this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2024
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Except there is evidence of so-called troll factories in places like St. Petersburg hidden in plain sight in regular buildings where Russians pass off as other nationalities (like Americans and the French) to poison public discourse online. It's one thing to make stuff up and another to expose what happens where there is undeniable evidence.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-exposes-sick-russian-troll-factory-plaguing-social-media-with-kremlin-propaganda
I feel its worth noting that this article suggests the actions of this group is/was centered on the war happening in Ukraine . I'm not sure what the other person was saying but it does not follow , nor is it reasonable to conclude from this information alone that these agents operate on other topics .
Well, of course, it's a huge topic and that's just one article that supports the idea. I'd need to link to several to cover the bases. I didn't have time yesterday to write an essay before I headed out. The point of the link wasn't to back up exactly what I'm saying but to give a rough idea that I'm not just making the whole thing up.
If you want something more in-depth on the Facebook campaigns that dives into the 2016 election, try An Ugly Truth by Frenkel & Kang. Several chapters are dedicated to how these troll farms were discovered and how they used the platform to reach their audience.
Still, I invite you to do a basic search on this topic and if you need me to dig up some articles for you I can see what I can find, it's not that hard to figure it out.
my point isn't to say that the ellection interference in 2016 did not happen , but that I don't think its reasonable to assert that a topic is being influenced by Russian trolls by virtue of it being something Russia might have a vague interest in .
not to say that any suspicions are invalid , of course , but again from what I understand , Russia has a very "one topic at a time" approach , which should be taken to mean there is a limited number of affected communities , which from past examples appear "home grown" .
"vague interest"? I think you're severely downplaying their intentions for whatever reason. Russia has plenty to gain from the destabilization of the West.
What do you base this on? And why would this impede them from trying? You make it sound like this lies in the hands of a handful of people or that it's not a sizeable operation. And can you give "homegrown" examples that can be shown not to be influenced by Russian disinformants?