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We've been hearing about Russian meddling in our elections and our national discussion for years now. I wrote a blog post about it in 2018, spurred by an excellent 35-minute video from the New York Times tracing Soviet and more recently Russian disinformation campaigns back five decades. The video is well worth watching to grasp the scope and depth of this ongoing program. The basic goal of these campaigns is to stir up disagreement, foment polarization, and undermine the target's (read the US) social cohesiveness and institutions from within.
I want to add a tiny bit of data to this issue.
You're reading a post from my blog, zerospinzone.blogspot.com. I've been posting here since 2006, a mixture of reportage about scientific and technological advances that catch my eye, along with commentaries about issues that I think are important, such as policing, gun control and the environment, and, at times, my political opinions.
Google provides the platform that hosts my blog (and, I assume, millions of others). One of the helpful bits of information it provides bloggers is a map showing where readers are checking in from.
I write in English and from an American perspective, so you'ld expect that the bulk of my readership would be in the US, perhaps with a smattering of readers from other English-speaking countries. That was the case until 2016.
At first it was just a curiosity. In 2016 I began to get a lot of hits from Russia. Quite often far more than I was getting from the US. Those hits usually came in bursts, roughly once a week. I gradually got the impression that every so often someone or some group somewhere in Russia was going through a large number of my posts. I had no idea why.
However, as all of us who are not committed Trump supporters know, it gradually came out that Russia was carrying out a concerted digital effort to tilt the election towards Trump, and, more generally, to stoke division within the US. I'm guessing that my blog was just one of thousands or millions of sources that Russian trolls combed looking for issues that they could use to polarize people and groups here in the US.
After the 2016 election, Russia pretty much dropped off the map of my readers.
However, it's now another election year and guess what--not Russia, but this time around I've gained a big following in the ex-Soviet state of Turkmenistan. For example, during this past week I've had 10 times as many hits from Turkmenistan than from the US and Canada combined.
So now, I have a surprising number of devoted readers in far-off Turkmenistan. I doubt that they are really interested in my posts about the demise of coal, about whether the universe is spinning or not, or the importance of exercise for seniors. They may well be interested in divisive issues such as how well Trump is dealing with the coronavirus pandemic or climate change, or about other controversial issues here in the US such as sanctuary cities, gun violence and racism.
To get an updated example of how commentary from the US can be amplified or weaponized by foreign trolls and fed back into the US, please read this recent NYT piece.
So, unlike Trump who famously said, "Russia, if you're listening . . ." and invited them to hack Hillary's emails, I'm telling my new troup of trolls, "Turkmenistan, if you're listening, bug out. My blog is none of your &%$#@#! business."
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REA
I want to add a tiny bit of data to this issue.
Is this one of my Turkmenistan trolls?
Credit: maritravel/Pixabay
You're reading a post from my blog, zerospinzone.blogspot.com. I've been posting here since 2006, a mixture of reportage about scientific and technological advances that catch my eye, along with commentaries about issues that I think are important, such as policing, gun control and the environment, and, at times, my political opinions.
Google provides the platform that hosts my blog (and, I assume, millions of others). One of the helpful bits of information it provides bloggers is a map showing where readers are checking in from.
I write in English and from an American perspective, so you'ld expect that the bulk of my readership would be in the US, perhaps with a smattering of readers from other English-speaking countries. That was the case until 2016.
At first it was just a curiosity. In 2016 I began to get a lot of hits from Russia. Quite often far more than I was getting from the US. Those hits usually came in bursts, roughly once a week. I gradually got the impression that every so often someone or some group somewhere in Russia was going through a large number of my posts. I had no idea why.
However, as all of us who are not committed Trump supporters know, it gradually came out that Russia was carrying out a concerted digital effort to tilt the election towards Trump, and, more generally, to stoke division within the US. I'm guessing that my blog was just one of thousands or millions of sources that Russian trolls combed looking for issues that they could use to polarize people and groups here in the US.
After the 2016 election, Russia pretty much dropped off the map of my readers.
However, it's now another election year and guess what--not Russia, but this time around I've gained a big following in the ex-Soviet state of Turkmenistan. For example, during this past week I've had 10 times as many hits from Turkmenistan than from the US and Canada combined.
So now, I have a surprising number of devoted readers in far-off Turkmenistan. I doubt that they are really interested in my posts about the demise of coal, about whether the universe is spinning or not, or the importance of exercise for seniors. They may well be interested in divisive issues such as how well Trump is dealing with the coronavirus pandemic or climate change, or about other controversial issues here in the US such as sanctuary cities, gun violence and racism.
To get an updated example of how commentary from the US can be amplified or weaponized by foreign trolls and fed back into the US, please read this recent NYT piece.
So, unlike Trump who famously said, "Russia, if you're listening . . ." and invited them to hack Hillary's emails, I'm telling my new troup of trolls, "Turkmenistan, if you're listening, bug out. My blog is none of your &%$#@#! business."
----
REA
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