RUSSIA/РОССИЯ THREAD—ASSANGE CHRGD W/ SPYING—DJT IMPEACHED TWICE-US TREASURY SANCTS KILIMNIK AS RUSSIAN AGNT
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Reality Check
Keepin' it 100
CurrencyChase
Banned
Can you shed some light on this? Share that knowledge breh.
History.
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88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Washington Post
10 mins ·
"These are the darkest days in at least half a year, they say."
‘Pure madness’: Dark days inside the White House as Trump shocks and rages
The president has fumed about news coverage of scandals and remains furious with his attorney general, while friends worry that he is becoming too isolated.
WASHINGTONPOST.COM
10 mins ·
"These are the darkest days in at least half a year, they say."
‘Pure madness’: Dark days inside the White House as Trump shocks and rages
The president has fumed about news coverage of scandals and remains furious with his attorney general, while friends worry that he is becoming too isolated.
WASHINGTONPOST.COM
Russian Meddling on Social Media Targeted U.S. Energy Industry, Report Says
Posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter were designed to influence energy policy, lawmakers say
Propaganda Posts: An Instagram post, one of 9,000 allegedly from a Russia-backed propaganda group that attempted to influence U.S. energy policy, a new congressional report says. PHOTO: INSTAGRAM
By
Georgia Wells and
Timothy Puko
Updated March 1, 2018 6:02 a.m. ET
75 COMMENTS
A Russian-backed propaganda group used social media in an attempt to disrupt the U.S. energy industry and influence energy policy, according to a new congressional staff report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Unlike other Russian campaigns to stir political unrest in the U.S., this effort by the tech-savvy Internet Research Agency is characterized as mostly one-sided, agitating against American fossil-fuel production in a way lawmakers believe was aimed at benefiting Russia, the world’s largest oil producer.
Starting in 2015, workers at the IRA posted photos and messages on Facebook , FB 0.39% Instagram and Twitter TWTR 2.36%encouraging protests against pipeline construction in the U.S., calling for the abandonment of fossil fuels and stoking American controversy around climate change, according to the report by the majority staff on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
It isn’t clear how much influence, if any, the campaign had on U.S. energy policy. Many of the posts were shared by only a handful of followers, the report says. But the messages came at a critical time for Russia, after oil and gas prices began to plummet due to booming output in the U.S. that posed a major threat to one of Russia’s most important industries.
“To the extent that America produces more energy of any kind, it guarantees Russia more competition,” Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and chairman of the House Science Committee, said in an interview. “Russia wants to reduce competition from the United States.”
The Russian embassy in Washington declined to comment on the new meddling allegations. In response to questions, it sent prior comments from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denying claims that Russians used social media to create discord in the U.S.
Propaganda Posts: An Instagram post from late 2016, one of 9,000 allegedly from a Russia-backed propaganda group that attempted to influence U.S. energy policy, a new congressional report says. PHOTO: INSTAGRAM
The new report was written by Republican staff on the House Science Committee. It is based on data supplied by Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., which have faced criticism from lawmakers over the role of their social networks in facilitating the spread of misinformation and divisive content.
Rep. Smith said Facebook and Twitter cooperated with the committee’s requests. Both companies have said they took down all IRA accounts last year because they violated their policies.
People close to Facebook and Twitter confirmed they shared data with the House Science Committee. A Twitter spokeswoman added that the IRA’s tweets represented an “extremely small” portion of the broader energy discussion on Twitter.
The IRA opened its opinion-influencing unit in 2014 with the goal of spreading distrust in the U.S., according to a federal indictment secured by special counsel Robert Mueller in mid-February.
The IRA in 2015 started targeting U.S. energy policy in its posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, according to the report. Around that time, the U.S. energy boom began putting the U.S. and Russia in fierce competition. U.S. production had burst out of a long decline as companies learned how to tap shale rock for oil and natural gas.
Between 2015 and 2017, the IRA posted more than 9,000 times about U.S. energy policy or an energy event, according to the report. More than 4% of all IRA tweets were related to energy or environmental issues, compared with the 8% of the IRA tweets related to the U.S. election, the report says.
“If true, this is extremely troubling, and not just from the perspective of the pipeline industry,” said Don Santa, leader of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, which represents interstate gas-pipeline companies. “It would illustrate the pervasiveness of Russia’s attempt to sabotage our economy and energy security and undermine trust in our government."
Russia has responded to the growth of American oil production with an unprecedented deal to cut its oil production in coordination with other big exporters, an effort to cap supply and stabilize plunging prices. President Donald Trump seized on the issue early in his tenure and promised policies to boost output and exports even further as a bulwark against Russia.
Pipelines were allegedly one of the primary targets of the Russian actors. Many of the posts encouraged protests of pipeline construction, including the Dakota Access Pipeline, Keystone XL and Colonial pipelines, the report says.
Propaganda Posts: A new congressional report says posts like allegedly from a Russia-backed propaganda group appeared on Instagram attempting to influence U.S. energy policyPHOTO: INSTAGRAM
“Dakota access pipeline has already leaked 84 gallons of oil. Like if you want justice!” said one of the posts on Russian-backed Instagram page “bornliberal” in May. The post received more than 1,500 likes, according to the report.
The Russian actor’s strategy outlined in the report mirrored other campaigns the group has carried out to amplify divisions that already exist in American society. The U.S. energy industry’s rapid growth hasn’t always been welcome at home, one obstacle for producing and exporting even more oil and gas. A growing, though slim majority of Americans have turned against “hydraulic fracturing,” the process used to tap oil and gas from shale, according to Gallup surveys from 2016 and 2017.
The congressional report says some Russian posts also focused on fossil fuels and framing the U.S. as a nation fixated on oil, to the detriment of U.S. political and social institutions. One post on Instagram in late 2016 depicted a bald eagle, overlaid with text that said, “Did someone say oil?” The post received 784 likes, the report says.
Write to Georgia Wells at Georgia.Wells@wsj.com and Timothy Puko at tim.puko@wsj.com
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Berniewood Hogan
IT'S BERNIE SANDERS WITH A STEEL CHAIR!
remember when she was pushing Hamilton?Dorian Breh
Veteran
In all fairness, I walked into Hamilton, very skeptical I would enjoy it, (I was ready to say I liked The Bodyguard better) and I walked out thinking it was brilliant and worthy of all the praise. It is a pretty amazing work.
I just have an aversion towards the performative rapping stuff