| Am I the only one that finds it odd how people read and accept this capability without question, yet don't give the slightest thought to why super sophisticated Russian* state-sponsored Twitter trolls didn't bother to use a VPN to spoof their identities? * So the media claims as a fact. Twitter itself has actually made no such claim of certainty that the "Russian trolls" are actually Russian, rather they've only said that the accounts are possibly linked, but good luck finding a news article or internet forum reader that will acknowledge this fact. This Wired article is about the only one I've come across that is truthful: https://www.wired.com/story/how-americans-wound-up-on-twitte... As an example of how sloppy and misleading (intentionally or not) this problem (of reporting allegations or suspicions as if they are fact) is, Wired itself made the very same mistake in an article linked from that one: https://www.wired.com/story/congress-asks-tech-to-face-hard-... While Facebook bore the brunt of Senators' questioning, Twitter revealed some staggering statistics about Russia's organic reach on its platform last year. In just two and a half months, Russian bot accounts tweeted 1.4 million times, yielding 288 million impressions. The fact that such coordinated campaigns went unchecked underscores the value Twitter has put on free speech. "Russian bot accounts tweeted" is a statement of fact, but the actual fact is the accounts are only suspected of being Russian Ironically, in the very same article, they go on to acknowledge the uncertainty involved: Facebook and other platforms used their technological prowess during the campaign to identify malicious actors and advertisers that might be connected to foreign entities, but those tools can miss the mark. One can hardly blame the technically unsophisticated general public from taking what it reads in respectable news outlets at face value, but it's rather depressing (or, extremely interesting, from a mass psychology/epistemological perspective, if you're more of a half glass full type of guy like me) that not only politicians but also technically sophisticated people seem to be no better in this particular case. </beatingadeadhorse> |
These days most negative statements about Russia are accepted at face value.