a love rally,” and repeated the marchers’ anti-Trump mantras, such as: “We reject the President-elect.”
While the two liberal anti-Trump networks offered heavy coverage of the anti-Trump rally throughout the day, a check of coverage between noon and 5:00 p.m. Eastern found that the Fox News Channel offered only a short re-cap (66 seconds) at the start of their 4:00 p.m. Eastern hour.

1. President Obama Knew the Russians Were Meddling, Thought It Was Funny, Did Nothing

Just three weeks before the election, a full three years into the Russian chaos program, Obama dismissed the whole idea of election meddling and mocked Trump as a whiner:

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But the larger point I want to emphasize here is that there is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even — you could even rig America’s elections, in part, because they are so decentralized and the numbers of votes involved.
There is no evidence that that has happened in the past or that there are instances in which that will happen this time. And so I’d invite Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes.

And here is a video of Rachel Maddow in 2014 laughing it up after Obama dismissed Russia to that of “a gnat on an elephant’s butt.”
A year later, the Russians would set up their chaos operation.

1. The Russians Promoted Black Lives Matter, Immigration, and Muslims

The Washington Examiner:

The primary objective of the Russians’ conspiracy, according to Mueller’s indictment, was to “spread distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general,” and not necessarily to put Trump in the Oval Office, as many Democrats have claimed.
Russian groups allegedly created Facebook and Instagram pages that promoted polarizing content across a range of issues not specific to any political party — including a pro-immigration page called “Secured Borders,” a Black Lives Matter-themed Instagram page called “Blacktivist” that supported third-party candidate Jill Stein, and religious-linked pages called “United Muslims of America” and “Army of Jesus.”

Now that we know the Russians are only interested in creating chaos, those who help in this effort against Trump, like CNN and NBC News, can no longer be described as “unwitting patsies.” Rather, they will reveal themselves as willing colluders and collaborators and must be called out as such.

Originally Posted by Mr Earl

CNN sent a reporter to the home of an old lady in Florida to harass her about ‘Russian collusion’.

cnn harassed an old lady?

wow.

let's take a look at the video...which earl conveniently neglected to post...






nice try, earl.

you dope.

Originally Posted by raycarey

harassed

As with beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I think in this instance "harassed" means 'presented her with objective facts that ran contrary to her Fake News narrative and caused some butt-hurt'.

Looks like the poor little trumpanzee couldn't handle the truth.

Would you care to enlighten me on how this is trash. Are the statements false,if so so can you provide links to support your post?

Exactly exactly what truth is that,or are you just talking out your ass again?

You never cease to amaze me with your constant posting of your opinion but nothing to support your posts.

Why did you fail to mention the fact CNN was also duped by the Russians?

Originally Posted by RPETER65

You never cease to amaze me with your constant posting of your opinion but nothing to support your posts.

Says the email FWD:fwd:fwd:fwd cut ‘n paste spambot.

And incidentally, your inability to grasp the quote function renders your usually nonsense posts even more nonsensical. I doubt anyone can be arsed going back to see what post you’re referring to out of context and chronological order to try and make sense of the dribbles.

Thanks once again for the red snubs but once again you only talk out your ass with nothing in support. If anyone here is a victim of their handlers it would be you.

Originally Posted by RPETER65

Are the statements false,if so so can you provide links to support your post?

You can not post fake propaganda from a shit website like breitbart and then expect posters to post up links debunking it. It does not work that way. The article if I can even call it that is riddled with lies and inaccuracies starting with this quote;

the leak machine that is special counsel Robert Mueller

It is a well known fact that Mueller and his team run an airtight ship. There are almost no leaks that is why so many indictments and convictions have come out months later. If it was a "leak machine" as brietbart claimed this would not have been the case. But cling to your propaganda garbage you utter imbecile.

Originally Posted by RPETER65

Thanks once again for the red snubs but once again you only talk out your ass with nothing in support.

Nothing in support? When you come into an argument quoting brietbart. An outlet that is controlled by the Mercer family and has no real journalists on staff. It is a propaganda source.

Originally Posted by RPETER65

If anyone here is a victim of their handlers it would be you.

Who would they be? We know that you get your marching orders from the Koch brothers, Robert Mercer etc. So retard who are my "handlers"?

This should be fun.

Once again you stay true to the course,accusations with absolutely no effort of proof. You can talk all day long about the source but this means nothing if you can show that the article is full of lies. You may have some people on this forum convinced you are the enlightened,but I would not be one of them.

As far as your handlers go George Soros would be the leader of the pack.

Originally Posted by RPETER65

Once again you stay true to the course,accusations with absolutely no effort of proof.

An indictment is an accusation of a serious crime being committed after a grand jury's investigation.

So Mueller went to a group of people (jury), presented his evidence and the jury agreed that a crime has possibly been committed.

Originally Posted by RPETER65

Once again you stay true to the course,accusations with absolutely no effort of proof. You can talk all day long about the source but this means nothing if you can show that the article is full of lies. You may have some people on this forum convinced you are the enlightened,but I would not be one of them.

As far as your handlers go George Soros would be the leader of the pack.

So essentially you're saying you can post any old shit and the onus is on everyone else to tell you that you're a senile old fart and you're posting shit.

Which essentially is what everyone does.

Mueller adds new tax, bank fraud charges against Manafort, Gates

Special counsel files new criminal case against pair in northern Virginia.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...t-gates-422335

Originally Posted by misskit

Special counsel files new criminal case against pair in northern Virginia.

Trying to get Manafort to flip.....

Cue the usual 'Nothing Burger' from the ostriches.