Troll Factory: How Russian Propaganda Intervened in the US Presidential Election

Фото: Depositphotos

The Russian authorities tried to interfere in the election campaign in the United States with the help of “stuffing” in the media sphere and fake news, writes today CNN. The channel’s journalists collected examples of how unverified facts and outright lies became “news No. 1” in the United States, and authoritative publications were forced to conduct entire investigations to refute these “canards.”

Hillary Clinton's Disease

One of the biggest stories of the election campaign was “Pizzagate,” a fictitious story about a group of pedophiles who were allegedly covered up by Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman, John Podesta. Messages about an alleged group of high-ranking pedophiles appeared on major social networks - Twitter, Facebook, Reddit. When the scandal began to reach the national level, journalists from The New York Times and the Washington Post conducted an investigation and refuted all the facts that were published on social networks.

Photo: Depositphoto

Another popular story was the health of Hillary Clinton. Pneumonia, which Clinton really got sick with in September, with the help of skillful manipulation of the media has become a serious illness. Many media outlets began to write that Clinton had a brain injury, and some even assumed that the Democratic candidate had begun to lose her mind.

Troll Factory

CNN believes that it is the Russian authorities that are involved in an attempt to discredit Clinton and thus help the election of Donald Trump. And although officially the Russian authorities have repeatedly refuted such assumptions, the journalists of the newspaper are confident that the Kremlin really tried to interfere in the electoral process.

In particular, journalists from The Washington Post found out about the existence of an entire “troll factory” - an established system of thousands of computer bots and real people who, for money, write a huge number of posts on social media and thus bring to the “top” the news that the Kremlin needs, which sometimes completely fictitious. One of the first investigations on this topic was опубликовано in early November.

“Propaganda mechanisms in Russia are directed primarily against right-wing parties,” says Clint Watts, author of the investigation. “But they also attack the US government as a whole and foment conspiracies against the US government and its institutions.” Watts is a fellow at the International Policy Research Institute and a senior fellow at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Cyber ​​Security Center. “This is all being done not only for the sake of Trump’s victory,” the expert believes. “We’re talking about a broad spectrum of white nationalists.”

Watts believes that during the election campaign, three groups of people were involved in the spread of fake news: ardent Trump supporters, entrepreneurs who used fake news to increase website traffic and thus earn money, and the Russian propaganda system.

Each of these groups uses their platforms to post fake news. For example, businessmen who make money by attracting readers with unreliable news often use Amazon to advertise. At the same time, all this plays into the hands of Russian propaganda, the expert believes. “The main goal is not to elect Trump, but to undermine trust in the media and government institutions,” says Watts.

200 Russian propaganda websites

Another investigation conducted by activists of the anonymous community PropOrNot. They examined a variety of social media posts—posts on Twitter, Facebook, and other media. Activists said that they were trying to track the entire chain of many high-profile Internet scandals. And it often turned out that many scandals had one source. Moreover, many social media users voluntarily participate in spreading fake news simply because they fall for tempting headlines.

Anonymous researchers concluded that Russia has made great efforts to create a large-scale propaganda system on the Internet. “We do not exaggerate the role of Russia. Of course, many are engaged in spreading fake news. But Russia is the leader at this point,” PropOrNot said in an email to CNN.

The PropOrNot study listed 200 websites, which, according to the authors, are sources of fake news. Together, they cover more than 15 millions of American readers. At the same time, as the researchers say, the distribution of information is largely centralized. Moreover, many people do not even suspect that they are involved in Russian Internet propaganda systems, PropOrNot is sure.

However, other experts argue that PropOrNot took into account too many Internet sites. Many of them, although they publish unverified information, do it not by the order of Russian propaganda, but simply provide an opportunity to express an opinion.

Ben Nimmo, an expert at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, is confident that this is not only about the actions of the Russian authorities. “In many countries there are people who have their own point of view on events. They hate America, they hate Clinton, they hate American foreign policy. And they are happy to spread such rumors. This is happening in both Germany and the UK,” says Nimmo.

Zuckerberg is powerless against Russia

Another study was conducted by specialists from the Rand Corporation and George Washington University. They examined the very scheme of disseminating false information and came to the conclusion that Russian propaganda is distinguished by a very large volume of information and operates in many directions at once. Information flows in a continuous stream and is often repeated. Google and Facebook are not yet able to resist this. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that "we've taken significant steps to combat this type of information, but we still have a lot of work ahead."

The authors of the studies call the RT television channel and the Sputnik agency key links in the system of Russian foreign propaganda. The Washington Post directly accused RT of disseminating false information in its materials. “The Washington Post has not yet presented a single piece of evidence that RT is telling a lie,” Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT, told CNN. — RT has never participated in such activities. Moreover, it is surprising that the Washington Post did not even contact us for comments, although this is basic journalistic ethics.”

Margarita Simnonyan, editor-in-chief of the RT channel and Vladimir Putin. Photo: Kremlin press service

However, in the Washington Post responded to the accusations Simonyan. They believe that the material reflected the position of the Kremlin and, therefore, the comments of RT, as part of the state propaganda system, would be superfluous.

Researchers agree that the propaganda machine somehow influenced the course of the election race in the United States and helped the election of Donald Trump. However, it is too early to rejoice at the new owner of the White House. Clint Watts suggests that Trump will be the next target of the Russian “troll factory.” "If he doesn't support Putin's policies, he's next," Watts said. Also, many experts are confident that with the help of hackers, Moscow obtained at its disposal many emails from many high-ranking US politicians, not only Hillary Clinton.

“Until they are published, they are a kind of ammunition. They are stored until they are needed,” said one expert.

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