Posted on 09/08/2022 4:11:45 AM PDT by Timber Rattler
Just before 11 a.m. Moscow Standard Time on March 1, after a night of Russian strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, a set of Russian-language Twitter accounts spread a lie that Ukraine was fabricating civilian casualties.
(snip)
Late last month, the network of accounts shifted to focus almost exclusively on Ukraine, echoing similar narratives and content across accounts and platforms. A popular post by the account @QR_Kod accused the Ukrainian military of using civilians as human shields. Another post by @QR_Kod portrayed Ukraine as provoking Russia at the behest of its NATO masters. Both tweets received hundreds of likes and retweets and were posted on the same day as the body bag video. At least two Twitter accounts in the network also shared fake fact-checking videos.
(snip)
The Internet Research Agency is a private company owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian entrepreneur known as “Putin’s Chef.” Prigozhin is linked to a sprawling empire ranging from catering services to the military mercenary company Wagner Group, which was reportedly tasked with assassinating President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The IRA launched in St. Petersburg in 2013 by hiring young internet-savvy people to post on blogs, discussion forums and social media to promote Putin’s agenda to a domestic audience. After being exposed for its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. election, the IRA attempted to outsource some of its English-language operations to Ghana ahead of 2020. Efforts to reach Prigozhin were unsuccessful.
But it never stopped its core work of influencing Russian-speaking audiences. The IRA is part of a sprawling domestic state propaganda operation whose current impact can be seen by the number of Russians who refuse to believe that an invasion has happened, while asserting that Ukrainians are being held hostage by a Nazi coup.
(Excerpt) Read more at propublica.org ...
We needed to be told this?
Thanks, Captain Obvious.
Surprised it didn’t specifically mention FR.
Apparently so, considering the number of shrieking Putinistas on this board supporting the destruction of Ukrainian cities and Russian mass murder.
ProPublica is the left’s biggest muckraker you never heard of
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/propublica-is-the-lefts-biggest-muckraker-you-never-heard-of
Russian trolls can’t be any stupider than the NATO trolls with that ghost of Kiev nonsense
Bolsheviks doing what they have done for more than a century. Russia invented the Potemkin village, Fake News, etc. Lying is one of the few things Russia does well, actually.
You’d think they’d be better at it.
“Bolsheviks doing what they have done for more than a century. Russia invented the Potemkin village, Fake News, etc. Lying is one of the few things Russia does well, actually.”
Glad CNN never lies to us, about Trump or anything else.
I agree, 100% we have been invaded by Russian trolls here for awhile.
Pot calling the kettle black.
...grains of salt—cheap by the pound, cheaper by the ton...
You are all worked up this morning pushing the “Muh Russia” conspiracy. What a load of crap. You swallow Biden propaganda like a fool.
Will you report us to Dear Leader good comrade Snake? You sound like Liz Cheney. Disgusting.
The New York Times is a bastion of truth. It has only been proven that it lied about Stalin’s holocaust in the Ukrain for years. Any bets that Lodi reads it every day?
Personally, I've found it immensely entertaining to be called a "Russian troll" and "putinista" by gullible clowns spouting the 'official Democrat narrative', who have been on Free Republic for years (sometimes decades) less than I have.
"[I]nvaded by Russian trolls"? Oh, you betcha - they're no doubt the exact same "Russian trolls" that we've been told cost Hillary the election, and put President Trump in office...
;>)
🤔🤔🤔
"Between 60 and 80 per cent of Twitter handles posting on the Russia-Ukraine war may be bot accounts, a research by scholars from the University of Adelaide, Australia has found. Among other influences, these bot accounts may have been pushing people to flee their homes during the conflict between these two countries, the researchers added."
Troll farms are here as well.
Surprised it didn’t specifically mention FR.
My thoughts exactly! There have always been a lot of isolationists on FR, but the anti-Uk faction has been ramped up to 11 since feb.
Hey goldfish, get a clue: https://www.google.com/search?q=Internet+Research+Agency+budget&oq=Internet+Research+Agency+budget&aqs=edge..69i57j0i546l2j0i30i546l2j0i546.4443j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
The Internet Research Agency’s budget would need to be expanded by a factor of 10 or more to even be considered in the same league as Reuters alone.
If we add in NYT, CNN, AP, MSNBC, BBC, etc., etc., etc., the Internet Research Agency is going to need a budget in the hundreds of billions to counter them.
If we add in CIA, DIA, MI6, etc., etc., etc., we’re probably talking over a trillion dollars budget to counteract their propaganda.
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