To think it is naive to assume Russian troll farms don’t target massive high traffic discussion forums like Mumsnet to post misinformation

[ThePeppyMoose]

Given the recent types of posts…

They're probably here. I've seen bots on smaller sites. But don't make the mistake of assuming that everyone who disagrees with the prevailing opinion are bots. Some of us are just Americans tired of endless war, like me.

Not that you asked, although I have seen it asked on other threads, but the polls are out and 62% of Americans think that Z was rude to Trump and Vance (Luntz) and 78% of us think that Z should agree to a ceasefire (Harvard-Harris). Neither of these are right wing polls. Luntz is center left and Harvard-Harris is hard left.

@Moonlightstars oh I get it, posters not saying what others agree with, troll farms.

My (unscientific) MN poll has a steady 93% of MN posters supporting Zelensky over Trump and Putin. You wouldn't believe that from reading the threads though. A few very prolific posters can create a very different impression of the prevailing opinion.

Incidentally I have been accused of being a shill for Labour, a union rep, a Torybot(!), a shill for Israel and probably loads of other things over the years. Anyone who posts strong opinions has probably been accused of being paid to do it at some point, and it's definitely a lazy, overused accusation.

But that doesn't mean that it isn't also happening.

Hard left?? Come on now.

I too had posts deleted for suggesting it.

@noblegiraffe I've done your poll, I support zelensky over putin in the simple framework you asked but the whole subject is much more nuanced.

Well everybody supports a ceasefire even Zelensky so what's new.
Also most Americans support Trump so the the outcome is to be expected. I mean the dude sexually assaulted someone and people still blamed her.

I didn't say it wasn't nuanced.

But would you say that on the topic only 4% of posts on MN are pro-Trump?

You don't have hard left in the states. Your left is more to the right of UK left wing parties. In the UK what some people call our hard left are considered as being in the centre in comparison to many other European countries.

I've just NCed for this, but have been a member since the glory days of MarmaladeTwatkins.

There are a few tells in the style of posting & style of name. Also the writing style, even when it sounds fluent. Also the topic focus, and the way emotion/tropes are used.

I've been really heartened by the posters who say 'you again'. I report what I can, & think it's definitely worth reporting - don't worry about being in trouble for being a troll-hunter - because the mods must take volume of reports into account.

There must be more we can do on the regular Mumsnet user side. I thought it was a bad idea to reply to the 'Tr*mp is right' thread yesterday because it kept it trending and visible. But of course I did reply! So I became part of the problem.

If we had some general principles about what we can do, that would help. Any ideas? (Though the problem with that is once it's clear what the counterdisinfo system is, it can be subverted...)

I do think Mumsnet should remove suspicious topics from 'Trending' while they 'take a look' - that would help a little. Or maybe they already do this? Does anyone know?

For me, the integrity of the site and user experience is being threatened. More than that, the site has become a vector for disinformation and conspiracism.

The last UK General Election day was another day when there was a lot of suspicious-looking activity. A crying shame, because the site is a huge treasure trove of collective wisdom and advice shared in good faith, mostly for women by women, built up over 20+ years.

And that said, anyway, the genuine hard left , for reasons that are long and somewhat tortuous, support Putin.

I would love to get a response from @mnhq on this thread. Can you speak to these concerns please? Thank you.

No country has been as prolific at this as Russia. The US doesn‘t need offices full of paid trolls, Trump has a large number of MAGA loyalists who will regurgitate his wibble for free.

I deactivated Facebook. It used to just show me stuff I wanted to see (friends, pages I 'liked' etc.) but as time went on the algorithms filled my feed up with clickbait and stuff designed to cause controversy in the comments section (because more engagement = more money). Even pretty innocuous stuff like a picture of a newly-pedestrianised street in Paris would be filled with comments from random Bulgarians ranting about how it's a WEF conspiracy.

Indeed, I remember Corbyn's response to the Salisbury poisonings.

And when Assad used chemical weapons against his own people.

Can't find a "Luntz" poll anywhere and that would be an extraordinary quick turnaround (particularly over the weekend) for a legitimate poll. I assume this'll be Republican pollster Frank Luntz doing a Twitter poll?

The Harvard-Harris poll is a "proper" poll but is also considered to have a right-wing bias, to the point where Harvard's continuing involvement with it has been subject to some controversy: https://www.thecrimson.com/column/forging-harvards-future/article/2024/3/26/bodnick-/

That 78% figure you quote is itself quite misleading given that, in the very same poll, 57% said that Ukraine should not be forced to give up any territory. Clearly, people want peace, but the terms of it are where things become objectionable.

This. Some people are bordering on unhealthy usage of this site and social media. Some people are literally living on the site with friendship groups 24/7. Slowly but surely they have been killing political threads with bot accusations. It’s repetitive. It’s now escalated into multiple threads hunting and discussing bots. It’s nuts. Best thing these people could do is stay off socials for a bit.

No doubt bots and plants exist but the obsession with them is unhealthy. What’s even more unhealthy - is the obsession with them comes from using it to shut down anyone who isn’t pro everything the government is doing. The bot hunters can’t actually deal with a difference of opinion and it’s made them paranoid.

People shouldn't be quick to resort to bot accusations over differences of opinion.

However, there have been a lot of outright, pro-Russia lies on here in recent days.

I think it would be really helpful if MN implemented some way of being able to quickly at least get some idea of whether a poster is genuine, by post numbers, or length of service or both.

It's not good I read something about reading a book was good for your overall health, calming used your brain in a positive way increasing attention span. Whereas using screens, had the opposite effect. So I've gone back to reading especially in the evening. My DH can't watch a TV programme without his phone in his hand gets alerts for everything. It's bloody annoying when he puts his programme on and is on his phone at the same time.

As he orders the poisoning of another dissenter.....

It isn't about a difference of opinion though, it is about a difference of opinion based on disinformation.

It is about this being used to derail threads, so that differences of opinions are not explored.

It is about using misinformation to change the views of others. It isn't just here, but in a really worrying sense about our society, our democracy. How can people make sensible choices if they are basing these on lies?

Almost brainwashing, radicalisation.

Agreed. You start to notice a pattern of similar talking points and phrases.

In addition whilst the spelling is correct, something seems ‘off’ in regard to colloquialiasms.

Finally you see the same account name posting all hours of the day and night as though it’s multiple people sharing the same account on shift.

Nah they are going to accidentally fall out of a window...