The Russian 'troll farm'

[MillCreek]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below

A fascinating read on a state agency and an interesting approach to information warfare.

[Perd Hapley]

Forwarded to conspiracy co-worker, who gets all his news from Russian and Iranian news websites.

[Ron]

Our government media complex is just a slightly more sophisticated operation.

[Regolith]

Look at the comments in just about any YouTube video or internet article having anything to do with Russia or the American Military, and you can see these trolls at work.

The good thing is they aren't very good at it, and they're obvious as hell. 

The ones running the twitter operation seem to be a bit more sophisticated, though.

ETA: China does the same thing, though I haven't seen as many of their shills ever since word got out about it.

[Hawkmoon]

As a former boss used to say, "Everything you see in the media on the Internet is true ... unless you have first-hand knowledge of the facts.

[RevDisk]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below

A fascinating read on a state agency and an interesting approach to information warfare.

Yep. Russia's been much better at intel work than the US. We had some big wins (my favorite was when they stole sabotaged pipeline stuff and it exploded), but Russia had a lot more smaller wins. It's no surprise they have a better handle on anti-Western, pro-Russian propaganda.

They were really obvious during the whole Ukraine annexation thing. And honestly, for the price, it's very effective. Long haul? Who knows. But for less than the cost of a tank per year, you're influencing a non-trivial percent of the world's perception.

[White Horseradish]

Heh. My grandparents lived just up the street from that place...

Not too far from there used to be a factory. It was called "Gas water heater factory #5". It had an 8-foot tall concrete fence with barbed wire and a gate with an armed guard. Must've made some spiffy water heaters. 

[MechAg94]

So the Russians are just doing what our media have been doing for years.  

I bet if it came out that we were doing this, there would be all sorts of media outrage and commenters all over would be accused of a being an NSA plant.