MNHQ - do you think that there were Russian trolls operating on Mumsnet during the Brexit debates?

[kalapattar]

Given the recent indictment in the US?

Do you think there were posters deliberately trying to spread misinformation, promote certain messages etc who were based in the Russian Internet Research agency?

Surely EVERYONE should question the validity of everything you read on social media?

Completely agree. But lots don't. You see it here all the time on all sorts of threads - people getting sucked in to totally implausible stories.

Another eg re the US:
Exclusive: Fake black activist accounts linked to Russian government
money.cnn.com/2017/09/28/media/blacktivist-russia-facebook-twitter/index.html

(Those "Blacktivist" accounts have now been named in the indictment.)

Completely agree. But lots don't. You see it here all the time on all sorts of threads - people getting sucked in to totally implausible storie

That's true. Just because someone said something on social media does not make it true. No matter how many times they said it.

Or keep saying it.

Here's the full US indictment, if anyone's interested: www.justice.gov/file/1035477/download

Some extracts:

6. Defendant ORGANIZATION had a strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system, including the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Defendants posted derogatory information about a number of candidates, and by early to mid-2016, Defendants’ operations included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump (“Trump Campaign”) and disparaging Hillary Clinton. Defendants made various expenditures to carry out those activities, including buying political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities. Defendants also staged political rallies inside the United States, and while posing as U.S. grassroots entities and U.S. persons, and without revealing their Russian identities and ORGANIZATION affiliation, solicited and compensated real U.S. persons to promote or disparage candidates. Some Defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities.

[...]

43 [...]
a. On or about February 10, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators internally circulated an outline of themes for future content to be posted to ORGANIZATION-controlled social media accounts. Specialists were instructed to post content that focused on “politics in the USA” and to “use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump—we support them).”

b. On or about September 14, 2016, in an internal review of an ORGANIZATION- created and controlled Facebook group called “Secured Borders,” the account specialist was criticized for having a “low number of posts dedicated to criticizing Hillary Clinton” and was told “it is imperative to intensify criticizing Hillary Clinton” in future posts.

BTW when I said let us know, please don't post usernames - report to us so we can look behind the scenes.

I have to say, the second a poster starts wimbling on about Ukraine and Russia Today, I'm .

You'll be claiming next there are tories on MN 😂

Hopefully mn have been looking at these posters since we reported them back around the Brexit vote and the US election. There were a small number who as others have said, clogged up threads in a particular way that made it difficult for anyone to have a discussion.

Yes glamour because the whole point is to destabilise western democracy not their own.

Putin has it sewn up anyway. It’s mainly a shown election. Many Russians wouldn’t ever vote for anyone else.

As for a certain Trump poster. It is perfectly possible that they were a long term plant. There are a few highly popular Twitter posters who were revealed to be Russian trolls after the US election. One had spent a couple of years building up their credibility with reality TV based stuff before they started tweeting anti- Hillary propaganda.

www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/presidential/russia-fake-twitter-facebook-posts-accounts-trump-election-jenna-abrams-20171103.html

See also,

www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2017/nov/03/jenna-abrams-the-trump-loving-twitter-star-who-never-really-existed

And

www.forbes.com/sites/chrisladd/2017/11/20/jenna-abrams-is-not-real-and-that-matters-more-than-you-think/

Oh god yes, "Jenna Abrams." Russian troll presenting as rightwing all American gal – for three years.

Lured in thousands of good faith followers and even got quoted by news organisations.

From that Philly link:
In addition to the Abrams account, several other popular conservative social media personalities — @LauraBaeley, SouthLoneStar, Ten_GOP — were all revealed to be troll accounts. All have been deactivated on Twitter.

According to the Daily Beast, the agency developed a following around the Abrams account by offering humorous, seemingly non-political takes on pop culture figures like Kim Kardashian. The agency also furnished the fake account, which dates back to 2014, with a personal website, a Gmail account and even a GoFundMe page.

Once the Abrams account began to develop a following, the tone of its tweets shifted from pokes and prods at celebrities to divisive views on hot topics like immigration and segregation.

Weirdly there is no thread about the Russian elections which start in only a few weeks!

Ummm.

Yes, the point is to destabilize the West. It is working. They might not 'win' the game but they will ruin the field.

We've been looking into some posters behind the scenes. If you think of any more, give us a shout

Hmmm

Too little too late...

I remember reporting a few later missing posters before the US election.

I can only imagine that they were all (including) claig hit by a bus in the beginning of 2017.

If people think Russian trolls is a new thing, they're very much mistaken. I had read about it well before Brexit.

2015 report, which means they had been operating for years by then.
Wake up people.

www.google.pt/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/02/putin-kremlin-inside-russian-troll-house

Also, beware when pps start peddling conspiracy theories.

Pps who aren't in favour of XXX, but for some reason post lots of arguments for it.
Or haven't made up their minds, but only post in favour of...

And the bots who post mostly links. And misunderstand some questions or use odd argumentation.

Lweji as usual, speaks sense.

There was always something off about some of the posters on the EU and Trump stuff on the politics boards. I reported one for a series of personal attacks based on line of questioning that was trying to imply that my argument was invalid because I wasn’t white British ( I am, not that it should make a difference)

Thanks for letting me know. Not sure why it is relevant to what you said.

Why do you think it's weird there aren't loads of threads about the Russian elections then?

I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

Tbh I doubt there were Russians on mumsnet. It's a bit niche.

There were some very active shills on here but they were more likely linked to the vote leave campaign itself, based on the arguments used and the way they changed over time - especially the way the argument evolved from "we'll be like Norway", via Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Iceland all the way to (IIRC) Albania.

I doubt there were Russians on mumsnet.

Oh, but there were/are.

I remember a few insisting on how popular Putin was. They couldn't stand for any criticism of the boss.

MN may be somewhat niche, but it has a decent political profile.

I reported loads of posters to MNHQ during Brexit (and more recently).

There were definitely Russian shills on here.

sheldon and faith the Russians have no interest in swinging the vote towards Remain. All the Russian shills were in favour of Brexit.

I remember a few insisting on how popular Putin was

I think there are real British people out there who are quite pro Putin. I have a couple on my FB - they are Scottish nationalists and definitely real people. They fit a particular profile to whom authoritarians seem to appeal (pro capital punishment for eg). Given the increasing daily expressification of mumsnet it would be surprising if that group wasn't represented here.

I was on the EU ref board a lot pre-referendum and while there may have been some Russian activity, the talking points being pushed by the most active shills were very closely aligned to whatever Cummings et al were pushing at the time.