Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say

Washington Post ^ | 11-24-16 | Craig Timburg

[bigbob]

The flood of “fake news” this election season got support from a sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign that created and spread misleading articles online with the goal of punishing Democrat Hillary Clinton, helping Republican Donald Trump and undermining faith in American democracy, say independent researchers who tracked the operation.

Russia’s increasingly sophisticated propaganda machinery — including thousands of botnets, teams of paid human “trolls,” and networks of websites and social-media accounts — echoed and amplified right-wing sites across the Internet as they portrayed Clinton as a criminal hiding potentially fatal health problems and preparing to hand control of the nation to a shadowy cabal of global financiers. The effort also sought to heighten the appearance of international tensions and promote fear of looming hostilities with nuclear-armed Russia.

Two teams of independent researchers found that the Russians exploited American-made technology platforms to attack U.S. democracy at a particularly vulnerable moment, as an insurgent candidate harnessed a wide range of grievances to claim the White House. The sophistication of the Russian tactics may complicate efforts by Facebook and Google to crack down on “fake news,” as they have vowed to do after widespread complaints about the problem.

There is no way to know whether the Russian campaign proved decisive in electing Trump, but researchers portray it as part of a broadly effective strategy of sowing distrust in U.S. democracy and its leaders. The tactics included penetrating the computers of election officials in several states and releasing troves of hacked emails that embarrassed Clinton in the final months of her campaign.

[tumblindice]

Another example is the coordination between Hillary’s camp and the NYT when the book “Clinton Cash” came out.
They coordinated a response. Then the Slimes’ media mini-me’s took their cues and as you say, then the defenses became memes.

[dowcaet]

So Julian Assange was really a Russian agent after all and not a citizen of Australia. Who knew? Wikileaks was a Russian propaganda campaign too. The left’s crackup reaction to Hillary’s loss is priceless.

[timestax]

photo uploader

[Bobalu]

I did what I could, I made and spread mostly humorous meme images... some were quite funny...a few were very serious.

It was my tiny contribution to help save the world.

[Stand Watch Listen]

“Liberals are acting like Trump is going to kill all the gays, make slavery legal again and take away women's rights...like he's muslim or something."
M Philips

[SteveH]

The Left is Busily Planting Fake Red-Meat Conservative News Sites
The Stream | August 31, 2016 | Rachel Alexander

Posted on 9/1/2016, 9:04:58 AM by CedarDave

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3465042/posts

[Bobalu]

IMO, if Hillary had managed to cheat her way into the presidency it would not have been long until Free Republic would have been shut down.

They are terrified of the new ability people have to publish the truth far and wide.

We need to hone our skills in this new alt-media world and do the best we can to get the real news to the populace.

[timestax]

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

I think all this fake news blubbery is a cover for when all the pedo island stuff starts to leak out more and more they just blame it on the russians.Deny,deny,deny.

[timestax]

[tcrlaf]

Any news source that doesn’t take marching orders from Brock and Podesta is now “Fake News”

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

BTTT

[McGruff]

Only get your news from approved sources.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Calling him uncle joe.FDR ate it up.Churchill didnt buy it for a second.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

How sweet it is.

[bigbob]

I think you may be right. If they can convince people everything they hear is wrong, then when they hear really crazy sounding stuff maybe they won’t believe it.

[SteveH]

this is the first FR article tagged with the contemporary notion of fake news that I could find (and also that I could recall offhand):

Renegade Facebook Employees Form Task Force To Battle Fake News
buzzfeed.com ^ | 11/14/16 | Sheera Frenkel

Posted on 11/14/2016, 3:53:35 PM by ColdOne

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3494201/posts

However, buzzfeed had an article about so called fake news on facebook as far back as oct. 20, 2016:

Hyperpartisan Facebook Pages Are Publishing False And Misleading Information At An Alarming Rate

A BuzzFeed News analysis found that three big right-wing Facebook pages published false or misleading information 38% of the time during the period analyzed, and three large left-wing pages did so in nearly 20% of posts.

posted on Oct. 20, 2016, at 10:47 a.m.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/partisan-fb-pages-analysis?utm_term=.qaB4Wy7A1z#.fdByAdoX23

In turn, the buzzfeed article references an even earlier New York Times article:

Inside Facebook’s (Totally Insane, Unintentionally Gigantic, Hyperpartisan) Political-Media Machine

How a strange new class of media outlet has arisen to take over our news feeds.

By JOHN HERRMAN
AUG. 24, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/magazine/inside-facebooks-totally-insane-unintentionally-gigantic-hyperpartisan-political-media-machine.html?_r=0

[tcrlaf]

If the news anchor starts crying during their election coverage, you're probably watching FAKE NEWS.

[catnipman]

“Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say”

Speaking of propaganda and fake news, I find it particularly hilarious how WaPo has managed to combine the old pre-election “the Russians hacked everything” with the new post-election “fake news” to come up with “the Russians hacked the faked news”.

So now WaPo is a purveyor of ridiculous conspiracy theories? Heck, the National Inquirer now has more credibility than WaPo.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

The problem they will have is that so many of us dont put anything past the clintoons.The young ones dont know so its up to us old guard to school them.