
Watched Over 100 Covert Russian Propaganda Videos on YouTube, Here’s What I Saw - rbanffy
https://arcdigital.media/i-watched-over-100-covert-russian-propaganda-videos-on-youtube-heres-what-i-saw-b854b69762f2
======
ahmadss
Buried at the end of this article:

> "Most of the 116 videos I watched generated very few views. The average
> video had less than 10 views, although a handful had more than that."

------
throw5427
> Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United
> States to fuel instability and separatism, for instance, provoke "Afro-
> American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into
> internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic,
> social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements –
> extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal
> political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to
> support isolationist tendencies in American politics."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics)

Although it's quite likely that the significance of this book is overestimated
because of confirmation bias.

------
beager
I’m so often at a loss for ideas about how to make this better. This is a
really big problem for US democracy that deliberately targets a large attack
surface on the underbelly of the US consciousness, one that has been ripened
by a declining internal political climate and the increasingly outrage-
oriented lean of US media.

Tech companies are exploited for these purposes, and have trouble dealing with
that exploitation for myriad reasons. The activity equals eyeballs equals
revenue. The end users aren’t educated to be skeptical of content of
indiscernible provenance. Consumer web product development is too optimistic
and mostly presumes good faith and good actors.

I don’t really know where I was going with this but it’s a big frustrating
problem with no easy solution. How do I pitch in?

~~~
dogma1138
The US does it all the time to much grater effect.

I still haven’t seen any of these so called Russian accounts with more than a
handful of subscribers and a few 1000s views collectively.

The channel in question had over 100 videos and less than 10,000 views in
total many of which based on the timeline were in the 24 hours after the
exposure of this channel as a Russian propaganda machine.

I would say ther RT has been probably more effective than all of the Facebook
and YouTube channels combined but even their effectiveness is fairly limited
and good luck closing a press outlet.

------
aaron695
And blocked by Google. Censorship for the win.

Given (Google translate from another site)

"The page "Williams and Calvin" at the time of writing the news was only about
260 subscribers, and video records on average, there are 5 to 140 views. The
number of hits in most of last year's records, including those relating to
Hillary Clinton, does not exceed 20."

and one assumes some of those would be spam.

The real value and the only interesting thing here is watching an attempt at
propaganda by the Russians. Another learning opportunity lost.

[edit] "...both Williams and Kalvin claim their hometown is Owerri in
Nigeria."

Are we sure they are just not part of the fake news, lets make money game?
Their accent is so strong I find it unlikely the Russians would have tried
this. Seems more like the US is trying a propaganda scam on a failed
advertising revenue scam.

Infowars for black people, a brilliant money raising 'idea'.

The problem, being from Nigeria they fit the part, but without having ties to
Russia they didn't have the skill set. No sense of culture in the US they
didn't realise how much the accent and correct grammar would be an issue.

Or did they, and they gave it a good old go anyway using entrepreneurial
spirit.

These days you could do it and sell it to the Russians as a marketing idea,
but when they started in 2016 it wouldn't have occurred to them.

------
RickJWag
So the theory is that the Russians have attempted to influence the election.

On the other hand, sources like CNN, MSNBC, Hollywood mouthpieces (especially
at awards time), the NFL, etc. are constantly spewing politically-oriented
propaganda as well.

The American public has to sift through all this noise. It's not easy, but
it's the only thing to do.

------
Boothroid
Cui bono - is it beyond the realms of possibility that this was arranged to
provide a handy means of discrediting a Trump victory? Or is this a plot twist
too far?

~~~
hourislate
I don't know if the Russians were able to help Trump win but I find it
disturbing how how many Americans have embraced Putin and Russia even though
they are actively trying to destabilize US democracy in anyway they can. It
doesn't help that Trump goes out of his way to either praise Putin and not
even act on the sanctions he signed. Very disturbing to see him openly support
a threat to our very democracy. America is ripe for chaos and the Russians
know it. You only have to look at history to see how they operate and the
amount of shit they can cause.

~~~
Boothroid
I'm in the UK, and over here TV's Channel 4 are trailing a programme that will
be shown this week on Trump and Russia, but barring a bombshell - which they
are not claiming to have - I'm not expecting to see anything new. Surely if
anyone had a shred of proper evidence the media etc would be all over it? The
fact that this topic has been desperately crawled over by those out to destroy
Trump - and there seem to be plenty - for months makes me suspect they still
have nothing of substance - just hearsay, insinuation and sometimes outright
smear and fabrication, like the laughably weak golden shower story - remember
that tawdry effort?

Your comments on subversion raise a smile. I suspect if you were debating with
students of foreign affairs anywhere outside the US and brought up the point
of how terrible it is and how dare Russia meddle in US affairs you may well
get laughed out of the room - the US are clearly virtuosos when it comes to
destabilising peaceful democratic regimes when it suits them, so your position
is fatally undermined to the point of absurd hypocrisy.

