Russia Working Social Media To Manipulate American Voters (Again) | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

Rachel Maddow looks at the strategy behind Russian-backed social media operations that build vast follower audiences with clickbait content and then slowly introduce pro-Russian, anti-American, or other political content to their feeds. Aired on 12/20/19.
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Russia Working Social Media To Manipulate American Voters (Again) | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

68 comments

    1. @Rod Allen No one is more ignorant than you trump followers. First of all, do really think Putin cares about losing men fighting against the Ukraine?! It’s called deflection. If Putin was angry about trump and the US supporting the Ukraine, he wouldn’t be going on the record, supporting trump on his impeachment. Talk about stupidity, stop drinking the Kool-aid, if you’re not ignorant, you already know the outcome.

    2. @Rod Allen “Trump actually delivered weapons to Ukraine” Um… _Congress_ delivered those weapons to Ukraine. Trump tried to stop it and use it as a bargaining chip for personal gain until he was caught. Then he stood out of the way.

  1. Putin’s plot against America, which was to help his puppet Trump get elected began in 2014. Thousands of miles away, in a drab office building in St Petersburg, Russia, a fake newsroom was under construction with its own graphics, data analysis, search engine optimisation, IT and finance departments. Its mission: ”information warfare against the US..

    We now know from the Mueller report, that what followed was a successful attack on the most powerful democracy in the world. It involved stolen identities, fake social media accounts, rallies organised from afar, US citizens (Trump cultists) duped into doing Moscow’s bidding..

    In his first criminal charges related to election meddling, Mueller indicted 13 Russians and 3 Russian companies of an elaborate effort to disrupt the 2016 elections with a covert trolling campaign, aimed at helping Trump get elected.

    The Russian offensive began in 2014 with an aim to “sow discord” and evolved into a concerted attempt to help Trump. Some of it relied on old-fashioned boots on the ground. Two operatives, Aleksandra Krylova and Anna Bogacheva, travelled as tourists through at least nine states over about two weeks in June 2014 to collect intelligence for their operations. They prepared “evacuation scenarios” in case their cover was blown.

    This was combined with exploiting the anonymous, borderless world of social media, where agents of chaos thrive.  The Internet Research Agency, a “troll farm” based in nondescript offices at 55 Savushkina Street St Petersburg, was operating through Russian shell companies, the agency employed hundreds of people, ranging from creators of fictitious personae to technical and administrative support.

    Its specialists were divided into day shifts and night shifts to fit with the appropriate US time zones. The agency also circulated lists of US holidays so that specialists could be active accordingly.

    Russians posed as political and social active Americans. They created social media pages and groups, and bought political adverts such as “Donald wants to defeat terrorism … Hillary wants to sponsor it”. They relied on identity theft, using the social security numbers, home addresses and birth dates of Americans without their knowledge. They set up fake bank accounts linked to PayPal accounts.

    They engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Clinton, and to denigrate other candidates such as Cruz and Rubio. In June 2016, after Trump clinched the Republican nomination, the Russians began to organise pro-Trump rallies, recruiting and paying unwitting (Trump cultists) Americans. At a time when Trump supporters were chanting “Lock her up!”, one was asked to wear a costume portraying Clinton in a prison uniform at a rally in Florida, while another was asked to build a cage on a flatbed truck. On 22 September, Russians created and bought Facebook ads for a series of “Miners for Trump” rallies in Pennsylvania..

    Today Trump still refuses to criticize Putin, or even acknowledge that Moscow meddled in our  elections. His refusal to do so is either motivated by fear, or a conscientious and wilful  betrayal of his oath of office, and the betrayal of America.

    1. well done, sir. the brainwashed Trump cult have already conceded their loyalty to Putin and i’m thinking they could be a commodity we could trade to Russia in exchange for something like phosphates or cow dung of equal weight

    2. @Sharilee OutLoud I honestly couldn’t tell if you were serious (as in seriously deranged) or if what you wrote was entirely over-the-top sarcasm.

  2. RT early on seemed pretty legit as well. You now watch it and it is clearly propaganda, but still maintains some valid content to make it appear legit.

    1. @tingle blade RT abuses freedom of speech and manipulates weaklings using Nazi propaganda techniques.
      RT uses dirty tricks.

  3. I don’t log into facebook at all now thanks to all the fake sponsored ads they are spamming now. I avoid most youtube comment sections also but for the idiotic comments from right wing trolls.

    1. Nor do I follow trump. when will news stop reporting his tweets so faithfully. It is a diversion from real reporting what is being constructed behind the scenes. thank god for Rachel Maddow’s more detailed analysis beyond stupid tweet diversions! a waste of attention: “look at the bird!!!” “squirrel!!!”

  4. Hey, is it just me or did the way the select which segments of the show make it to YouTube change recently.

    This one obviously starts *after* Rachel has laid out the background or details about what and who this compnay is.
    Why leave it out? Why start from the middle of the segment?

    1. @Dee Pattison whatever… all media is owned by 5 liberals. they own every channel through vertical integration. newspapers too. if you want real facts, use the library of congress, watch the proceedings yourself and don’t rely on tv spin that tells you what to think and feel. they propagandize legally anyway since Obama repealed the smith mundt act in 2011.

    1. @88Gibson LesPaul So now you are giving an excuse. Does this mean you don’t have the facts and evidence to prove your comments?

    2. @Ryan C Prove your worthiness. Prove that you’re not just another IRA Troll Farm troll….one among the hundreds working for the worthless Ruble. Go to Berlin: it’s worthless; go to London, it’s worthless; go to Paris…it’s worthless. Go to New York, to Rio, to Madrid….go anywhere and it’s worthless. It must first be laundered it’s so dirty. 
      Prove that you’re not a Ruble. Prove your worthiness.

    3. @88Gibson LesPaul excuses and excuses. I’m from Tulsa Oklahoma. If you can’t prove your comments with facts and evidence. Then your being the troll.

    4. @Ryan C You’re from Tulsa? What a coincidence! So am I.
      Now prove your worthiness and send it to me all the way across town…..from Tulsa to Tulsa.

  5. and facebook also just acquired whatsapp, the most used personal messaging app in europe after facebook… time to change apps, zuckerberg is out for our info and the only thing he cares about is money.

    1. @Nancy Chandler yes, so owners of Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, duckduckgo, are all owned by talmudic fake jooz.
      Just for a start. Also Hollywood, banking, fed reserve, both sides of politics, etc etc.

  6. There is a heck of a lot of it going on in twitter too, they use a tool called buffer to let them control lots of accounts simultaneously.

    1. amplify their messages by having 150 sock puppet accounts like and retweet their posts and agree with them etc.

    2. @Dearly Diane And it doesn’t take a lot of research to figure it out. [Their] old mind control methods are broke.

  7. As a Canadian of Scottish descent, I would like to manipulate American voters, even if it used to be influenced.
    Someone has to present the facts and actual history. Please, let me quote an American musician, Frank Zappa.
    “Politics is the entertainment division of the industrial-military complex”. Early eighties.

    1. The Mueller report concluded that they couldn’t charge the benefactor Individual 1 with treason or conspiracy. They also couldn’t get most of the Russian operatives to justice because they don’t live in the US.
      So, in the future anything goes. Every foreign citizen CAN and SHOULD meddle in the US elections because Russia is doing it as well to their benefit. And is turning United states into their playground.

    2. @CellGames2006 I’m not sure if what you’re saying about the Mueller report is in defense of President Trump or against him. Campaign and White House staff have been arrested and convicted as a result of the report, don’t forget that. Why does a future king of England have to leave the country in disgrace, because there are photos of him with Jeffrey Epstein? There are many photos and videos of him with President Trump.

    3. I think he got it only partly right: the Military Industrial Complex is a wholly owned subsidiary of Big Oil, the REAL “Deep State”

    4. Really? Out of every quotable American you choose a 70’s burn out musician with two kids named ” Moonunit & Dweezel”??? Yea, lets all gather around and hear this nugget of smart thinkin.

    1. @B I’m sure the Rothschild and other multi billionaires already had a plan in mind, which is why they were mad when Hillary lost

  8. They could make everything public. Start labeling those actors on social media. Make public any contact. They could fight for us instead of power.

  9. Ukrainians faced russian infowar (within real war) for some time already.They called channel that goes propaganda exploded “kanserva” which can be loosely translated into “spoiled canned food goes bad”. Stay awake America and God bless you.

    1. you sound like ex President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko”Chocolate King”. Family(criminals ) well known during Soviet times , breaking in to warehouses (black market) , extortion …… Biden with $900,000 dirty Ukraine , money , His kid 86,000 a month

  10. UNsubscribed to “5-Minute Crafts”

    “5-Minute Crafts”👎 on Youtube, were showing repeats of the same old weird videos on each of their posts, which is dishonest and clickbait-ish, considering the millions of subs. Those behind that “5-minute Crafts” video, are an enemy towards the USA.

    “5-Minute Crafts” channel are spreading Russian propaganda to all those [American] viewers, while trying to thwart The USA’s Presidential election for Russia. Not good.

    1. @Gscalenut “feces” are expelled digestive waste matter. Better known as poop. No idea what the OP was referring to, but but there you have it, a simple explanation

    2. Please just stop. Posts like these don’t help conservatives. It makes your side look like 14 year old trolls trying to be “edgy” or cognitively dissonant individuals. Nobody gives a crap about “click-bait”. But that’s of course what you focus in on and ignore the rest. It’s the fact that those ads have verifiably false information that could alter history or ruin a persons lives. Putting your girlfriends cleavage on the thumbnail of your youtube video may be tacky, but it’s harmless compared to just outright spewing something like “OMG DID YOU KNOW NICOLE LOVE MARRIED HER UNCLE AND EATS BABY HAMSTERS? DON’T VOTE FOR HER!”

    3. @Tim M pretty sure all I said was “feces.” For some reason I was.notified about your response. Next time please respond to a person rather than leaving a general comment so we don’t all have to parse through it and figure out who’s talking to me and why.

  11. Okay, so Disney, Warner Media, and then these guys? Who? Vox?
    Yeah, I can see that.🤣

    Where is Rachael’s aluminum foil hat?🤔

    1. @Kevin Lopez esta pendeja hablo de rusos por 3 anos y pobre de los pendejos q siguen y creen de seres como esta

  12. Yeah, I was all set to vote for Hilabeast in 2016 then the Russians talked me into voting for Trump instead. BWAHAHAHA!!!!

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