
Inside the Russian Troll Factory: Zombies and a Breakneck Pace - montrose
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/18/world/europe/russia-troll-factory.html
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AlexMuir
I don't follow Russian news much at all, but there's something much deeper
going on than simply roomfuls of people astroturfing websites.

Twice, I've followed the trail of stories which were either false or
misleading, and both times they led to Irish journalists who definitely seem
to be real people.

Both of them almost exclusively tweet about Russian issues and are 100% pro-
Russian on absolutely any issue. You can go down their Twitters and you won't
find a mention of corruption, political failings, doping or anything else
negative.

[https://twitter.com/27khv](https://twitter.com/27khv)

and

[https://twitter.com/DanielleRyanJ](https://twitter.com/DanielleRyanJ)

I really don't know what to think here. Obviously there are contrarians on any
issue, and journalism is tough to get ahead in - if RT are going to pay your
salary then people could be tempted into a pro-Russian leaning - but to be
completely polemic in your views. I just find it suspicious.

[Edit: [https://www.rt.com/op-ed/398857-hungary-orban-media-
dictator...](https://www.rt.com/op-ed/398857-hungary-orban-media-dictator/)
here was the article that Danielle Ryan wrote about Hungary in Russia Today. I
don't know a single person in Hungary who would agree with what she writes
there. Not even among Hungarians who actually voted for Orban, nevermind among
expats. The Hungarian government has posters up right now warning voters that
the EU wants to "install millions from Africa and the Middle East." It's
racist fear-mongering in the extreme and universally condemned. But somehow
we've got an Irish girl throwing her weight behind the government while paid
for by Russia?]

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bhouston
More and more of this type of "trolling" for political influence is being
automated. RIght now the bots are fairly easy to identify but they will become
more sophisticated as some machine learning types get to work on them.

I think this has already rendered Twitter especially useless as a barometer of
public opinion, it is really a barometer of bot activity for the most part
when it comes to politics (I'm thinking of the #ReleaseTheMemo stuff.)

I am not sure how resilient Facebook is to bots, or if it is heading down the
road that Twitter has taken.

The rise of bots really destroys what was developing as a means of mass
empowerment. Basically any political movement (such as the Arab spring) that
starts on Twitter or Facebook now you have to suspect is being run by
influence agents, rather than real people.

