How much of these protests and reactions is being driven by disinformation designed to foment violence and unrest?
'None Of This Is True': Protests Become Fertile Ground for Online Disinformation
A well-funded and elaborate social media disinformation campaign played out online Sunday night, experts say, showing how polarization creates situations where lies go viral.www.npr.org
View attachment 344468
A fake story began circulating Sunday evening into Monday morning, which was then disputed by real journalists as well as a number of bots. Experts say the campaign may have been meant to make people question whether anything they see online is true.
The image would shock just about anyone: a fire so large that it seems to stretch halfway up the 550-foot-tall Washington Monument, and burning so bright that it dramatically illuminated the landmark.
Shocking, but fake.
The image was a screenshot from the fictional ABC show "Designated Survivor." But coming on the third day of raucous protests around the White House against police violence — which did include some fires that were intentionally set — it could have seemed like it was real.
The image quickly went viral on Twitter, not unlike a number of other rumors that spread during moments of uncertainty and chaos over the weekend, and which showed how the intense polarization of the current moment is fertile ground for online disinformation campaigns.
And there were claims spread under the #dcblackout hashtag that cell phones and other communication devices were blocked as part of a strategy to allow violent police reprisals to go unreported. That, too, was not true.
"Some of my videos and pics being posted by accounts saying they were last before a "#dcblackout" where streams and cells shut down. I didn't experience anything like that and — though I didn't try streaming — had no issue with phone as I tweeted and worked until 2:30 am at least," tweeted Yahoo! reporter Hunter Walker on Monday morning.
"Stop retweeting #dcblackout," added CBS reporter Christina Ruffini. "None of this is true. Eventually, even TV crews need to sleep, but ours and many others were out late into the night. Their phones worked. Live signal was strong. Many of these tweets are the same wording. Don't fall for whatever is happening here."
Experts say the #dcblackout hashtag seemed to be the work of a"well-funded" and organized internet campaign, and a successful one at that.
Many of the accounts promoting the #dcblackout claims had few followers themselves, indicating that they could have been created specifically for the purpose of spreading disinformation, said Alex Engler, a scholar at the Brookings Institution who has followed the use of social media and technology to spread propaganda.
"A lot of these accounts are pretty suspicious, especially the ones disseminating them at night. But there are very real people now promoting this. By 9 a.m. the fact that the origin of the story seems to be manufactured would already be obscured to you," he says.
"Even if a huge percentage of those real people are using that hashtag to say, 'hey, this isn't real' — it doesn't matter," Linvill said. Even if only 20% of people posting about it believe it, "20% of a million is still 200,000 people."
There's your Russian interference. They know Trump is a threat to them so they are pulling out the stops to try and make him lose the election.
Trump is no threat to Russia, from day one when he tried removing sanctions. He's done next to nothing to combat their disinformation, attempts at interfering in elections, etc.
Take a look at it this way, china, russia, iran, all of the big threats to the US are lead by dictators.
The US has experienced a form of soft dictatorship in that the ruling elite controlled all aspects of our political existence.
Then Trump came along and flipped over their apple cart and the political class went batshit crazy as they watched him start to dismantle their years of work setting themselves up to be invincible.
Oh really? Trump is on record openly admiring some pretty abhorrent dictators. He certainly hasn't upset Putin's hold, nor has he upset Rocket Boy's grip, he openly admires Dutarte, he supports the increasingly authoritarian rightwing systems in former Soviet Bloc nations....
If you truly believe in the Republic, then you should support Trump.
If, on the other hand, you want fascism, then fight against the Republic.
I support neither Trump nor Fascism and I see Trump as an incompetent, self-interested tool who can be bought by flattery and...likely other things as well. My opinion.
I DO however see the internet and social media as our newest platform for war. It's no longer conventional warfare - it's disinformation.
Regardless of how we feel about Trump, don't you think we should be concerned about this?
Facts in hand show you to be quite wrong. When pootin invaded Crimea obummer waved his hands and said things but ultimately did nothing meaningful.
Trump, on the other hand has allowed Ukraine to buy lethal weapons. Far different from obummers blankets.
Fair enough - up to a point. And, I will use your style of lingo to present my points.
Obama's approach to Russia was overly cautious (a flaw seen in much of his foreign policy) and underestimated Russia's intent and abilities.
The Drumpsterfire, on the other hand, held chaotic and conflicting policies in regard to Russia, and despite allowing Ukraine to purchase offensive weaponry, he also allowed Russia to fully succeed in sowing chaos and confusion in the US, and meddle in our electoral politics with little to no pushback.
Don't rehabilitate Obama on Russia | Brookings
We should not slip into collective amnesia over the Obama administration’s weak and underwhelming response to Russian aggression.www.brookings.edu
Excuse me Coyote but it was OBUMMER who allowed pootin to interfere in our elections. He was warned MONTHS before the election that russia was interfering and he told the FBI to do nothing.
Yet again, real facts show you to be wrong.