Our intelligence agencies are barely functioning at this point, so I’m a little surprised they still have the independence and wherewithal to combat any Russian meddling in our elections at all.
Facebook took down a small network of fake accounts and pages associated with Russian operatives that had recruited U.S. journalists to write articles targeting left-leaning readers on topics such as racial justice, the Biden-Harris campaign and President Trump’s policies, the company said Tuesday.
Facebook said it caught the network of 13 fake accounts and two pages early, before it had a chance to build a large audience — an action that the company said was evidence of its growing effectiveness at targeting foreign disinformation operations ahead of the 2020 election. The takedown emerged as a result of a tip from the FBI and was one of a dozen operations tied to the Russian Internet Research Agency or individuals affiliated with it that Facebook has disrupted since the last presidential election, when IRA-backed pages amassed millions of views on the platform. The pages had about 14,000 followers.
There are a lot of angles I could take on this story, but I want to focus on just a few of them. First, this wasn’t Facebook doing a great job of sleuthing. They got tipped off by the FBI, so don’t believe them when they try to take credit for better security.
Second, the Russians “recruited U.S. journalists to write articles targeting left-leaning readers.” Not only that, but it involved the “co-option of unwitting locals.” In other words, they sought out left-wing critics of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and amplified their voices to do maximum damage to the ticket.
I’ve seen the process happen first hand, or least I believe I have. I don’t have the FBI’s resources to confirm my suspicions. But it’s not as hard to pull off as you might think. It’s like all spy recruitment. Find a good progressive writer who is experiencing financial hardship through some misfortune, like poor health and unmanageable medical bills, and make them an offer. You don’t tell them you’re a Russian intelligence officer, you just dangle money in front of them and encourage them to focus on the shortcomings of the Democratic Party. One of the weaknesses of the liberal blogosphere has always been that we don’t make much money. And we’re the ideal recruits.
“Hiring people who are fluent in the language and culture avoids the kind of tells that can expose an operation,” said Renée DiResta, technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, which has tracked the strategy.
One of the interesting things is that this doesn’t necessarily require the writer to change anything they’ve been doing. If they’re anti-establishment enough to begin with, all the Russians want to do is give them more reach. If they’re suffering from hurt feelings over Bernie Sanders losing his bid for the nomination, they can just keep hitting that nail over and over again.
One unfortunate byproduct of this is that an entire strain of hard-left thought becomes broadly suspect, and people who are not wittingly (or unwittingly) taking money are seen as probable Russian agents or dupes.
Frankly, it’s not possible to distinguish between these different types of situations and that’s another disruptive benefit for Moscow.
All I know is that any progressive writer who is spending September and October focused on anything other than beating Donald Trump and the Republicans is not worth your time. Personally, I’ll be taking notes, and I won’t forget.
Now’s definitely not the time to be forgiving of Glenn Greenwald style dupes whom once upon a time I respected. About a decade ago when Obama was POTUS, I was offered money to write critically of the Dem establishment and Obama in particular while I was still blogging. And indeed I was often genuinely critical out of my own sincerity before they approached. I was promised my readership would increase massively and that I could makes lots of money from advertising on top of what they were paying. It never occurred to me they were Russian intel. But it didn’t feel right so I declined. I thought perhaps they.were GOP operatives and I wanted no part of them. Hadn’t thought about it in years until reading your post today.
In 2008 Keith Olbermann had J Turley on every night to bash Obama and FISA and what have you. The point is that for a large a section of the progressive sphere, being pure was absolutely more important than winning. It’s no surprise that’s being used by nefarious agents today.
I particularly love the last paragraph. You have an excellent way of distilling the most important part of an issue. Also you seem so much more “level headed” than many bloggers. I get riled easily and enjoy your posts precisely because they do not rile. More likely they reassure. These fuckers need to be defeated, and by a landslide. May the powers of the Universe be on our side.
I trolled the living fuck out of a purist yesterday and it was delightful.
The time for in-fighting ends when the primary results come in.
I’ll take Manchin and Tester over any Republican, until the Democrats control the government and the fascists are safely out of power and subject to laws again.
When I make an argument online, it’s because I want to make the argument for myself, have a discussion with whomever I’m directing it at, and to provide – maybe – another perspective for the people who read the argument, to use as they see fit. I can only imagine there are far more readers than actual commenters here.
The schism that happened leading up to the 2016 election with commenters here (BooTrib) who I agreed with on all the issues was about how to actually enact the changes you want to see. As I stated then, shitting on your own candidate isn’t going to persuade someone sitting on the fence to go out and vote for them. They might see the criticism and decide to just sit it out since it “doesn’t matter”.
Electing Trump to “heighten the contradictions” was a god damn mistake to anyone paying attention, or to anyone who actually cares about not destroying the country to make a point.
Clinton wasn’t in my top 10 in 2016, and Biden isn’t in my top 10 for 2020. But as long as we have a first-past-the-post election system and Electoral College, I’m not going to shoot myself in the fucking face over abstract ideals that will clearly only get shit on by the Republican, rather than just ignored by a right-leaning Democrat.
A lot of people – like us – who pay attention to politics every day rather than for a month every 4 years, are in our own bubble. Being aware of the bubble and the fact that most people aren’t interested in complicated policy differences between ACA, M4A, and the Public Option is a good thing. Being aware that the complicated policy differences need to be worked out either before the primary results, or after you’ve won the election, is imperative to ensuring that first and foremost, you win the election.
Trying to make a big stand on those complicated policies after the primaries are over is going to have a negative affect on the people who aren’t in the bubble and just see a political party that doesn’t seem to know what it wants. If people you agree with are saying they’re going to vote for the Space Jesus/Zombie Washington ticket, or leave the top blank in protest, then shit, might as well just stay home. If there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between A. and B., and you’ve never voted previously, why start now?
I’d offer Matt Taibbi for submission.
Certainly, we should not dignify with our attention any soi-disant progressive who is still complaining that the real problem in our politics is that Democrats keep running candidates who are insufficiently left and who isn’t focused single-mindedly on defeating
#45. I just wish we had started doing that much sooner. So much of the Democratic primary was divisive and destructive, and it didn’t need to be. The policy positions of most of the Presidential candidates in the primary were far more similar than different, and far more progressive than their Republican opponents. They differed on the margins. Yet, the self-proclaimed progressive spent more time and energy attacking their rivals in the primary on these marginal positions than they did attacking #45 and Republicans. It has left a very bitter taste in my mouth, frankly.
This takes me back to ’08, and the Sirotas and Greenwalds of the world stabbing Obama and decrying everything he did. I thought it was atrocious back then and feel vindicated now. It’s one of the reasons I love Booman…him and a small cabal of progressives who actually wanted to improve people’s lives rather than feel smug about being ‘pure’. Thank you, Martin.
I still don’t know what to make of the Tara Reade stuff. Not so much her story as the choice to run with her story by certain outlets with limited vetting. Especially when most media involved literally goes on Russia Today …