Foreign Disinformation Is Hitting the US Election From All Directions (apnews.com) 154
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: As November 5 draws closer, the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) warned on Wednesday that malicious foreign influence operations launched by Russia, China, and Iran against the US presidential election are continuing to evolve and should not be ignored even though they have come to feel inevitable. In the group's fifth report, researchers emphasize the range of ongoing activities (source may be paywalled; alternative source) as well as the inevitability that attackers will work to stoke doubts about the integrity of the election in its aftermath.
In spite of escalating conflict in the Middle East, Microsoft says that Iran has been able to keep up its operations targeting the US election, particularly targeting the Trump campaign and attempting to foment anti-Israel sentiment. Russian actors, meanwhile, have been focused on targeting the Harris campaign with character attacks and AI-generated content, including deepfakes. And China has shifted its focus in recent weeks, researchers say, to target down-ballot Republican candidates as well as sitting members of Congress who promote policies adversarial to China or in conflict with its interests.
Crucially, MTAC says it is all but certain that these actors will attempt to stoke division and mistrust in vote security on Election Day and in its immediate aftermath. "As MTAC observed during the 2020 presidential cycle, foreign adversaries will amplify claims of election rigging, voter fraud, or other election integrity issues to sow chaos among the US electorate and undermine international confidence in US political stability," the researchers wrote in their report. As the 2024 campaign season enters its final phase, the researchers say that they expect to see AI-generated media continuing to show up in new campaigns, particularly because content can spread so rapidly in the charged period immediately around Election Day. The report also notes that Microsoft has detected Iranian actors probing election-related websites and media outlets, "suggesting preparations for more direct influence operations as Election Day nears." "History has shown that the ability of foreign actors to rapidly distribute deceptive content can significantly impact public perception and electoral outcomes," wrote MTAC general manager Clint Watts. "With a particular focus on the 48 hours before and after Election Day, voters, government institutions, candidates and parties must remain vigilant to deceptive and suspicious activity online."
In spite of escalating conflict in the Middle East, Microsoft says that Iran has been able to keep up its operations targeting the US election, particularly targeting the Trump campaign and attempting to foment anti-Israel sentiment. Russian actors, meanwhile, have been focused on targeting the Harris campaign with character attacks and AI-generated content, including deepfakes. And China has shifted its focus in recent weeks, researchers say, to target down-ballot Republican candidates as well as sitting members of Congress who promote policies adversarial to China or in conflict with its interests.
Crucially, MTAC says it is all but certain that these actors will attempt to stoke division and mistrust in vote security on Election Day and in its immediate aftermath. "As MTAC observed during the 2020 presidential cycle, foreign adversaries will amplify claims of election rigging, voter fraud, or other election integrity issues to sow chaos among the US electorate and undermine international confidence in US political stability," the researchers wrote in their report. As the 2024 campaign season enters its final phase, the researchers say that they expect to see AI-generated media continuing to show up in new campaigns, particularly because content can spread so rapidly in the charged period immediately around Election Day. The report also notes that Microsoft has detected Iranian actors probing election-related websites and media outlets, "suggesting preparations for more direct influence operations as Election Day nears." "History has shown that the ability of foreign actors to rapidly distribute deceptive content can significantly impact public perception and electoral outcomes," wrote MTAC general manager Clint Watts. "With a particular focus on the 48 hours before and after Election Day, voters, government institutions, candidates and parties must remain vigilant to deceptive and suspicious activity online."
One reason this is effective (Score:3)
Is that we're a very very stupid people. It's not clear to me that we're going to keep this federal democratic republic. Aspects of each three of those words are under attack by some group.
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It's amusing that everyone is pretending that this is an anomaly. The US just spent tens of millions to manipulate the election in tiny little Moldova, and only the locals are complaining. Every country that can afford to tries to affect the elections of every other country in which it has even a peripheral interest. IIRC the biggest spenders in the 2020 election were Israel and Saudi Arabia, which will probably be the case again this year.
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The stakes are a bit higher when it's between nuclear superpowers.
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Russia has an economy about the size of Mexico and a population only about 10% larger, is Mexico also a "superpower"? Yes, they have nukes, and yes, they're the second largest arms exporter after the US, but that hardly makes them a "superpower".
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I think everyones over complicating it here. What makes a superpower is its ability to influence world affairs and project power. Theres one clear Superpower, the United States, and 3 potential super powers, China, European Union and Russia, roughly in descending order of influence. I'd argue the only one of these three that really comes close is China.
Superpowers came about as a concept to replace Colonial empires after WW1 largely ended the era of colonialism (or at least put in place the dismantling of
Re: One reason this is effective (Score:2)
I'd say China's potential global influence is more theoretical that actual. Their most recent belt and roads initiative has been a bit of a boondoggle.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023... [foreignpolicy.com]
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Not since everyone saw how shitty their weapons are.
I don't think their weapons are all that shitty. The performance of the Russian army in Ukraine has far more to do with lack of training, the utter incompetence of the Russian military leadership, absolutely unfathomable levels of corruption and the resulting low morale. The Ukrainian army, which has inflicted epic looses and utter humiliation on the Russian army is also using Russian/Soviet weapons but most of that kit is older and less sophisticated than the kit the Russian army has. The only difference h
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now, which is it ?
It's both.
Russia has four times the population and ten times the GDP of Ukraine.
They should be able to win the war easily. Instead, they are slowly advancing in a grinding war of attrition while taking twice the casualties because they are corrupt and incompetent.
Re: One reason this is effective (Score:2)
That very much depends on the sorts of things you want to buy. For Russian, food and fuel is cheap. But anything they have to import is out of reach for most consumers. Which has the knock on effect that any skilled Russian has to leave the country to put their skills to use. Russia can't even operate some of their oil fields without foreign assistance. From a sanctions standpoint, this is a win. No need to hurt poor Russian families caught in the economic crossfire.
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The US just spent tens of millions to manipulate the election in tiny little Moldova
You've misspoken, Vladimir. Russia spent millions trying to manipulate [reuters.com] the election in Moldova, a country which Russia partially illegally occupies.
Earlier this month, Moldovan police accused Shor, who was jailed in absentia for fraud and theft, of trying to pay off a network of at least 130,000 voters to vote "no" and support "our candidate" at the elections.
Shor has openly offered on social media to pay Moldovans to convince others to vote in a certain way and said that is a legitimate use of money that he earned.
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I think there is more too it than just Americans being dumb. Trump lies habitually, and along with Brexit brought in the age of "alternative facts". We are now in a post-truth world where you choose what you want to believe and then look for "facts" to support it, and if there aren't any you just make them up.
Maybe if Trump loses things will go back to some kind of normality and foreign disinformation will become less effective.
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Maybe if Trump loses things will go back to some kind of normality and foreign disinformation will become less effective.
It won't.
Disinformation (foreign or national) is just to damn useful and profitable. You make something up that causes powerful emotional reactions, and make a shit ton of money from the eyeballs. Actually listening to people of different political or emotional opinions, understanding their motivation and reflecting on their thoughts is hard, takes time and is nowhere near as engaging.
I suppose you could enact laws to change how social media can be gamed to highlight certain posts and regulate advertising,
Weakness (Score:1, Insightful)
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Propaganda works on everyone, no matter how "strong" they are. If you hear something often enough, in enough different ways from enough different people, you will start to believe that it contains some nugget of truth. This is universal. We all learn from the people around us, social learning is just part of the human experience. Anyone who hadn't learned that way wouldn't be able to read this comment.
Re:Weakness (Score:5, Interesting)
Cambridge Analytica has shown us they are able to target people that are easy to sway with ads that will sway them. In the US, nothing was done to fix the fact that data brokers collect this information and are allowed to buy and sell it to anyone they want, including foreign adversaries. How can you be sure you aren't swayed by them? You can't. They know your "internal value system" and can craft a message that targets it.
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It's only misinformation if it's not explitic pro-Kamalala
Re: Weakness (Score:4, Insightful)
>>If you just want the stock market gains
If you have been invested in the stock market for the past 4 years you have done quite well. The S&P 500 is up more than 40%.
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Re: Weakness (Score:2)
Ah, but which direction is the causality?
While it's true poor people have less to invest, for the vast majority their poverty is a result of not investing moreso than a reason for not investing.
The barrier to investing has never been lower. The value in doing so has rarely been higher.
By some mix of poor education, poor math skills, poor financial planning, and poverty mentality, poor people continue to be poor.
You won't get stock market games from Trump (Score:3, Insightful)
Experts estimate the average American will lose $4,000 a year under a Trump presidency. If you're still undecided ask yourself if you can afford to spend $4,000 a year electing Trump. With the answer is no then at least sit this one out
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The same tariffs Harris left in place and then doubled down on as the economy continued to grow?
Those tariffs?
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The same tariffs Harris left in place and then doubled down on as the economy continued to grow?
Those tariffs?
Sorry to burst your bubble, but Harris is Vice President, and has little to absolute zero direct control over policy.
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If Harris wasn't running the country then who was? It sure as Hell wasn't Joe. He can barely pick an ice cream flavor.
And who is running it now? Joe is unfit to run but is fit to hold office now? She stabbed him in the back because he demonstrated at a live public debate he is not fit and hasn't been for a long time. He didn't suddenly go senile that morning. My favorite line as when Joe said it wasn't a problem when illegals rape children because their own family would have raped them anyway. That i
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If Harris wasn't running the country then who was?
A president runs the country through the department heads. Biden depended on them more than most. But the only job he gave to Harris was "immigration czar," which was the worst possible assignment and certainly not one she wanted. Biden and Harris never liked each other, rarely spoke to each other, and she certainly was not "running the country".
Re: You won't get stock market games from Trump (Score:2)
Ha! You fell for it!
Biden's "senility" was a scam. He was always gonna back out. That was always the plan. But he duped the GOP into a frenzy getting so focused on him, only to do the long planned switcheroo, wasting the GOP's resources fighting and opponent who isn't even in the race.
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Ah that's a very weak argument. If you don't want to be associated with the policies and their outcomes, don't be vice-president.
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The same tariffs Harris left in place and then doubled down on as the economy continued to grow?
Since you asked, yeah, I'm a bit miffed that the current administration kept the tarrifs. Of course, when a bad idea has bipartisan support, there's nothing you can do about it. Well, other than make a somewhat catchy AI generated song about it, for all the good that does.
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They said the same shit about the last tariffs which are mostly still in place plus some new ones Harris made.
Please pay attention. You have been lied to. You are drinking kool aid.
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Sorry, smartass. You're the one drowning in Kool Aid. Old drumphy thought he was the tariff king. The problem was, he didn't even realise the economic effect he was causing with these tariffs. He only did it to help out his crooked republiCON business mates who shipped all of the potential jobs offshore anyway. Hell, the dishonest prick even gets his phony bibles printed in China.
Drumpf never does anything unless he personally benefits - he couldn't give a flying fuck about the United States of America or i
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Re: Weakness (Score:2)
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Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I drove through a few of the more red areas of Florida to pick up some equipment for work yesterday. Saw a billboard with Trump promising cheaper groceries. Because the president obviously has a button on his desk to do that (it's right next to the ones for raising and lowering gas prices, duh!)
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Harris said the same thing. IIRC, she even said she would pass a law or a presidential order which would force grocery stores to lower prices! How democratic! It sound like a very brilliant idea which will work for sure! Hint: grocery stores already run on a very thin profit margin and will simply close instead of losing money. She is delusional.
I assume Trump means he is going to restore the energy sector thus helping to get back gasoline and diesel fuel to decent prices thus lowering grocery transport cos
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Hint: grocery stores already run on a very thin profit margin and will simply close instead of losing money.
Actually, I saw that happening already, too. While I was making a stop to charge (it was a roughly 580 mile round trip), the Tesla chargers happened to be in the parking lot of a Winn-Dixie which was going out of business. I guess it's going to be difficult for people in that town to get cheaper groceries from a non-existent grocery store.
I assume Trump means he is going to restore the energy sector thus helping to get back gasoline and diesel fuel to decent prices thus lowering grocery transport costs.
Petroleum is a globally traded commodity, so the president has very little power to make it cheaper. I suppose it's possible (though not something Trump would ever do)
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Harris? You're going to be proud of someone who has promised to continue using our tax dollars to arm and fund a genocide? Sorry, but that's messed up.
The whole world is looking on our election utterly appalled. The only two candidates who have a chance at the Oval Office both openly agree that the US government should be helping one of its proxy forces to slaughter 2 1/2 million civilians, and tens of millions of people are going to vote for them knowing that. How did we get to this state?
I'm ashamed o
Re: Weakness (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Weakness (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh boy... are you one of those people who also talked about carpet bombing? When Israel doesn't have a single bomber since the early 70s? Not one.
Hey maybe if we hadn't sent billions of tax dollars to a terrorist group like Hamas who spent it on weapons and tunnels while leaving their own people starving and without infrastructure then they might have a real country today instead of being a third world terrorist haven shit hole.
The genocide is Hamas, a proxy army of Iran, oppressing the Gazans and literally gunning down their political opposition in the streets in broad daylight light just before their fake election almost 20 years ago followed by no elections since.
These are the people you side with against the only democracy in the Middle East. These Jewish state which has Arabs elected to their parliament. How many Jews are elected to office anywhere else in the Middle East? Mph that's right none because no one else holds elections and all the Jews got ethnically cleansed generations ago anyway.
Yes, there are people here who know real history and current facts who will call you out on your bullshit.
Feel free to use a sock puppet to mod me down. That won't change the facts.
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Well, at least you're keeping up your tradition of having the dumbest post in the thread.
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Good reply. You addressed everything I said with succinct facts pulled from history and current events displaying your mastery of a complex multi generational situation. Your argument can not be refuted. Your logic is sound.
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Please quote any lie I made on this topic.
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The genocide is Hamas, a proxy army of Iran, oppressing the Gazans and literally gunning down their political opposition in the streets in broad daylight light just before their fake election almost 20 years ago followed by no elections since.
While that is oppressive and authoritarian, that is not the genocide. The genocide is Israel killing tens of thousands of civilians in a sustained effort over more than a year. That is well documented.
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Also, the Palestinians have said for years Gaza is a prison, then how come the population of Gaza about trebled since the Palestinians were send there by their Arab brothers?
Don't forget, in May 1948 it was the Iraqi, Syrian, Egyptian, Lebanese and Jordanian governments that told these people to temporarily take refuge there while they would push the Jew
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That is the stupidest argument I have read in a very long time. Most modern aircraft is multi-role and very few countries (three to be precise) have an airforce large enough to justify dedicated bombers.
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"The whole world is looking on our election utterly appalled."
Yet they're all coming here legally and otherwise, and even those who are here and hate the country still refuse to leave.
Re: Weakness (Score:5, Interesting)
The reality is that really almost no one is trying to come to the Untied States, almost everyone stays in the country where they were born, where their families are, where they have roots. And many of the people who do come here make their money and then go home. You should get to know people in other countries, they're not actually what the stereotypes portray.
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The reality is that really almost no one is trying to come to the Untied States,
Your statement is demonstrably false. The number of people trying to get into the US keeps going up year after year, Border patrol has recorded almost 3 million "enforcement encounters" just in 2024. It's on their official website:
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/s... [cbp.gov]
Rather than pretend these people don't actually exist... really, the argument should be whether these people are actually the problem that a certain segment of the population tries to portray them as. Personally, I think the vast majority are decen
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Enlighten me. Has Hamas returned the hostages yet?
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Does Hamas having hostages mean you can mass murder uninvolved civilians, including children? AJC, ADL and AIPAC rhetoric gets stupider by the day.
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I'm ashamed of my country.
Our country nuked Japan, twice, in retaliation for their attack on one of our military bases. If American civilians had to deal with the regularly occurring bombings that the Israelis face, we'd have turned Palestine into glass. We'd even likely see a significant increase in military enlistments, as was the case after the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks.
We're a very much a warrior nation, in case you totally missed that bunch of arrows the bald eagle is clutching on the great seal.
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Our country nuked Japan, twice, in retaliation for their attack on one of our military bases. If American civilians had to deal with the regularly occurring bombings that the Israelis face, we'd have turned Palestine into glass.
Palestinians have to deal with Jewish supremacists whose first, last and only resort is violence and who very openly and clearly wanted ethnic cleansing before 10/7 and want genocide now. If American civilians had to deal with Israeli settlers invading and mass murdering non-Jews they would have nuked Israel.
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You're half right. Actually much of the western world is aligned with the US's approach to Israel and also supports and provides weapons to the middle east. That said we are appalled at your election, mainly because Trump actually stands a chance of winning, and you can't even use the wildcard excuse this time.
You should be ashamed of your country. I'm ashamed of mine, and our worthless racists shitbag of a leader is only a small fraction of the piece of shit that Trump is, and hasn't actually committed any
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If Russia is trying to "genocide" Ukraine they're remarkably incompetent at it. According to the UN between the two countries' armies fewer civilians have died than the US killed just in Fallujah. Israel killed more people in their first month of operations in Gaza than Russia and Ukraine combined have in over 2 1/2 years.
I don't think you know what the word "genocide" actually means, it's not a generic insult like "poopy-head".
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No, want borders to be borders, want the asses of those that crossed them illegally booted back where they came from, want no EV mandates, want cheap gas, want no new wars, want (to stay) out of the old ones, want 1st amendment respected, want 2nd amendment respected, want entire constitution respected, want police respected, want supreme court justices that respect the Constitution, want electoral college respected, want to keep men out of women's sports, want voter ID, want jobs to stay in America, want j
Re: Weakness (Score:2)
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Most of what you're afraid of is just fabricated bullshit that isn't actually happening. Like when Florida freaked out over a "gas stove ban", despite the fact there never was going to be a ban. and that few homes in Florida even have gas service anyway (it's very hot here year-round, so there has never been much demand to widely install city gas service for heating).
Russia wants trump to win (Score:3)
"Russian actors, meanwhile, have been focused on targeting the Harris campaign with character attacks and AI-generated content, including deepfakes."
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This seems doubtful, the AI-generated content and deepfakes that I've seen are amateurish at best, more like the product of some MAGA idiots with too much time on their hands than psy-ops professionals.
Election Integrity FUD is fixable (Score:1, Insightful)
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Re: Election Integrity FUD is fixable (Score:3)
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US voting machines produce a paper record of the votes, and the voter can review it before submitting it.
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And then who counts them?
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And then who counts them?
Nobody counts them. After being scanned, the ballots are fed to a capybara [youtube.com], which prevents any need for those pesky recounts.
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LOL literally none of the things you've said has anything to do with the foreign interference being discussed, nor are they a major vector for interference.
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Beware of this. They would just demand ID at polling stations, with the acceptable forms of ID carefully selected to disenfranchise the other side's voters.
Electoral fraud is insignificant, but you will never convince people whose whole belief system depends on thinking the election was rigged.
And what are we going to do to deter them? (Score:2)
If the West continues to treat foreign actors trying to destabilize its societies through malicious exploitation of their internal freedoms as mere ah-well-what-can-you-do behavior, it's going to either loose its freedom or its social order, probably both.
There needs to be a cost imposed on the external actors, and it needs to be sufficient to dissuade them from continuing.
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How convinient it is for you to not suggest any such costs.
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Hellfire missiles are a pretty good bang for the buck. Pun intended.
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Let's talk about Domestic Disinformation. (Score:2, Informative)
"Russian Meddling" Is a Dead Horse (Score:2)
"Russian meddling" was created by Hillary Clinton. She paid for the false "Steele dossier", and every accusation against Russia and every allegation against Trump revolved around that hoax. We have recently seen reincarnations of such allegations, but they really shouldn't bother us much until Ivan from the FSB shows up at our door and offers us cash. We shouldn't trust the Microsoft Threat Assessment Center to warn us about disinformation from anywhere since none of us are getting any such disinformation.
Disinformation isn't really a problem (Score:3)
The problem is not "disinformation" its no reliable information. So people can believe whatever they want to believe. And its impossible to have an adult discussion with the media megaphones demanding our attention and drowning out any civil discussion. Frankly, the complaints about foreign "interference" are just more noise.
All sorts of people are trying to effect the outcome of our election. Most of them in ways that are patently dishonest. Apparenlty some group is running ads in Pennsylvania praising Harris as pro-palestinian and in Michigan as pro-Israel. Same organization opposing Harris with opposite messages to offend Jews in Pennsylvania and Arabs in Michigan.
In theory, we are a self-governing democracy. Democracy is the tool, not the purpose. There is nothing wrong with people trying to influence us. The real danger is a whole group of Hamiltonians who think we are incapable of self-governrnent. That we aren't collectively smart enough to weed through the propaganda and make a judgement about which people best represent our interests. In fact most people are. That doesn't mean people don't believe stupid things but that they usually only believe stupid things that support their world view.
I get it that the folks who disagree with me are both evil and stupid. But that's life.
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So people can believe whatever they want to believe.
This is a major effect of religious delusion. When you have multiple generations indoctrinated into suspension of critical thought and actively reinforce the idea that self-delusion is not only acceptable but "good" and "moral" you end up with broken humans who believe obvious garbage.
Re: Disinformation isn't really a problem (Score:2)
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Sadly, in where I live in Europe, the percentage of households subscribing to newspapers is just by 33%.
And various forms of social media, effected personal interests, have become more important for news consumption. They lead to echo chambers, polarization and is possible to misuse by foreign groups for influence.
I maintain that paid for news, with a few known exceptions, is largely reliable.
Most domestic information is fake as well (Score:1)
but the Democrats and Deep State don't want to shutdown CNBC and the WaPo.
Just buy (Score:2)
the Great Firewall technology from China and be done with it. The open Internet experiment has utterly failed like every other techno-bubble and it's painfully obvious the last several years.
Disinformation... (Score:2)
By this point, I don't think it really matters WHERE this crazy shit is coming from.
wasn't this the boy band that had a recent tragedy (Score:2)
It's too soon, isn't it, but who said we weren't aware of other things happening outside of the political arena?
Simple solutions (Score:2)
AIPAC lobbies for Israel (Score:3)
AIPAC -- American Israel Public Affairs Committee [wikipedia.org] is a lobbying group that advocates pro-Israel policies to the legislative and executive branches of the United States. One of several pro-Israel lobbying organizations in the United States, AIPAC states that it has over 3 million members, 17 regional offices, and "a vast pool of donors". The organization has been called one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the United States."
* AIPAC Has Spent Over $100 Million on 2024 Elections [commondreams.org] AIPAC's billionaire-funded super PAC has helped defeat two of the most vocal opponents of Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.
* FEC Filing Shows AIPAC Made Record Donations to Congress in November [truthout.org]
Scapegoating (Score:2)
What's good for the goose... (Score:3)
Precisely because the US is so interventionist, plenty of countries, organizations and even individuals outside the US have an absolutely legitimate interest in the outcome of national elections. Israel? Gaza? Ukraine? Iran? Somewhere else? The outcome of the US elections can and will affect US actions abroad.
The US has, of course, interfered in countless elections in other countries, not to mention sometimes just overthrowing governments wholesale. It's amusing, watching the US get a taste of its own medicine.
Fun (Score:2)
The typical right-wing talking points are being spread hard here.
Top comment in my view is basically "LOOK! JEWS!", but there's also "BUT HILLARY!", "BOTH SIDES!", and a few other stupid, emotion-based attempts to convince people not to vote Democrat.
It's sad that shit works as well as it does, that is a massive indictment of American culture.
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The mainstream media is pure center-right propaganda by the standards of the rest of the world. The US is so awash in conservative and neo-con brainwashing that almost no one here knows what actual 'left' looks like.
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The standards of the rest of the world aren't terribly relevant when it comes to an American election. In fact, it is precisely the rest of the world attempting to manipulate election outcomes in the United States that is the topic of this submission.
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I was replying to the poster, not commenting on the topic of this submission. Not sure how you didn't figure that part out.
And freaking EVERYONE who can afford to is attempting to manipulate the election outcome. I'm sure Brasil, Nigeria and Mexico (which incidentally has an economy about the same size as Russia) are all trying to get their opinion registered with the candidates.
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Objective reality states that nobody in the United States gives a fuck if someone in the Netherlands considers MSNBC to be "center right" when choosing their next President.
Re: Disinformation = ABC, NBC, BBC, MSM (Score:4, Interesting)
The mainstream media is pure center-right propaganda by the standards of the rest of the world. The US is so awash in conservative and neo-con brainwashing that almost no one here knows what actual 'left' looks like.
Exactly this. There exists no "left" in America, not a shred. Let alone any sort of far or extreme version of it.
EU conservative parties here would probably be called left in the US if their programme were somehow adopted by a US politician or party.
And yes, corporate donations to political parties or their campaigns is called corruption elsewhere. People go to jail for that.
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Frankly, I have to agree, and that is something I've been saying for years. It may not be necessary everywhere, but there's certain public online forums where it simply should not be allowed for people to pretend to be from a different country. If they just did that on Slashdot in fact I bet a huge chunk of the effectiveness of global misinformation would simply evaporate.
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The organised groups would use rented or compromised machines located in the US, assuming they don't already...
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I'm assuming the more sophisticated groups are already using domestic assets. I doubt very many of these social media posts have a St. Petersburg, Tehran or Pyongyang IP address.
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If it comes from Trump, it's either misleading, or a complete lie. Between Trump and Fox News, we have a lot of misinformation being spread right here in the USA, even without stuff from other countries.
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Stay off the Ayahuasca, dude. :)