Tag Archives: IMPOTUS

Observation, Politics, Tech

Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts deleted for Pro-Trump Fake Postings, 55 Million Users Affected

Photo Illustration / Lynxotic

Another batch of Fraudulent, pro Trump Social Media Manipulators are Identified and Removed, for now

In blog posts from Twitter and Facebook the removal of a large number of fake accounts and actors were announced. On Twitter the number of accounts was nearly six thousand which were part of a larger network of 88,000.

The announcements were detailed and each provided data on the techniques used, including the use of A.I. generated photos. The Twitter accounts were also confirmed to be Saudi-Backed and propagated by a social media “marketing” company called Smaat that was operating on behalf of the Saudi State.

All related parties have been banned, although it is hard to imagine that it will be difficult for them to resume a similar campaign behind a different front. The blog posts appear to be an effort, at the least, to show that the companies are attempting to monitor this kind of dangerous propaganda.

“We exist to serve the public conversation around the world. To this end, we’ll continue to take strong enforcement action against any state-backed information campaigns which undermine our company’s mission, principles, and policies.”

– Twitter blog Post

As for Facebook and Instagram, the “Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior” that was removed was said to originate in Vietnam, Georgia and the U.S. Georgia, of course is the former Soviet republic that Trump was in negotiations with, around 2012, to build an eponymous tower (with help, allegedly, from Russia).

Vietnam, on the other hand, is the communist country alleged to be a likely cover for Chinese and Anti-Chinese actors. In this case Facebook has linked the activity to a company called BL which Facebook connected to the Epoch Media Group. These groups manipulated content using coordinated inauthentic behavior, spam and misrepresentation as well as other activities that violate Facebook and Instagram policies.

All parties involved have been permanently banned. In total, again according to the blog post, the various parties in each network spent approximately $10 million on advertising, using various currencies, including $US, Korean Won, Vietnamese dong, Indonesian rupiah, Australian dollars, the New Taiwan dollars and Canadian dollars.

It has become clear, in part through investigations during the Trump Impeachment hearings, that international interference in U.S. politics, far from being on the wane after the Russian pro-Trump interference in the 2016 elections, is set for a potential explosion into 2020.

The concept that appears to be going through the minds of nefarious actors across the globe is: “if it worked once, why not continue and expand”. Regardless of a provable, direct connection to Trump, there are many interested international parties that have agendas that allign with a Trump victory in 2020.

Deeper Issues Arise as this Example is Likely Just the Tip of the Iceberg

As many have pointed out, Trump faces possible prosecution and incarceration if he fails to win the 2020 election, so the stakes are very high indeed. That, combined with an obvious disregard for rules or laws of political campaigns, let allow social media, there will undoubtedly be many more instances of fraud and “inauthentic behavoir” from here on out.

This is exactly the issue that Democrats pointed during the impeachment process and which made impeachment not only necessary but a requirement. Based on the circumstances clearly indicating that Trump is likely to repeat or attempt to repeat the same actions and behaviors, including high crimes and misdemeanors, and encourage, if not engage in actions such as the Russian interference that got him elected in 2016.

“Shall the man who has practiced corruption & by that means procured his appointment in the first instance, be suffered to escape punishment, by repeating his guilt?”

— GEORGE MASON IN A DEBATE ALSO ATTENDED BY JAMES MADISON, JULY 20TH, 1787

Now, the billion dollar question is, if social media companies doing voluntary self-policing, turning down tens of millions of dollars (if not far more) in advertising revenue, and spending on departments and programs dedicated to monitoring this fraudulent spam and worse, can be counted on to do all of this and more for our benefit?

After Facebook refused to take down a political ad, paid for by Trump backers, known to be false, and not significantly different from the bogus content that Facebook reported today by foreign actors, can they be trusted to thoroughly and adequately monitor such massive networks and remove offenders before more damage has been done?

And what of the life of lies, such as imaginary “investigations” that keep cropping up against Democratic candidates that are potentially running against Trump in 2020?

The example posted by Facebook invents an investigation into Elizabeth Warren and another related to Nancy Pelosi, goes on even after the accounts are deleted and banned. I had seen the anti-Warren fabrication on twitter and, disregarded it, as it seemed superficial and implausible, yet now it is also proven be not only fake and fabricated but posted by foreign criminal actors with a pro Trump agenda.

This brings up the larger issue, one of reader and prospective voter sophistication. The huge question that arises over and over, as the Trump lies and crimes are cataloged and ajudicated, is how anyone could believe this man, let alone believe in him.

The answer is, unfortunately, sad and depressing for our future. Just as Hitler was accepted and even loved by most of the German population before he ultimately led them and himself to a dead end, the blind belief and naive “loyalty” of people can never be overestimated.

Those ridiculous stories about Ukraine conspiracies spread by Putin and propagated by Trump himself and then on to his various followers, themselves both imaginary and some real (but hypnotized and deluded), will likely still be quoted by fools and evil, self-serving sycophants for years to come.

That is, unless the 180 million plus Americans, and their allies around the world, who know better and see the danger that Trump represents in all its horror, find a way to drown the lies in an even larger deluge of real news. And, once rid of this would-be dictator, never let apathy and social media fraud control another election. 2020 preview or fantasy from neverland?

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Politics, Tech

Twitter has Deleted almost 6000 Saudi-State Backed Accounts for Violating Platform Manipulation Policies

The Six Thousand Accounts were part of a Larger Spam Network of 88,000

On casual observation, there appears to be a surge in bogus accounts attempting to manipulate on Twitter recently and now this has been confirmed, partially, with six thousand accounts deleted with Twitter disclosing the inauthentic behavior and violations as well as the State-backed Source (Saudia Arabia) in its blog today.

The disclosure shows some very interesting tricks that various bad actors are using to try and mask their true intent in order to “survive” longer on the platform without having their accounts deleted.

According to the Twitter blog the Saudi Arabian government backed accounts were engaging in retweeting, liking and replying, using automation, in order to mask tweets with a political agenda favorable to Saudi Interests.

The method of masking the true goal of an account that is an automated spam bot is becoming more common based on our observations of the platform. Accounts favorable to Trump, that appear inauthentic (robots) will retweet and even retweet liberal content, such as tweets favorable to AOC, to mask their intent. Then, if the account is followed, pro-Trump spam is sent via private direct messages, for example.

As the Tricks get Deeper and the Stakes Higher, Twitter must also Evolve in its Response

It appears that , with this report on the eighty-eight thousand account take down, Twitter is learning and following as these attempts to avoid detection are created, developed and implemented.

Twitter also disclosed that a social media marketing and management company based in Saudi Arabia called Smaat was behind the platform manipulation. The company has also been “permanently” banned from using Twitter due to the activity. In an interesting additional action, the accounts of senior executives of the company were also deleted and the persons banned.

The company used third party automation services to produce high volumes of activity related to non-political content. This, based on the content, is not necessarily against Twitter policy as such amplification of non-political content in allowed. In this case, however, the high volume of activity was used to mask the political content that was interspersed in the “storm” of activity.

Here is the quote from Twitter that serves as a comment on the action and what they intend for future cases:

“We exist to serve the public conversation around the world. To this end, we’ll continue to take strong enforcement action against any state-backed information campaigns which undermine our company’s mission, principles, and policies.”

– Twitter

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Breaking News, Observation, Politics

Andrew Yang’s response to the 1st Debate Question Raises Serious Questions on the Nature of Reality in 2020

No Democrat should ever Legitimize Fake News by Calling it Anything but what it is: Propaganda

The responses by the various candidates to the first question of the debates in Los Angeles yesterday were all over the map.

“Why, if impeachment is so necessary, are more Americans not on board with it” Judy Woodruff of PBS NewsHour asked, referring to the polls that show a nearly 50-50 split on the issue.

Of all the candidates, Andrew Yang came closest to the real answer when he replied:

“We’re getting our news from different sources,” – Andrew Yang

While at least there is, in his response, an almost subtle hint at the iceberg of issues beneath it, the mountain beneath the surface is one that ought to be addressed, not just danced around.

In a nutshell the question would be better phrased: “with all the lies and high crimes of this president how could so many people not support impeachment and removal?”

Then unfortunate response would almost certainly bring up the issue that dare not speak it’s name: Fake News.

And by fearing to even mention this massive problem in our society, and allowing Trump to parade around calling real news “fake” for two years without an effective, specific retort, the media, and now the candidates, are potentially creating a dictator, impeached or not.

Because this question goes further: “How can millions of otherwise reasonable people support this parade of lies and deceit”?

The answer to all of this is, unfortauntely, the massive and electronically turbocharged propaganda machine that is creating a parallel fake, dangerous and destructive reality which is literally brainwashing people into thinking that it, and not the real fact based information reported in the “traditional” media, is “real”.

Naturally, anyone who has been paying attention already knows this. But knowing that there is literally a separate propaganda reality, starting with Fox News and going all the way down to the troll bots and fake accounts on twitter and facebook, and being able to do anything about it, let alone stop its growth and becoming established, are two different things.

Turnabout is FairPlay? Or Confront every Lie until the Truth Wins Out?

The victory for the Trump propaganda machine came when he started repeating the phrase “fake news” over and over and over while referring to the real news, singling out CNN and the New York Times in particular.

The response, en masse, from the so called “mainstream” media? Not much. Admittedly, getting into a playground style match with the President of “You are, no you are, I know you are but what am I?” is not what the NYT is known for.

But the response should have been, to use a favorite term often applied to Trump, to double-down and expose the depth and breadth of the “lies propagated as truth” problem. Perhaps that would confuse people, with an endless war of each media “army” calling the other “fake”.

But the alternative, that we are now saddled with, is to give legitimacy to an endless tsunami of lies and falsehoods and to confer on them an almost institutional status:

“We’re getting our news from different sources”

Oh really? As in, one source is real and the other one is filled with insane, ridiculous propaganda, like the now famous Putin initiated propaganda that, instead of the fact that Russia interfered with the 2016 election is was Ukraine? That kind of “different source”? That “news”?

Allowing even one lie to see the light of day without being attacked by anyone with a mouthpiece; a real media outlet, a twitter account of a citizen, presidential candidates and so on, promotes the idea that the “two realities” are separate and equal, not a matter of truth and lies.

Proapaganda lies are dangerous, insidious and very hard to fight against. That is no excuse, that is the fight that matters and could make a difference. Every candidate on that stage should have answered that 50% of the people, if that poll is to be believed, are being lied to and the lies are winning. And that the situation is a larger danger, potentially, than the man inhabiting the White House.

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