Comment by spaceheretostay | Hacker News Reader

Comment by spaceheretostay | Hacker News Reader

spaceheretostay

> [Harm to Ongoing Matter] [Harm to Ongoing Matter] [Harm to Ongoing Matter] IRA employees also traveled to the United States on intelligence-gathering missions. In June 2014, four IRA employees applied to the U.S. Department of State to enter the United States, while lying about the purpose of their trip and claiming to be four friends who had met at a party 38 Ultimately, two IRA employees -- Anna Bogacheva and Aleksandra Krylova-received visas and entered the United States on June 4, 2014.

> Footnote: 40. [Harm to Ongoing Matter] [Harm to Ongoing Matter] 2. U.S. Operations Through IRA-Controlled Social Media Accounts Dozens of IRA employees were responsible for operating accounts and personas on different U.S. social media platforms. The IRA referred to employees assigned to operate the social media accounts as "specialists.942 Starting as early as 2014, the IRA's U.S. operations included social media specialists focusing on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.43 The IRA later added specialists who operated on Tumblr and Instagram accounts.44 Initially, the IRA created social media accounts that pretended to be the personal accounts of U.S. persons. By early 2015, the IRA began to create larger social media groups or public social media pages that claimed (falsely) to be affiliated with U.S. political and grassroots organizations. In certain cases, the IRA created accounts that mimicked real U.S. organizations.

> For example, one IRA-controlled Twitter account, @TEN_GOP, purported to be connected to the Tennessee Republican Party.46 More commonly, the IRA created accounts in the names of fictitious U.S. organizations and grassroots groups and used these accounts to pose as anti-immigration groups, Tea Party activists, Black Lives Matter protestors, and other U.S. social and political activists.

We live in a wild time. Russia literally sent agents here and registers countless social media accounts for the specific purpose of destabilizing our country, stoking violence and aggression, and enabling people here to circumvent the rule of law and effectively stage a coup that destroys our functioning democracy.

> enabling people here to circumvent the rule of law and effectively stage a coup that destroys our functioning democracy.

You mean like the US has done on a regular basis in the past five decades? I'm not in favor of what Russia is doing. I am surprised it has taken this long for it to happen to the US considering its own terrible and decades long record on illegal interference with functioning democracies, when it suits its own goals.

Who Rules the World by Noam Chomsky was an interesting read on this matter [1].

I happened to read it during the 2016 election cycle. When all this Russia junk started up, I had a hard time feeling too worked up about it. Someone else doing exactly what we have always done and continue to do. Shocking.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28514478-who-rules-the-w...

I am not surprised that people think this is new. Open source Intel, counterintel, and subversion SOP is to use media to find the pulse as well as set the tone of a society. The idea that evil Russians despoiled a pristine US media environment is laughable. The only reason this is a big deal at all is that the status quo kingmakers got pwnd in 2016 by internet trolls. They can't handle the fact that memes and propaganda destroyed their billion dollar consent manufactory so easily, so it obviously has to be "hackers" and the death of democracy ala cold war hegemonic struggle.

I have yet to have it coherently and completely explained to me how the Russians "hacked" the election. Everything I've read is long on exclamation and short on facts. Is running disingenuous ads and starting Facebook groups really hacking?

Am I the only one who spent much longer than I probably should have shocked that the Irish Republican Army was still a major player and trying to figure out why they would spy on America?

I was shocked. I haven’t heard ANYONE say a word about the IRA.

Internet Research Agency

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Research_Agency

The Internet Research Agency has been openly attacking us for years.

The exact thing happened to me yesterday and I was like damn, that's surprising how did they—ooooohhhhhhhh.

You might find Bezmenov interesting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Bezmenov

(for his talks on the KGB's objective of destabilizing western nations, available on youtube)

I see no reason to believe this behavior is new. The Soviet Union funded radical groups for decades. I bet they never stopped.

Everything Russia has done that you claim is a coup destroying our functioning democracy, both US political parties have done ten times stronger. They not only use social media to stoke violence and circumvent the law, they use the mainstream media as well as every level of government.

We've known how nefarious the political parties are since Watergate, and there have been countless examples of them using the same tools (Brooks Brothers Riot is a good example.) A Russian hand in the game isn't new nor is it that big of a deal.

Can you explain how free speech has destroyed our functioning democracy? Or at least explain how we live in a less Democratic society now, than just a few years ago.

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