Russian Bots Linked To Viral Twitter Attacks On 'Hateful' Dems

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Huffington Post

07/08/2018 12:32 am ET

Is this a preview of stepped-up activity before the midterm elections?
By Mary Papenfuss

It what may be an early onslaught of Kremlin-linked Twitter attacks ahead of the U.S. midterm elections, Russia bots appear to be fueling a wave of criticism against Democrats in part over a lack of “civility” and intimidation in political confrontations, according to bot trackers.

Attacks with the hashtag #WalkAway purport to be from a “grassroots” wave of one-time Democrats who have left the party in part because they say they are so incensed by the hateful and divisive behavior of party members. The message is to “walk away” from ugly confrontations, “intolerance” and hate — and from the Democratic Party.

But the hashtag has been connected to Russian bots. It has ranked as the third or fourth most popular Kremlin-linked hashtag for days, according to bot tracking by the Hamilton 68 site run by the bipartisan Alliance for Securing Democracy, which keeps tabs on Russian activity on the American internet.

Arc Digital has made the same connection in the “strikingly similar” tweets pushing a “familiar narrative” of Democratic “bullying.” Arc traced the campaign from a Facebook group in May and subsequent tweets whose traffic suddenly began to explode late last month.


Read more: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/russian-bots-linked-to-viral-attacks-over-rude-dems_us_5b414945e4b05127ccf2d083

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Twitter desperately needs a Rapid Response Team

with an eye toward bots and truth. These things cost money, do not grow the user base, and only get attention when they threaten to undermine the whole of the site's purpose. So it's not a priority.

[MBS]

11. You are right.

On both counts (the need and the reason it's not a priority for them), unfortunately.

[Maxheader]

2. Russky bots

fill in for the lack of intellect from your typical rabid rightwing americun media
hack..Right there is how you tell the difference..Even a commy bastard can't
duplicate the psycho babble of the white house and faux news..

[The Mouth]

23. And they often use better English

[ehrnst]

3. I have to wonder about some of the new "concern" trolls I've seen here on DU.

"We are so DIVIDED!!!!"

"We are in such DISARRAY!!!"

"Democratic Leaders have NO SPINE!!!"

[Lytex59]

5. Don't fall for the fake doomsayers

We know the Russians are coming for us. Outsmart them. Question sources. Reject unfounded criticism. Counter bad news with good reports. Don't be gullible.

[ehrnst]

6. I'm not, but others here are. One can see by the support they get from veteran DUers.

If one rejects, or counters in the wrong way, one can be alerted.

On social media in 2016, if I did reject or counter, I got called a "Correct the Record paid shill."

[Chickensoup]

4. Hear we go again....

What are we going to do about it?
Any one listening...hello from the
other side.
Maybe we should just stay calm
and hope for a Hail Mary.

[hlthe2b]

7. I would hope all DUers would take note of this... We've been manipulated before...

or at least experienced concerted "attempts"...

[Dennis Donovan]

13. My first thought was how it was breathlessly reported here on DU...

...the ones who did were Had. Again.

[bucolic_frolic]

8. You can tell these attacks are coming well ahead of time

They start by floating a story at a high level about 'incivility' and Trump denounces Maxine Waters.

Then the bots follow-on via Twitter. We knew a week ahead. We have to get out front on these things.

And here comes the next trending Twitter bots: Trump voters deserve sympathy because they are being ganged up on by foreigners

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017500073

[groundloop]

15. Yes.... you tend to get the impression that Spanky is STILL coordinating with Putin

Damn I wish Mueller would drop a bombshell before November. Something along the lines of McConnell, RNC and other senior repubs directly accepting Russian mob money.

[NewJeffCT]

9. There is already a new wave of Russian attacks

about Black voters leaving the Democratic party.

[barbtries]

10. considering what the republicans have done

anyone talking to me about democratic "bullies" is instablocked.

[Botany]

12. And Fox News will do its part in this scheme too

Some people say, "Have the dems like Maxine Waters gone too far?"

[dalton99a]

14. +1. They're using the same playbook

[Botany]

18. I have little doubt that Russian/Putin friendly assets are working @ Fox right now.

Despite all their American Flag, screaming eagles, and pictures of the troops Fox News is
at its core an un-American organization.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

16. Second time around...

Maybe more.
This election cycle should be a little easier for us to digest.
We know that Russia will interfere, they said as much. We know that the dotard will have his thumbs in full workout mode. We know the lies will get bolder and even more vile.
We know that there will be and/or are trolls that will inhabit DU.

We can’t get caught up in the “distraction weeds”. Just stay on point.

We have enough ammo right now to sink most any of their Bullships

Depending on what happens this cycle, 2020 is going to be crazier than any election we’ve encountered. Let’s learn from this one. 2016 caught us off guard.

[Firestorm49]

17. Republicans don't care.

Ron Johnson and his ilk of seven co-conspirators played out their cheap charade in Moscow to the delight of the Republican Party. Ask the Russians to stop meddling? My ass. Doesn’t anybody wonder why there has been no directive from the King to prevent election rigging on the part of foreign governments working in conjunction with our own current administration? The proof has already been put out to the public, and yet we sit here fat, dumb and happy while Rome burns.

We are complacent in the bullseye of tyranny, and are watching our country collapse right before our eyes.

Is our own national intelligence community complicit? I would like to think that at some point, before we sink into a fascist/communist state, that the agencies who supposedly work to keep our country safe and secure, do their job to serve and protect our Constitution at any cost.

[Wuddles440]

19. Be prepared....

for a dramatic acceleration of this type of activity after The CONald meets with his boss. I'd anticipate massive voter suppression actions leading up to and during the mid-term elections. Putin has been, and will continue to be, a reliable and extremely effective ally for the GOP propaganda machine.

[McCamy Taylor]

20. Tips for dealing with paid posters.

1) Do NOT call them out. This is what they want and they will alert on you.

2) Do not allow yourself to be distracted and get involved in a flame war. This is what they want and they will alert on you.

3) Do not allow yourself to be driven away from social media. This is what they want (and they will not even have to bother alerting on you)

Instead, if you begin to suspect that a poster is not what he or she appears to be, review their other posts. Do a critical reading the way you would do a critical reading in an English literature class. You should be able to figure out their motive and who they are working for. These are not great minds. A true genius would find something better to do. And since they can drop one ID and create another, they will not expend a lot of energy hiding their true motives--they will want to get right to work.

Once you figure out what industry or country or political figure they represent, you begin posting the most negative/damaging stuff you can about their industry or country or political figure. When they try to troll you, respond (out of the blue) with some really damaging tidbit about their master. Do not say "this is your master", just find some way to introduce the topic without making an accusation They will realize that they have been made and that they are now a liability rather than an asset and they will drop this fake persona and get started on another.

If anyone needs help with a critical reading of a suspected paid poster's work, send me a PM. When I was pre-med, I majored in English. I can usually figure out what industry they represent fairly quickly.

As for political trolls on Facebook, why would anyone want to allow anyone who is not friends or family on their Facebook page? Is it the endless pursuit of our 15 minutes of fame? That isn't fame. You can buy "likes" and Amazon "recs" by the gross from Egypt. That is ones and zeroes.

[kimbutgar]

21. I'm not a big twitter user

But when we see these hashtags maybe we should write #these are Russian troll bots. I know when I used Facebook I would answer you are a Russian troll or don’t feed the Russian troll bot. It stopped them on that particular comment thread. We should do that everywhere in social media. I always looked at their profile picture and you could tell immediately they were fake.

[LiberalLovinLug]

22. Dems lose two ways

They are swamped by Russian trolls calling them "hateful" and uncivil and hysterical etc..

Yet they are desperately clinging to a quaint Pleasantville notion that if they just bite their lips and be nice they will win the social war. So they get none of the benefits of the admiration, whether earned or not, that comes with the side that looks like they are the ones in the right because of how upset they always look. Its human nature to suspect the one in a court battle that sits silently with their head down and doesn't seem to have any righteous anger at their situation they find themselves in.

Reminds me a bit of the OJ Simpson trial. No matter how much carefully gathered DNA evidence and very good circumstantial evidence to back that up the prosecution had, Johnnie Cochran's showmanship, playing to the cameras, won over the jury. its too bad that that kind of manufactured production works, but it does. Especially in this increasingly social media dominated world.

The Democratic party needs a big re-haul and must get new blood, and not be afraid to get more adversarial if they want to win again. How many times do we need to watch Michael Avenatti show our leaders how to do it. Republicans are afraid of him. How much do they even attempt to attack or discredit him?

[The Mouth]

24. More of the same

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/07/trump-putin-russia-collusion.html

[ck4829]

25. Kick

[Corgigal]

26. No such thing as a hateful Dem.

That's why we vote the way we do, humanity is our thing.

However, hateful B.S. Russian bots are another thing.

[2naSalit]

27. Just as I suspected...nt

[Snellius]

28. What morons would think #WalkAway would really work?

Like some Dem is going to vote for Trump because he's not like Trump. You can tell this nonsense is foreign just because it's so out of touch. Like those old Godzilla subtitles translated from Japanese. All your base belong to us.