Inside the Russian Troll Factory: Zombies and a Breakneck Pace

I don't follow Russian news much at all, but there's something much deeper going on than simply roomfuls of people astroturfing websites.

Twice, I've followed the trail of stories which were either false or misleading, and both times they led to Irish journalists who definitely seem to be real people.

Both of them almost exclusively tweet about Russian issues and are 100% pro-Russian on absolutely any issue. You can go down their Twitters and you won't find a mention of corruption, political failings, doping or anything else negative.

https://twitter.com/27khv

and

https://twitter.com/DanielleRyanJ

I really don't know what to think here. Obviously there are contrarians on any issue, and journalism is tough to get ahead in - if RT are going to pay your salary then people could be tempted into a pro-Russian leaning - but to be completely polemic in your views. I just find it suspicious.

[Edit: https://www.rt.com/op-ed/398857-hungary-orban-media-dictator... here was the article that Danielle Ryan wrote about Hungary in Russia Today. I don't know a single person in Hungary who would agree with what she writes there. Not even among Hungarians who actually voted for Orban, nevermind among expats. The Hungarian government has posters up right now warning voters that the EU wants to "install millions from Africa and the Middle East." It's racist fear-mongering in the extreme and universally condemned. But somehow we've got an Irish girl throwing her weight behind the government while paid for by Russia?]

More and more of this type of "trolling" for political influence is being automated. RIght now the bots are fairly easy to identify but they will become more sophisticated as some machine learning types get to work on them.

I think this has already rendered Twitter especially useless as a barometer of public opinion, it is really a barometer of bot activity for the most part when it comes to politics (I'm thinking of the #ReleaseTheMemo stuff.)

I am not sure how resilient Facebook is to bots, or if it is heading down the road that Twitter has taken.

The rise of bots really destroys what was developing as a means of mass empowerment. Basically any political movement (such as the Arab spring) that starts on Twitter or Facebook now you have to suspect is being run by influence agents, rather than real people.