How to Recognize Russian Propaganda on Social Media
If you, like me, watch a lot on social media, you might be amazed at how many of your fellow Americans … are not bothered by the Nazis and white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville two weeks ago. A few days after the clashes in Virginia that led to the murder of Heather Heyer and the beating of DeAndre Harris , many people appeared on my social media feeds who objected that the Antifa and Black Lives Matter activists were equally brutal. as Nazis and white supremacists, who came out to a “peaceful” rally armed with semi-automatic weapons.
This sudden, aggressive and unified response on social media (“What about Antifa? What about BLM?”) Seems suspicious, as if some kind of invisible microphone amplifies certain far-right topics in online conversations.
Well there is: According to Isaac Arnsdorf, a writer for Pacific Standard , the same Russian bots that flooded social media with Russian propaganda during the 2016 elections are now working to promote far-right views on social media. Arnsdorf writes, “Last week, hordes of automated bots have been generating tweets and more to help spread right-wing conspiracy theories and rallying cries for Charlottesville.”
If you think a term or topic pops up in online discussions that suddenly reinforces certain “topics of conversation,” such as the false equivalence between Nazis and anti-fascists, check out Hamilton 68 , a new dashboard that tracks Russian influence on Twitter. The dashboard, a tool created by Securing Democracy (an organization created by national security officials to counter Russian “mischief “), monitors and analyzes 600 accounts associated with Russian influence campaigns.
You can see the most trending hashtags, trending hashtags and trending topics, as well as the most trending domains and trending domains on these Russia-related influence networks. The dashboard “is designed to shed light on Russian propaganda efforts on Twitter in near real time.”
Antifa is up there, isn’t she? So the next time you feel like there has been an abrupt change in conversation in favor of some crazy right talking topic, take a look at the dashboard. And follow Securing Democracy on Twitter .