THREAD: Let's talk about an interesting bot that was set up as part of a larger Russian attack on us, but recently changed its stripes:
It goes by @propornotapp, was created using infrastructure in Belgium, & has recently started following accounts we interact with. /1
It previously went by "CensoredByPropOrNot" & was an obvious attempt to legitimize Russian propaganda, delegitimize our efforts, & delegitimize related efforts broadly.
We expect this rebranding of "@propornotapp" will be used to pretext information from resistance members, delegitimize us & the resistance, & spread chaos & confusion amongst the allies generally.
It was originally created to cry wolf about "McCarthyism!" after the election, & thus discredit us & the emerging #resistance community, as per the official Russian state propaganda line shortly after the election.
It was originally created as part of the Kremlin's counterattack against us, along with other efforts from various Russian useful idiots & intelligence assets. Did you know the Kremlin tried to create a fake site discrediting us? Didn't work 😆🇷🇺💩 /6 buzzfeednews.com/article/craigs…
Its creators originally intended to use it to discredit us, so they set it up to automatically post Russian propaganda, as an act of "defiance", & complain that we were "censoring" them.
All that did is feed us with more data about their MO 😎❤️🇺🇸 /7
BREAKING: Twitter just suspended a whole bunch of high-reach Russian propaganda accounts, some using infrastructure in Mexico. We've been tracking them too, with @ushadrons@josh_emerson & more. Example:
They systematically reused known Internet Research Agency content, which allowed us to positively ID them, although we were able to ID them as probably-Russian via technical means as well, like this:
These accounts were primarily focused on building an audience, & only "fired for effect" via the insertion of pro-Trump/Kremlin content at key moments. They mostly just posted viral pictures appealing to military/police/gun-loving audiences.
FAKE ACCOUNT ALERT: Be aware that the @_peterstrzok account going viral now is almost certainly NOT actually run by the real Peter Strzok. It was created using infrastructure in Pakistan.
This is an example of how foreign actors can hijack/sabotage American political discourse.
@_peterstrzok This tweet is gathering likes & retweets very quickly, which makes sense considering how timely it feels - but it actually just points to the dangerous vulnerability of our public sphere. Hostile foreign govs can hack our news cycle all too easily:
THREAD: Let's look at how subtle Russian propaganda can be, using the framing/premises/assumptions of this seemingly-interesting but actually terrible Meduza article about Russian hackers as an example.
Follow along, if you could please. The Devil is in the details. /1
The piece starts with a total crock of BS. Russian propaganda always blames Russia's victims, & this piece does the same thing. In practice, Russia had been illegally occupying Georgian territory since 1991 & their GRU-led proxy forces executed their plan to attack Aug 5th. /2
According to RU general Yury Baluevsky, "a decision to invade Georgia was made by Putin before Medvedev was inaugurated President ... in May 2008. A detailed plan of military action was arranged and unit commanders were given specific orders in advance" /3 goodreads.com/quotes/7980947…
The full story of how Russian intelligence used Crimson Hexagon to create a cross-platform social media intelligence-gathering system called Mediaimpuls has yet to be told... But it's going to be. Background: civilfund.ru/article/2740
The Kremlin wanted a system that could gather intelligence on the entire global public sphere - hence "Mediaimpuls". But, they had trouble getting direct access to Facebook. They tried a whole bunch of tricks to make that happen. Let's look at the history of Russia/FB real quick:
In 2009, a Russian intelligence front conglomerate, Digital Sky Technologies, bought a couple % of Facebook on VERY generous terms, & FB hired some VERY relevant Russian nationals in the months that followed. They begin internal information-gathering. gigaom.com/2012/05/08/why…
We often ask accounts that parrot Kremlin talking points to prove that they're run by Americans - by posting a video of themselves (no face), holding a hand-written note containing their account name & today's date, at a geolocatable landmark.
If an account is acting like a hostile propaganda troll account & can't authenticate itself by posting a video establishing its location in the US, it's reasonable to infer that it is in fact a hostile propaganda troll account, & treat it accordingly.
This helps clarify matters.
Sometimes accounts/personas that act as outlets for hostile propaganda are in fact run by American useful idiots, as in the case above.
Demanding they prove their location solves the "useful idiot"/"enemy troll" question, & the decision to engage further can be made from there.
THREAD: There's a small but telling detail in Mueller's new indictment of the #12Russians.
It mentions "Alice Donovan", a GRU persona that also published articles in the old far-left magazine Counterpunch... Which we highlighted as a Russian propaganda outlet in Nov 2016. /1
The @washingtonpost previously reported, on Christmas 2017, that the GRU was creating entirely fake "journalist" personas to pitch propaganda articles at credulous/complicit useful idiots & assets in the US.
Till now, the public didn't know that Russian military intelligence created the "DCLeaks" Facebook page using the EXACT SAME FAKE-JOURNALIST PERSONA they were using to feed propaganda to horseshoe-bottom outlets like @NatCounterPunch... But now we know. /3 washingtonpost.com/world/national…