BarryLaverty Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 Say that really fast 5 times...we now have bot and troll farms in Arizona, where teenagers are getting paid to spread lies and misinformation on Facebook and Twitter, and they got caught. https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/15/21438897/troll-farm-turning-point-teenagers-moderation Conservative group used a bunch of teens to evade Twitter and Facebook moderation 8 The “coordinated inauthentic behavior” is coming from Arizona By Elizabeth Lopatto@mslopatto Sep 15, 2020, 8:05pm EDT Artist: Alex Castro One way to avoid having your repetitive pro-Trump posts tagged as belonging to a bot is to hire teenagers in Arizona to behave like bots — and that’s exactly what The Washington Post reports conservative group Turning Point Action did. These kids posted messages such as “Don’t trust Dr. Fauci” to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, the Post reported. They echoed President Donald Trump’s disdain for mail-in ballots, and posted erroneous claims about voter fraud, using the repetitive posting behavior that is most common in bots or trolls. The campaign occurred over the course of months, and the Post identified at least 4,500 tweets that came from the Turning Point Action effort. “In 2016, there were Macedonian teenagers interfering in the election by running a troll farm and writing salacious articles for money,” Graham Brookie, an expert in digital forensic research, told The Post. “In this election, the troll farm is in Phoenix.” Turning Point Action, led by Charlie Kirk, is affiliated with Turning Point USA, a Phoenix-based conservative youth group. That group told The Post in a statement that comparing their operation to a troll farm was a “gross mischaracterization.” Instead, the effort was described as “sincere political activism conducted by real people who passionately hold the beliefs they describe online, not an anonymous troll farm in Russia.” Because the participants used their own accounts, they evaded some of the safeguards these tech companies put in place after 2016. The people who participated shared a document with each other to coordinate the phrases they used to post to social media, and were instructed to edit the phrases to make the posts seem more real. This isn’t Turning Point’s first brush with coordinated inauthentic behavior. In the last election cycle, inauthentic right-wing behavior came from the Russian Internet Research Agency. As part of that effort, the IRA boosted Turning Point’s content to help Trump, experts told the Senate Intelligence Committee. This time, “it sounds like the Russians, but instead coming from Americans,” Jacob Ratkiewicz, a software engineer at Google, told The Post. His PhD research was on astroturfing in political campaigns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyZuco Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 Seems to me that conservative youts (taken from "My Cousin Vinny")-using their own accounts can pretty much send out whatever they want--I mean look at tiktok--that is some of the weirdest and stupidest stuff you will ever find. But my biggest concern is that now supposedly give doctorate degrees in "astroturfing in political campaigns". Is the corrective culture so bad that we can't say "LIARS" in political campaigns any more? I mean a presidential candidate can call people LIARS, but others can't? I just don't know why we have to have astroturfing--that stuff was terrible in the 70s and is still terrible. LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. P Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 Lol... we went from "muh Russia" to "muh teenagers!" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarryLaverty Posted September 16, 2020 Author Share Posted September 16, 2020 Russia is still going full speed to try and influence our elections and undermine our country, with our intelligence agencies slowing them, certainly not with the support of the White House, but I guess this would be the GOP or the 'conservative' answer to a million TIK TOKers asking for tickets to a Trump rally in Tulsa. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyZuco Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 Look at the bright side, only 4 more days of tiktok--I think, but may be wrong that it will shut down in USA on the 20th. But it could be a different date. All that means to me, I'll have 2 teenage daughters whining and complaining that they have nothing to do now that the TOK is gone. LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. P Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 17 minutes ago, BarryLaverty said: Russia is still going full speed to try and influence our elections and undermine our country, with our intelligence agencies slowing them, certainly not with the support of the White House, but I guess this would be the GOP or the 'conservative' answer to a million TIK TOKers asking for tickets to a Trump rally in Tulsa. Good point... I was totally going to vote for Biden, but a funny meme on Facebook changed my mind. Do you realize how laughably insane that sounds? 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAWG91 Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 39 minutes ago, LOL said: Good point... I was totally going to vote for Biden, but a funny meme on Facebook changed my mind. Do you realize how laughably insane that sounds? I can answer that one. No, he doesn't. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarryLaverty Posted September 16, 2020 Author Share Posted September 16, 2020 45 minutes ago, LOL said: Good point... I was totally going to vote for Biden, but a funny meme on Facebook changed my mind. Do you realize how laughably insane that sounds? Go on the Facebook page of any 'conservative' these days and count the QANON children posts and the anti-Covid protocol posts and all the supposed 'sniffing' videos of Biden and then how Trump is the exalted one, and you might not be so snarky afterwards. I DO think that decisions are being made by people because of their social media. Hell, just read Geezy's Twitter feeds on an hourly basis. Why would you be so out of touch not to think that it has an influence? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. P Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 5 minutes ago, BarryLaverty said: Go on the Facebook page of any 'conservative' these days and count the QANON children posts and the anti-Covid protocol posts and all the supposed 'sniffing' videos of Biden and then how Trump is the exalted one, and you might not be so snarky afterwards. I DO think that decisions are being made by people because of their social media. Hell, just read Geezy's Twitter feeds on an hourly basis. Why would you be so out of touch not to think that it has an influence? Dude... I was *literally* the media for most of my career. I know very well what influences people to think a certain way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monte1076 Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 1 hour ago, BarryLaverty said: Russia is still going full speed to try and influence our elections and undermine our country How concerned about this would you be in HRC was in office right now instead of DJT? Asking for a friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mellon Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarryLaverty Posted September 16, 2020 Author Share Posted September 16, 2020 57 minutes ago, LOL said: Dude... I was *literally* the media for most of my career. I know very well what influences people to think a certain way. So, this is really Mark Zuckerberg???? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveTV1 Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 1 hour ago, BarryLaverty said: Go on the Facebook page of any 'conservative' these days and count the QANON children posts and the anti-Covid protocol posts and all the supposed 'sniffing' videos of Biden and then how Trump is the exalted one, and you might not be so snarky afterwards. I DO think that decisions are being made by people because of their social media. Hell, just read Geezy's Twitter feeds on an hourly basis. Why would you be so out of touch not to think that it has an influence? I'd estimate my friends on faceboook as being Conservative at around 88%, and I do follow some Conservative sites, but I've shut many of them down, because they post too much. I would estimate that those that do post Conservative ideas use there own thoughts, and not those of a link or meme to QANON. about 2% do based on my number of friends and the few that do. I just keep on scrolling. I'd rather see someone's own thoughts and ideas on what is going on unlike the left who is dependent on CNN and MSNBC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarryLaverty Posted September 16, 2020 Author Share Posted September 16, 2020 3 minutes ago, DaveTV1 said: I'd estimate my friends on faceboook as being Conservative at around 88%, and I do follow some Conservative sites, but I've shut many of them down, because they post too much. I would estimate that those that do post Conservative ideas use there own thoughts, and not those of a link or meme to QANON. about 2% do based on my number of friends and the few that do. I just keep on scrolling. I'd rather see someone's own thoughts and ideas on what is going on unlike the left who is dependent on CNN and MSNBC. Imagine you of all people, who is always so warm and kind and polite toward me and my differing views, only having about 12 out of a 100 not think like you. Shocked and chagrined. And I have about half and half, and with most, I hide their pass alongs regularly, have done so for months, and I get very little news directly from them anymore, except Happy Birthday. Funny how that works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveTV1 Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 21 minutes ago, BarryLaverty said: Imagine you of all people, who is always so warm and kind and polite toward me and my differing views, only having about 12 out of a 100 not think like you. Shocked and chagrined. And I have about half and half, and with most, I hide their pass alongs regularly, have done so for months, and I get very little news directly from them anymore, except Happy Birthday. Funny how that works. If some are liberal they keep it to themselves. I'm basing it on what I see posted on a monthly basis. I'm sure the number is higher, but they rarely post anything Pro Biden or Anti Trump. I've only unfriended one person who was a leftist, because he called me a blanking liar when I said the protests weren't peaceful, with video proof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. P Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 16 hours ago, BarryLaverty said: So, this is really Mark Zuckerberg???? Sure man... whatever. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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