It looks like Russia hired internet trolls to pose as pro-Trump Americans

[Frank Cannon]

http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-internet-trolls-and-donald-trump-2016-7

Russia's troll factories were, at one point, likely being paid by the Kremlin to spread pro-Trump propaganda on social media.

That is what freelance journalist Adrian Chen, now a staff writer at The New Yorker, discovered as he was researching Russia's "army of well-paid trolls" for an explosive New York Times Magazine exposé published in June 2015.

"A very interesting thing happened," Chen told Longform's Max Linsky in a podcast in December.

"I created this list of Russian trolls when I was researching. And I check on it once in a while, still. And a lot of them have turned into conservative accounts, like fake conservatives. I don't know what's going on, but they're all tweeting about Donald Trump and stuff," he said.

 Linsky then asked Chen who he thought "was paying for that."

"I don't know," Chen replied. "I feel like it's some kind of really opaque strategy of electing Donald Trump to undermine the US or something. Like false-flag kind of thing. You know, that's how I started thinking about all this stuff after being in Russia."

 In his research from St. Petersburg, Chen discovered that Russian internet trolls — paid by the Kremlin to spread false information on the internet — have been behind a number of "highly coordinated campaigns" to deceive the American public.

It's a brand of information warfare, known as "dezinformatsiya," that has been used by the Russians since at least the Cold War. The disinformation campaigns are only one "active measure" tool used by Russian intelligence to "sow discord among," and within, allies perceived hostile to Russia.

"An active measure is a time-honored KGB tactic for waging informational and psychological warfare," Michael Weiss, a senior editor at The Daily Beast and editor-in-chief of The Interpreter — an online magazine that translates and analyzes political, social, and economic events inside the Russian Federation — wrote on Tuesday.

He continued (emphasis added):

"It is designed, as retired KGB General Oleg Kalugin once defined it, 'to drive wedges in the Western community alliances of all sorts, particularly NATO, to sow discord among allies, to weaken the United States in the eyes of the people in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and thus to prepare ground in case the war really occurs.' The most common subcategory of active measures is dezinformatsiya, or disinformation: feverish, if believable lies cooked up by Moscow Centre and planted in friendly media outlets to make democratic nations look sinister."

It is not surprising, then, that the Kremlin would pay internet trolls to pose as Trump supporters and build him up online. In fact, that would be the easy part.

From his interviews with former trolls employed by Russia, Chen gathered that the point of their jobs "was to weave propaganda seamlessly into what appeared to be the nonpolitical musings of an everyday person."

"Russia's information war might be thought of as the biggest trolling operation in history," Chen wrote. "And its target is nothing less than the utility of the Internet as a democratic space."
'The gift that keeps on giving'

From threats about pulling out of NATO to altering the GOP's policy on Ukraine — which has long called for arming Ukrainian soldiers against pro-Russia rebels — Trump is "the gift that keeps on giving" for Putin, Russian journalist Julia Ioffe noted in a piece for Politico.

"Life is still not great here," Ioffe reported from the small Russian city of Nizhny Tagil in June. "But it's a loyal place and support for Putin is high. In large part, it is because people—especially older people like [Russian citizen Felix] Kolsky—get their news from Kremlin-controlled TV. And Kremlin-controlled TV has been unequivocal about whom they want to win the U.S. presidential election: Donald Trump."

As such, the year-long hack of the DNC — discovered in mid-June and traced back to Russian military intelligence by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike — would seem to be the archetypal "active measure" described by Weiss, adapted to modern technology to have maximum impact.

"The DNC hack and dump is what cyberwar looks like," Dave Aitel, a cybersecurity specialist, a former NSA employee, and founder of cybersecurity firm Immunity Inc., wrote for Ars Technica last week.

 That makes sense given Russia's partiality to weaponizing information — and the digital era's abundance of hackers for hire.

The leak of internal DNC email correspondences revealing a bias against Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders — by WikiLeaks, an organization founded by Russia Today contributor Julian Assange — has divided the American left and made the Republican Party look unified in comparison.

Trump's seemingly shady financial overtures to Russian oligarchs have since resurfaced, perhaps as evidence that the real-estate mogul or his top advisers may have had a hand in the hack that made his opponents look so bad.

As Ioffe noted in a later piece for Foreign Policy, however, Trump's own influence among high-level Russian figures may be overstated given the difficulty that he has had throughout his career in securing lucrative real-estate projects there.

It seems, rather, that Trump is more useful to the Russians than they have ever been to him.

Even if — and it's becoming increasingly unlikely — Vladimir Putin and his intelligence apparatus had nothing to do with the DNC hack, that the mere suspicion has come to dominate American media is a huge propaganda boon for the former KGB operative.

"The very fact that we are discussing this and believing that Putin has the skill, inside knowledge, and wherewithal to field a candidate in an American presidential election and get him through the primaries to the nomination means we are imbuing him with the very power and importance he so craves," Ioffe wrote.

"All he wants is for America to see him as a worthy adversary. This week, we're giving that to him, and then some," she wrote. 

[truth_seeker]

Internetski Trolski

Typical Clinton democrat move; when caught blame your opponent for doing the same thing.

[Frank Cannon]

Internetski Trolski

Typical Clinton democrat move; when caught blame your opponent for doing the same thing.

Wheres the Rat move here? A reporter tracked down a list of trolls. Found out where else the names were being used. Turns out their being used on radically pro Trump sites all over the place.

[INVAR]

Wheres the Rat move here? A reporter tracked down a list of trolls. Found out where else the names were being used. Turns out their being used on radically pro Trump sites all over the place.

The Trump militants have suspended any pretense of using logic to review information to see whether or not it is even plausible.

Trump has INDEED called for pulling out of NATO.  Who benefits the most from that?

Trump asked Russia to hack into the US and 'find' Hillary's missing e-mails.  Who benefits from such an invitation to conduct digital espionage?

They are so wound up into the worship of the man - they have no regard for his overt lack of principles beyond what they think he is going to do for them, even when Trump reneges on his promises and goes further Left than Hillary on things like variable higher taxation on companies he dislikes and a bigger minimum federal wage.

[truth_seeker]

Source:

New York Times Magazine exposé published in June 2015.

[Chosen Daughter]

The Trump militants have suspended any pretense of using logic to review information to see whether or not it is even plausible.

Trump has INDEED called for pulling out of NATO.  Who benefits the most from that?

Trump asked Russia to hack into the US and 'find' Hillary's missing e-mails.  Who benefits from such an invitation to conduct digital espionage?

They are so wound up into the worship of the man - they have no regard for his overt lack of principles beyond what they think he is going to do for them, even when Trump reneges on his promises and goes further Left than Hillary on things like variable higher taxation on companies he dislikes and a bigger minimum federal wage.

Trumps twitter today is a disgrace. 

[Frank Cannon]

Trumps twitter today is a disgrace.

There. Fixed it.

[anymouse]

Да, но Trump. /сарказм

[geronl]

People were saying this months ago.

Trump & Putin their a team. Well, Trump is Putin's pony anyways

[Jackson]

Not just tweets. There were several regular posters on FR that I remain convinces were operating out of some obscure St. Petersburg attic. I won't name names, but most folks around here will know who I am talking about. Unfortunately they had JR totally hornswaggled. Ruined the site.

[Cripplecreek]

The Peggys are well known on twitter.

Thousands of them repost the same pro Trump propaganda within seconds of each other.

[Wingnut]

The Peggys are well known on twitter.

Thousands of them repost the same pro Trump propaganda within seconds of each other.

They are tenacious like bull.. Melania like!

[driftdiver]

The Peggys are well known on twitter.

Thousands of them repost the same pro Trump propaganda within seconds of each other.

Which mean its probably a bot somewhere doing it.   Might explain the refusal to address questions specifically and simply reply with more propaganda.

[don-o]

Putin's loathing for HRC is well known. Does anyone think that USA does not do the exact same thing?

Though probably not as well.

[Cripplecreek]

Which mean its probably a bot somewhere doing it.   Might explain the refusal to address questions specifically and simply reply with more propaganda.

A combination of bots and paid posters.

[skeeter]

Not just tweets. There were several regular posters on FR that I remain convinces were operating out of some obscure St. Petersburg attic. I won't name names, but most folks around here will know who I am talking about. Unfortunately they had JR totally hornswaggled. Ruined the site.

Syntax and word selection not to mention rabid content of their posts would suggest there are several here too.

[Silver Pines]

Trumps twitter today is a disgrace.

@Chosen Daughter

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump  11h11 hours ago
Our country does not feel 'great already' to the millions of wonderful people living in poverty, violence and despair.


Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump  Jul 27
Funny how the failing @nytimes is pushing Dems narrative that Russia is working for me because Putin said "Trump is a genius." America 1st!


Putin doesn't think Trump is a genius.  Putin understands that the fool and his ego will lap up any and all flattery thrown his way.

[Wingnut]

Syntax and word selection not to mention rabid content of their posts would suggest there are several here too.

 

[Wingnut]

I would like to see Putin's KGB file on Trump. 

[driftdiver]

Putin's loathing for HRC is well known. Does anyone think that USA does not do the exact same thing?

Though probably not as well.

We did it to Israel in their last election.

[ABX]

Make the motherland great again

[JustPassinThru]

Which mean its probably a bot somewhere doing it.   Might explain the refusal to address questions specifically and simply reply with more propaganda.

Bots and socks, to put out campaign propaganda.

Roger Stone at work.

I can't believe they think this will be an effective campaign technique.  When the campaign is wrapped in lies, the whole of the campaign is suspect - as a lie.

Trump is not only a political neophyte, he's not able to tell good advice from bad.

Which is a warning to future situations he may encounter should he win.

[Cripplecreek]

Syntax and word selection not to mention rabid content of their posts would suggest there are several here too.

What, you no believe I born and raise  for American?

[Wingnut]

What, you no believe I born and raise  for American?

Sin tax?  We don need no stinking Sin taxes!

[driftdiver]

Bots and socks, to put out campaign propaganda.

Roger Stone at work.

I can't believe they think this will be an effective campaign technique.  When the campaign is wrapped in lies, the whole of the campaign is suspect - as a lie.

Trump is not only a political neophyte, he's not able to tell good advice from bad.

Which is a warning to future situations he may encounter should he win.

Its worked so far, they helped to destroy a leading 'conservative' site over at TOS.

The bots these days are quite sophisticated.   For example on the cheating website AshleyMadison something like 90% of the 40,000 women were bots linked to 6 email accounts.