Putin's Internet Trolls Mercilessly Smear Finnish Reporter Simply For Pointing Them Out
from the disinformation-nation dept
We've noted numerous times now that a cornerstone of the Putin regime has been the use of internet trolls to flood the internet with propaganda. These armies of paid sockpuppets get paid 40,000 to 50,000 rubles ($800 to $1,000) a month to create proxied, viable fake personas -- specifically tasked with pumping the internet full of toxic disinformation 24 hours a day. The practice was recently exposed by journalist, activist and mother Lyuda Savchuk, who spent three months employed as such a troll -- before successfully suing the Russian government for a single ruble on principle.Criticize this practice as a writer anywhere on the internet and you'll pretty quickly find yourself the target of anonymous attacks in the comment section -- or significantly worse. Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro recently found this out the hard way after profiling Putin's online propaganda efforts in a series of reports for Finland's state broadcaster Yle Kioski. Since the reports, Aro has found herself under attack by an ocean of internet pugilists that have filled the internet with claims Aro is everything from a professional drug dealer to a paid NATO stooge:
"In response to her reporting, pro-Russian activists in Helsinki organized a protest outside the headquarters of Yle, accusing it of being a troll factory itself. Only a handful of people showed up. At the same time, Ms. Aro has been peppered with abusive emails, vilified as a drug dealer on social media sites and mocked as a delusional bimbo in a music video posted on YouTube. “There are so many layers of fakery you get lost,” said Ms. Aro, who was awarded the Finnish Grand Prize for Journalism in March.Finland is an EU member but has contemplated joining NATO -- talks about which accelerated after Russia's not-so-subtle invasion of the Ukraine. Russia, in turn, has started leaning heavily on its online disinformation puppets to try and turn public sentiment against such a move. Part of the effectiveness of Putin's paid trolls is that it's impossible to differentiate them from the usual wash of vitriol and idiocy that coats online interactions on any given day. As such, it's not entirely unlike trying to have a fist fight with a running stream, reflected in the Finnish media's confusion on how to tackle the problem outside of things like "open letters":
...She (also) received a call late at night on her cellphone from a number in Ukraine. Nobody spoke, and all she could hear was gunfire. This was followed by text and email messages denouncing her as a “NATO whore” and a message purporting to come from her father — who died 20 years ago — saying he was “watching her.”
"The false claim that Ms. Aro was a drug dealer triggered an unusual open letter signed by more than 20 Finnish editors infuriated by what they denounced as the “poisoning of public debate” with “insults, defamation and outright lies.” The Finnish police began an investigation into the website for harassment and hate speech.The European Union doesn't appear to be particularly prepared for this new world of online information warfare either, and has embraced arguably outdated concepts like "the truth" or by cataloging the most egregious claims in a weekly report dubbed the "Disinformation Review." And while disinformation and propaganda is certainly nothing new (especially here in the west), it's clear that Putin has taken online information warfare to an entirely new level. One the international community isn't quite ready for -- and is certain to respond to with no limit of bad ideas and even worse laws over time.
“I don’t know if these people are acting on orders from Russia, but they are clearly what Lenin called ‘useful idiots,’” said Mika Pettersson, the editor of Finland’s national news agency and an organizer of the editors’ open letter. “They are playing into Putin’s pocket. Nationalist movements in Finland and other European countries want to destabilize the European Union and NATO, and this goes straight into Putin’s narrative.”
Full disclosure before you read about it in the comment section: I'm a former opium salesman paid by the CIA to unfairly malign absolutely everybody.
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Filed Under: finland, internet, jessikka aro, propaganda, russia, trolls
Companies: yle kioski
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Propaganda
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I do expect they engage in propaganda. But I don't think they use the same technique (of hiring armies of paid sockpuppets.) You can't keep something like that a secret for long (and indeed, Russia failed to keep it a secret.)
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The problem is this. Before 1917 Russia had an empire roughly equivalent to what later became the Soviet Union. Within that empire and on its immediate borders were peoples of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Many of these were hangovers from previous empires in the region (the Mongols , Poles and Lithuanians) and hence not truly indigenous. These peoples resented the Russians and looked back to earlier eras when they had been in charge.
The revolution (and some of the stupidity that followed it) temporarily weakened Russia and, between the wars some of these peoples gained independence. The war forced the communists to be a bit more pragmatic and restored Russian power.
After the war the Soviet Union expanded back to cover most of the old Russian Empire - and also gained control of a chunk of central europe (Poland, Hungary, East Germany etc ).
In our attempts to undermine communism we enlisted the help of disaffected nationalist groups in Central Europe and the old Russian Empire. This may have been a natural thing - since these groups were the best organised opponents of communism BUT their agenda was never purely anti-communist. It was always partly anti-Russian. We made the mistake of continuing to support them uncritically after communism fell. At that point we should have taken a deep breath and resolved not to take sides in any dispute that did not concern us directly. Instead we have simply continued to back any individual, group or government that opposes Russia no matter how bad they are. It is no surprise that the Russians are fed up with us and back Putin's hard line. They see a west that is determined to rub Russia's nose in the failure of the Soviet Union forever. I'm really quite surprised that Putin needs to bribe them to put his point of view on the net,
A little magnanimity in victory at the end of the cold war might have been a good idea.
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why ever would that be ? ? ?
and thanks to a poster either here or some other seditious site, who retold how a midnight rider (why IS it NO ONE can ever find out who/where/how these mysterious midnight riders get snuck in bills ? gee, that seems so-o-o-o odd it happens again, and again, and again... yet NO ONE has a clue how it happened... what are the odds...) had been added to an unrelated 2013 bill which completely eviscerated the legal proscription from taxpayer monies being spent to propagandize the US population...
funny, don't remember hearing *that* little news nugget in the media...
oh, wait, now i get it...
oddly enough, happened about the same time as the military's sock puppet software purchases were revealed...
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"Throw away the procedural and ethical conflicts and blame the zero-sum opponent."
As much as you may try to defend your position, you are not engaging the issue.
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Funny that you would say "armies" as the US military is deeply involved in this practice (and I do believe that US soldiers are paid). They even have special software to make it easier for the soldiers to manage all their sock puppets. "Armies" indeed.
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I wonder if that would explain some of the above comments.
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There is no doubt that he highlights and documents various tragic problems. But he is no less immune than anyone else in believing propaganda that appeals.
I suppose this is the problem with all men (women and children). Propaganda that appeals to you is going to be effective. Things like Trump is the Demon Spawn of Republican Hell and Clinton is the Saviour of Womenkind will appeal to some people. Likewise, things like Clinton is a Warmongering Hellion of the Democrats and Trump the Saviour of The Glory of the US will appeal to others.
When the real truth is probably that both are politicians and both are lying through their teeth to get your vote for presidency and neither actually cares about the general citizen of the US.
Likewise, here in the Land of Aus, we have three parties that on the face of it are different. But the reality is that each of them is as bad as the other. They each have their agendas and their specific beneficiaries that do NOT include most of the citizens of this country. At this point, I don't care for any of the candidates of the major parties as they are all party animals. I don't know about the minor candidates as yet, though in the past, many of them were just as bad. Occasionally, you will get a decent candidate who actually will represent all of the citizens in his electorate, but it doesn't seem to happen often.
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Trolling Putin
Are you guys trolling Russia again?!
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Re: Trolling Putin
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You say "Putin" (правда, since Vlad is merely today's boss) - I say "Russia" (истина, since this is an entirely Russian approach whether Putin is the one in power or not).
I'll stand by "trolling Russia."
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*slow clap*
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Lemme go get a mop and bucket >.>
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Well played indeed.
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activist and mother Lyuda Savchuk...
There are, no doubt, dozens of such agencies here in the west... How else could we explain the prevalence and uniformity of these russophobic smears?
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Re: activist and mother Lyuda Savchuk...
When that is said, as soon as a question becomes a zero-sum argument you will have accepted the merit of all propaganda as equal to facts...
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Must capture Moose and Squirrel!
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Employs bro-tastic hyper-homophobic terms of abuse? Check.
Believes (in the 21st century, no less) that it is the height of wit
to call anyone who isn't a russophobe "comrade" at every opportunity? Check.
Cannot spell to save their life, even when making (utterly groundless)
accusations about poor English grammar? Check.
Stay classy, soldier.
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Trolls? Those creatures as in The Lord of The Rings saga?
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'I'm going to mess up your life' vs 'I'm going to pay a bunch of people to do my dirty work for me' basically.
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Well, yeah. Tell us something we didn't already know.
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Bashing Trump's fan's while liberals do the same thing and throw violent protests just seems a little absurd.
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Can I get on the gravy train too?
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This is why he is so concerned with his "masculine" image. There are even leaked internal memos from the Russian intelligence services detailing Putins indiscretions.
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...the US military is deeply involved in this practice
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No he isn't. He is a "front man" entrapped by the organisation of murdering tyrants that his father set up. (I know someone who actually met him before he was president!)
The trouble is the opposition are also murderous people
Not entirely - but then again they might as well be because if the opposition wins the endgame will inevitably be a takeover by people worse tha Assad's government. The non-murderous parts of the opposition are tolerated by the murderous parts because they attract western support. However once that western support is no longer needed they will be liquidated.
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Let's fix our dilapidated house first before it collapses in on itself rather than the neighbours across the street.
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Saddam set up his own murderous regime - Assad inherited it (reluctantly) from his father because his elder brother died. But for that he would probably now be working as an eye doctor in London. He is not the driving force behind the repressive regime he fronts. However any regime holding power in Syria pretty much has to be murderous to survive. Assad's regime has its power base in the Alawite minority. If the regime falls then it is pretty much certain that they will be wiped out. When you are fighting for your life you do desperate things.
Oh, and in Russia there are still people who think Joseph Stalin was a lovely Guy!
Yep - and I met one of them last time I visited in 2013. He seemed so out of place there now.
I also saw a group of them protesting in a shopping centre in St Petersburg. They looked pathetic! There were about a dozen of them at best. By contrast a queue of people waiting to get into the Kazan Cathedral where Patriarch Kyril was visiting with the cross of St Andrew stretched around the block and about another mile down the road.
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sockpuppets
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Rule of law
Note that this was a Russian court.
SO those who run Putin's "troll army" are not above the rule of law in Russia.
Compare and contrast with the way related issues are handled in the US. (Manning, Snowden, Assange etc).
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Like Snowden?
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This is a ridiculous comment.
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Clay Shirky: How the internet will (one day) transform government
Basically the principle is that information will cause trolls and arguments, but that's a good thing. His philosophy is that we will we evolve into a co-operative arguing that will evolve to a better way write laws. I'm not so optimistic, but it's a good step up. Ever had a shitty dev screw up and had to roll back to reality, well imagine a thousand devs purposely trying to screw you up. I think that's why they allow forks in GitHub.
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how much are you paid?
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Well, if you were a stupid cow...
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funny
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useful idiots
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The US military longs for the golden days of the cold war and it's trolls sometimes engage is a little retro fantasy.
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Beware the Putin!!!!!
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Disclosure
Where do I apply.
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A level reserved for child molesters and people who talk at the theater.
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At least child molesters can be reformed.
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Why blame the readers?
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Comments
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"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"
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"Suure... let's close our borders and defer everything to some inbred dude. That'll raise the standards of living and bring back the jobs." Maybe if you want 60% of the people going back to agriculture it will...
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Someone should make an internet law out of this
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Hm... so whose 'Monsters of the ID' are the best?
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