Sanders implies Russia, not his supporters may be to blame for online vitriol-Experts aren't so sure

[Jose Garcia]

LAS VEGAS — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) mounted a new defense Wednesday for the toxicity emanating from pockets of his presidential campaign’s supporters, implying it was possible Russian actors were again manipulating social media to incite Democratic divisions.

Sanders’s language was indirect, offered on the debate stage here as his opponents faulted him for the behavior of his most strident fans. It drew criticism from experts in disinformation, who said they had no direct evidence the Kremlin had masqueraded as Sanders voters to interfere in the 2020 race much as Russian trolls had done four years earlier.

“All of us remember 2016, and what we remember is efforts by Russians and others to try to interfere in our elections and divide us up,” said the senator from Vermont. “I’m not saying that’s happening, but it would not shock me.”

Even the insinuation that foreign actors may be to blame for controversial online behavior by Sanders’s most dedicated followers was an extraordinary indication of the extent to which election interference looms over the 2020 contest. It illustrated how few standards exist for assessing claims of meddling by Russia or other malicious actors, which are being vetted by the very same tech giants whose platforms became host to disinformation that went undetected four years ago.

More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/20/sanders-implies-russia-not-his-supporters-may-be-blame-online-vitriol-experts-arent-so-sure/#click=https://t.co/xTd00e6VY0

[George II]

1. Briahna Gray isn't a Russian.

[Chemisse]

2. And were Russians behind the harrassment of Biden at the end?

Bernie certainly did nothing to chastise them at the time - or later, for all we know. He seems totally fine with the "Russian" antics.

[Farmer-Rick]

12. Actually, I believe Russia was behind it and they are using it to divide and agitate Americans.

Like when they got in the middle of Black Lives matter and the Secessionist movement in California.

"In 1984, ahead of the Summer Olympics, Soviet intelligence forged what looked like threatening letters from the Ku Klux Klan to African and Asian nations to try to scare them from sending their teams to the games in Los Angeles."

https://www.npr.org/2017/10/30/560042987/russians-targeted-u-s-racial-divisions-long-before-2016-and-black-lives-matter

Now they use Twitter and Facebook in the same way.

"Social media accounts with ties to Russia pushed a huge Twitter trend in favour of an independent California on US election night 2016, BBC Trending has learned. The campaign was one of at least two popular online independence drives with links to the Kremlin."

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-41853131

That's NPR and the BBC writing about Russian influence of racial issues in the US. Is it really a huge leap to believe they are pushing this immigration issue to divide and conquer?

[ehrnst]

17. Experts say they found no evidence Russian bots were involved,

and Russian propaganda isn't bothering with it...

The Daily Beast reached out to experts in tracking disinformation to see if there was any evidence of Russian involvement in the feud between Sanders supporters and the Nevada Culinary Workers Union. None could point to a specific example of Russia-linked personas imitating pro-Bernie personas and attacking members of the Nevada Culinary Workers Union.

Ben Nimmo, director of investigations at the disinformation-tracking firm Graphika, told The Daily Beast that, after 2016, Russian trolls have tried harder to stay undetected, making finding them a tricky process.

“Actually proving that a particular account is run from Russia means crossing a high evidence bar. There are far more accusations of ‘Russian trolls’ or ‘Russian bots’ going around than there are actual known Russian assets that have been taken down.”

Oftentimes, Russian covert operations on social media act as echo chambers for the issues and priorities of overt Russian propaganda outlets like Sputnik and RT. Jessica Brandt, director of research at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, which tracks Russian state news trends and disinformation, said Russian outlets haven’t made much of the Nevada union feud.

“We’ve seen no evidence of that,” she told The Daily Beast, adding that the Alliance’s dashboard for tracking overt Russian propaganda turned up only one story on the Nevada issue.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/experts-call-bs-on-bernies-russian-bot-theory

And there's a whole lot more evidence that Sanders supporters would harass the Union.

https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/462344-working-families-party-director-responds-to-harassment-after-warren-endorsement

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/07/politics/bernie-sanders-social-media-attacks-invs/index.html

You know, no other candidate felt a need to tell their supporters not to harass his opponents.

Bernie Sanders Politely Asks Supporters Not to Harass His Opponents

Why would Russian Bots try to make Sanders supporters, and by extension Sanders look bad, as this harassment does - so much that he's trying to claim that it's not his supporters?

It's been shown that he's the number one choice of the GOP as an opponent to Trump, so it makes no sense that Russia would be trying to tank Sanders, because it would run counter to the GOP efforts to re-elect Trump.

[jmg257]

16. Likely not, but then again, neither were Bernie supporters...

“You deported three million people,” one of the protesters yelled as the former vice president began his closing remarks. The demonstrators were quickly escorted away.

RAICES Action, an immigrant rights group, said on Twitter that it was responsible for the protest. The demonstrators were immediately escorted out of the debate, and Mr. Biden resumed his closing statement.

Link to tweet

[mcar]

3. His staff is Russian?

[Squinch]

4. Pitiful. SMDH.

[lsewpershad]

5. Who are these

so-called experts?

[beastie boy]

6. No, it's Ukraine!

And Rudy will get to the bottom of it!

[tishaLA]

7. He never cared that Russian interference was helping him, tho

[still_one]

8. So it was "the Russians" in NH that were booing Pete and Amy. That sounds like a similar excuse

Keith Ellison used when he said he has yet to see a Sander's supporter behaving badly, and suggested no one could demonstrate such a thing was happening

Needless to say, he received quite a lot of responses

[lapfog_1]

9. A great deal of the lies and vitriol come from his campaign staff

and surrogates.

Is he saying they are paid Russian agents?

If so, why doesn't he just fire them?

[subana]

10. he goes to great lengths not to criticize any of his volunteers!

why doesn't he simply advise them not to use offensive tactics? There's nothing wrong with doing that or at least give them some appropriate guidelines to follow. That would end this issue. The answer is he doesn't do this because he likes what his people are doing.

[Jose Garcia]

11. This is like the 'good people on both sides' strategy

[subana]

15. yes

or a few bad apples excuse. If people who are supporting your campaign are doing things that reflect badly on your campaign, why would you not tell them to knock it off!

[MrsCoffee]

13. When we were trying to hold Russia accountable with sanctions, Bernie was voting to give them a pass

Russia was nothing more than a distraction he said. Totally downplayed their helping his campaign. His surrogates all spinning the nothing to see here routine.

But now the Russians must be the real Bernie Bros.

Give me a fucking break, lol.

[Fiendish Thingy]

14. The intelligence community agrees with Sanders

They briefed Congress last week and stated that Russia is meddling with Dem primaries.