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Propagandists Use Automated Software to Spread Disinformation
Rampant Disinformation
NATO has announced that it is launching an “information war” against Russia.
The UK publicly announced a battalion of keyboard warriors to spread disinformation.
It’s well-documented that the West has long used false propaganda to sway public opinion.
Western military and intelligence services manipulate social media to counter criticism of Western policies.
Such manipulation includes flooding social media with comments supporting the government and large corporations, using armies of sock puppets, i.e. fake social media identities. See this, this, this, this and this.
In 2013, the American Congress repealed the formal ban against the deployment of propaganda against U.S. citizens living on American soil. So there’s even less to constrain propaganda than before.
Information warfare for propaganda purposes also includes:
- The Pentagon, Federal Reserve and other government entities using software to track discussion of political issues … to try to nip dissent in the bud before it goes viral
- “Controlling, infiltrating, manipulating and warping” online discourse
- Use of artificial intelligence programs to try to predict how people will react to propaganda
Automated Propaganda
Some of the propaganda is spread by software programs.
We pointed out 6 years ago that people were writing scripts to censor hard-hitting information from social media.
One of America’s top cyber-propagandists – former high-level military information officer Joel Harding – wrote in December:
I was in a discussion today about information being used in social media as a possible weapon. The people I was talking with have a tool which scrapes social media sites, gauges their sentiment and gives the user the opportunity to automatically generate a persuasive response. Their tool is called a “Social Networking Influence Engine”.
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The implications seem to be profound for the information environment.
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The people who own this tool are in the civilian world and don’t even remotely touch the defense sector, so getting approval from the US Department of State might not even occur to them.
How Can This Real?
Gizmodo reported in 2010:
Software developer Nigel Leck got tired rehashing the same 140-character arguments against climate change deniers, so he programmed a bot that does the work for him. With citations!
Leck’s bot, @AI_AGW, doesn’t just respond to arguments directed at Leck himself, it goes out and picks fights. Every five minutes it trawls Twitter for terms and phrases that commonly crop up in Tweets that refute human-caused climate change. It then searches its database of hundreds to find a counter-argument best suited for that tweet—usually a quick statement and a link to a scientific source.
As can be the case with these sorts of things, many of the deniers don’t know they’ve been targeted by a robot and engage AI_AGW in debate. The bot will continue to fire back canned responses that best fit the interlocutor’s line of debate—Leck says this goes on for days, in some cases—and the bot’s been outfitted with a number of responses on the topic of religion, where the arguments unsurprisingly often end up.
Technology has come a long way in the past 5 years. So if a lone programmer could do this 5 years ago, imagine what he could do now.
And the big players have a lot more resources at their disposal than a lone climate activist/software developer does. For example, a government expert told the Washington Post that the government “quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type” (and see this). So if the lone programmer is doing it, it's not unreasonable to assume that the big boys are widely doing it.
How Does It Work?
How does this work?
We have no inside knowledge, but we can imagine some possibilities:
- Any article that includes the words “Russia” or “Ukraine” automatically triggers comments accusing Russia of seeking to form a new empire, Putin of being the new Hitler, and the Russians invading and being responsible for all of the violence Ukraine
- Any article including the words “NSA”, “spying” or “mass surveillance” automatically triggers comments saying that the government is just trying keep us safe, and anyone who questions their actions is a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist who lives in his mom’s basement
- Any article mentioning the phrases”Federal Reserve” or “quantitative easing” automatically launches comments saying that the Fed is doing the best it can under difficult circumstances, and that the economy would be much worse without QE
So that moron who keeps spewing garbage - and doesn't seem like he's even listening to your responses - may actually be a bot.
How Effective Are Automated Comments?
Unfortunately, this is more effective than you might assume …
Specifically, scientists have shown that name-calling and swearing breaks down people’s ability to think rationally … and intentionally sowing discord and posting junk comments to push down insightful comments are common propaganda techniques.
Indeed, an automated program need not even be that sophisticated … it can copy a couple of words from the main post or a comment, and then spew back one or more radioactive labels such as “terrorist”, “commie”, “Russia-lover”, “wimp”, “fascist”, “loser”, “traitor”, “conspiratard”, etc.
Given that Harding and his compadres consider anyone who questions any U.S. policies as an enemy of the state – as does the Obama administration (and see this) – many honest, patriotic writers and commenters may be targeted for automated propaganda comments.
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Ghordius agreed... but careful, lest we be called "bots" for disagreeing with the OP!
And therein lies the problem with a disinformation campaign. Though bots certainly exist on both sides of any real or perceived conflict, they have degenerated the discussion. One can simply dismiss an opponent as a "bot", and it has all the effect of a neutron bomb in terms of the discussion.
Bot, troll, Hitler, sell-out, conspiracy theorist, climate change denier... All are ad hominem attacks designed to derail. But what about when a poster calls an actual bot/troll a bot/troll?!? There is a reason that 'degenerates' a discussion, it means you have caught on to the bullshit, and no level of backtracking or layering further bullshit will help. I believe the common phrase, to a REAL person in that situation is to "stop digging".
Methinks Flakmeister has had the "curtain" pulled back:
"Software developer Nigel Leck got tired rehashing the same 140-character arguments against climate change deniers, so he programmed a bot that does the work for him. With citations!"
We're on to you, Flaky ;)
Is it an ad hominen to call a poster a bot when they are not? If they are actually a bot, then it would be a statement of fact even if the methods used were faulty.
Calling someone a bot could be a variation of the appeal to nature fallacy since that states 'artificial' is not necessarily worse than natural.
Tie yourself in knots if that's your thing, but a bot is worse. Certainly worse at this stage of the game.
Maybe you are thinking of the kind of 'bot Captain James T. Kirk would often encounter on teleporting onto the sound stage on some remote planet he was orbiting. Then he would always get into a dialogue with it. Which was a good thing to move the plot along, as it contained all the knowledge of the often expired civilization, but we're not there yet.
Always made me laugh to read this kind of big delusion. This is the Internet. Feel free to speak your mind and use that freedom to speak facts.
Stooge - perfect example of a bot post. The Prober one, not yours of course. Generic insults our tax dollars can stuff into any thread.
Information isn't knowledge. Government appeals to authorities it validates. Is there one government funded research project looking to disprove global warming? Disprove is a logical error, as the burden of proof is to prove. A next error is that a government funded research should be deemed a valid authority. Do they fear funding dissent from their orthodoxy? That which cannot be challenged is belief, never truth.
The government needs a bot program to counter logic, because its supporters think not, they emote, as running dogs in their master's pack. https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/
I think, therefore I am master. I emote and obey, because they are master.
Knowledge comes from being curious. Curiosity is stamped out as schooling promotes group think. The term Climate Change Denier refers to anyone who questions what the group thinks and thus hinders the information that produces true knowledge.
The only thing scientific about Climate Change is that the climate changes and we don't yet understand how. If we did we wouldn't be so abysmal at predicting it! But when your goal is a global tax by any means you need bots like ketchup king Al Gore to counter the Logic of the curious like Dr. Patrick Moore.
Natural sources of carbon dioxide dwarf human production. Yet the story goes, the ~2% increase due to humans has tipped the system out of stability and we must cut back on fossil fuel usage. If the goal is to cut carbon emmissions, why not focus on the annual dry season burning of the tropics? Appearently, this represents half the annual fossil fuels produced CO2. All you have to do, to make significant cuts in human produced CO2 is pay locals a small some of money to look after the forest and they will get it done. Seems to be more about fossil fuels (taxing?) than CO2.
Imo, Sun weather is the primary driver for weather on Earth.
Google "milankovitch cycles"... Then tell the global warming alarmists to learn some math. If they are capable of doing math.
25 years ago, indicating that websites, comments sections, trolls, and bots were unheard of, a film producer/director named Mike Slee made a film called After The Warming :
ATW
I don't think it would be unreasonable to say that Al Gore was basically also unheard of in 1989 and please note that After The Warming came 15 years before An Inconvenient Truth.
I wonder if Mike Slee would agree to doing an interview about the making of After The Warming.
http://www.mikeslee.co.uk/index.htm
Nice posters.
New World Order is Something Far Worse:
http://winteractionables.com/?p=19401
I have no doubt the State department was very active on Social Media stirring up the Arab Spring. The use of artificial intel in combo with propaganda is a no brainer for those herding the sheep. The problem with propaganda is truth, it always finds a way out. But in the short term mobs of easily influenced people can wreck a country in short order. The political swings in Egypt, from Mubarak to military rule under Tantawi to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood and then back to military rule under el-Sisi, all in under two years, couldn't have happened without manipulating large mobs into action. It's well known those mobs were actively organized on social media.
"That @ssh&le Who Spews Garbage and Doesn't Listen to Your Reasonable Comments ... May Be a Bot"
I always suspected you were a bot, George ;~)
This is why you will find that on touchy news stories (anything involving race, they don't want you mitigating the race war they are trying to enflame) THERE ARE NO COMMENTS ALLOWED.
They're doing a fab job of it so far. Guaranteed to destroy America from within without them wasting ammo on the others.
Simple solution is to use some modified 'captcha' when posting a comment.
Zero Hedge used to do that...but it was tough figuring the fifth root of 125 after a couple of beers.
For that we have our Scientific Calculator (Windows) :-D
This accomplishes nothing against the live, paid, career-based, liars and propaganda spewers.
First they try to sway, then they outright lie and intimidate, final step will be the "expert" and non-anonymity clause, cloaked under internet fairness or government/expert (for profit) truth or some other such nonsense and bs.
We are in a world of hurt. Luckily, for most, they won't notice until the noose is around their own neck.
It's for the children, and polar bears, for crissakes.
I was referring to bots. Obviously, captcha will not eliminate paid propagandists or trolls.
Price/post for a paid propagandist has got to be much higher than the marginal bot post. Like HFT, expect the problem to grow.
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Not if it stands between Latvian and potato.
GW- "That @ssh&le Who Spews Garbage and Doesn't Listen to Your Reasonable Comments ... May Be a Bot"
Funny that this was going be my first sentence in the next meeting I had with you. Projecting a bit much aren't we.
And no you can't show my time in service as a reasonable comment.
Pot and fucking kettle!!!
You sully the name Shitgum.
He says "Pot meet kettle."
With him it's "shit meets stain."
"And no you can't show my time in service as a reasonable comment"
But that's what a bot would do, isn't it?
You forget, Tarzan, "there are no conspiracies".
/s
Ayup
Several articles posted on ZH have described the extensive system Puutie has setup to spew his propaganda. Many of his employees must be here on ZH. The Russian pay rate would be about enough for a mobile home payment.
There's been far more whining than usual about "propaganda" that counters the sort of..well...propaganda and yellow journalism that led us into Iraq, that keeps trying to convince us that Iran is racing toward a nuke...
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/02/brief-history-netanyahu-crying-wolf-iranian-nuclear-bomb/
There's no doubt that people are getting their news from more sources, including independent and foreign ones. It's harder for the neocon war machine to lie to everyone these days....hence the unremitting whining and homophobic/homoerotic red herrings.
I have no doubt that RT and other sources are engaging in propaganda.
But your kind of fuckwit is too stupid to understand that the Russians are complete amateurs compared to the American corporate media - controlled by about 6 corporations, and each working with US intelligence agencies - closely.
The more you weasels bitch and moan, the more desperate you look.
:o}
Who freaking cares about Putin and his propaganda? He's a Russian. We should expect Russians (or Chinese or French or whomever) to try to propagandize us.
The problem we have is our own government doing it to us. Why are you not upset about that? Oh, they pay you... got it.
Why is it that traitors always have to be paid?
Maybe time to admit that your propaganda is too cheap to endure.
We need a bot to ID these bots
Need a bot? LOL its easy to spot them. Augusta and Shithead gum are definitely bots or else they're the stupidest fuckers in the room.
- View
- Votes
Relationships- Relationship actions
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- Become Augustus's Contact
HistorySo Augustus is just an old, stupid, ingroup biased, government loving true-believer.
Or, he works for the Mafia.
Augustus- Seriously. Since when does a financial blog turn into a cheerleading section for a KGB/Kremlin thug.
Some reply that Putin is respected for being a leader. Well Stalin was a leader. Hitler was a leader. Mao was a leader. Obama is a .....
Scratch that last one. Barry is no leader. He's a bloody shit stain that won't come out.
I guess we need some Chipotle-away!
http://southpark.cc.com/clips/251865/billy-mays-here
Reading this, I'm reminded of one of my favorite songs from high school:
"Paranoid Android"
Please could you stop the noise, I'm trying to get some rest
From all the unborn chicken voices in my head
What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)
What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)
When I am king, you will be first against the wall
With your opinion which is of no consequence at all
What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but no android)
What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but no android)
Ambition makes you look pretty ugly
Kicking and squealing gucci little piggy
You don't remember
You don't remember
Why don't you remember my name?
Off with his head, man
Off with his head, man
Why don't you remember my name?
I guess he does....
Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on me
From a great height
From a great height... height...
Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on me
From a great height
From a great height... height...
Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on me
TThat's it, sir
You're leaving
The crackle of pigskin
The dust and the screaming
The yuppies networking
The panic, the vomit
The panic, the vomit
God loves his children, God loves his children, yeah! -Radiohead
The yuppies NETWORKING! Always loved that line.
But the stupid machines are foiled by visual satire...
ZH needs to give a us all access to emoji style hieroglyphic communications on these boards.
http://totalfratmove.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/7e3bec9...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Emoji_u1f40f.sv...
http://o.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/adam/d5365aaa9853f45a8964a8ddbc040966/01...
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-faces-meager-options-further-052356611.h...
?read the comments on the yahoopage all done by 1 person
I saw yahoo get destroyed. At one point, during a full court press to damp down free speech after Lehman, the board for every ticker symbol I looked at was plastered with automated, aggressive garbage.
Like ZH after the Boston marathon bombing. Anyone remember the garbage on here at that time?
SOLUTION: CAPTCHA, as others have pointed out. ABC Media doesn't want it. Understood. They have to keep the lights on.
Can we wrap ZH in a Captcha .... wrapper?
Like, create a new website. A news consolidator that employs captcha. The site sources ZH, (and GW of course.) and passes posts in both directions. Would require ZH login. Different potential solutions, eg. Captcha'dKnukles, CaptchaEnabledPaveway ... Would ZH want to crush it? Maybe. Then again, supporting free expression when it is under attack might promote page views and be good, even ethical, if I can use that word, business. Could be expanded to other sites based on stake holder concensus. Etc. What are the legal issues around sourcing news sites? None?
Try Marketwatch gold articles.