The reality behind Russia's fake news
The reality behind Russia's fake news
By Jill Dougherty, CNN Updated 1425 GMT (2225 HKT) December 2, 2016
CNN)The 2016 presidential race was rife with disinformation, none more blatant than fake news -- hoaxes, half-truths, outright lies -- that flashed through the internet at warp speed.
Take, for example, "Pizzagate," a made-up story of a pedophilia ring supposedly being run out of a Washington, D.C. pizza parlor by none other than Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman John Podesta.
Fueled by conspiracy theorists posting on social media sites like Reddit, Facebook and Twitter, the story picked up so much traction that The New York Times and the Washington Post were forced to track it down, finally debunking it.
Then there were the stories about Clinton's health. Not just her actual September bout with pneumonia, but other stories claiming she had a brain injury and was losing her mind.
The Kremlin connection
Western media, for the most part, are blaming Moscow, accusing the Kremlin of exploiting fake news to damage Clinton, help elect Donald Trump, and undermine the American electorate's faith in their government.
The Kremlin has consistently denied it tried to interfere in the election.
Two new studies that were cited by media outlets, including the Washington Post, claim Russia used "thousands of botnets, teams of paid human 'trolls,' and networks of websites and social-media accounts" to "echo and amplify" false or misleading tweets, Facebook posts, videos and media reports.
The first study -- "Trolling for Trump: How Russia is Trying to Destroy Our Democracy" -- appeared in early November in War on the Rocks, an online magazine.
"Russia's propaganda mechanisms primarily aim for "alt-right and more traditional right-wing and fascist parties," Clint Watts, one of the co-authors of the paper, tells CNN, but they're also "hitting across any group in the United States that is anti-government, or fomenting dissent or conspiracies against the US government and its institutions."
READ MORE: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/02/politics...
By Jill Dougherty, CNN Updated 1425 GMT (2225 HKT) December 2, 2016
CNN)The 2016 presidential race was rife with disinformation, none more blatant than fake news -- hoaxes, half-truths, outright lies -- that flashed through the internet at warp speed.
Take, for example, "Pizzagate," a made-up story of a pedophilia ring supposedly being run out of a Washington, D.C. pizza parlor by none other than Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman John Podesta.
Fueled by conspiracy theorists posting on social media sites like Reddit, Facebook and Twitter, the story picked up so much traction that The New York Times and the Washington Post were forced to track it down, finally debunking it.
Then there were the stories about Clinton's health. Not just her actual September bout with pneumonia, but other stories claiming she had a brain injury and was losing her mind.
The Kremlin connection
Western media, for the most part, are blaming Moscow, accusing the Kremlin of exploiting fake news to damage Clinton, help elect Donald Trump, and undermine the American electorate's faith in their government.
The Kremlin has consistently denied it tried to interfere in the election.
Two new studies that were cited by media outlets, including the Washington Post, claim Russia used "thousands of botnets, teams of paid human 'trolls,' and networks of websites and social-media accounts" to "echo and amplify" false or misleading tweets, Facebook posts, videos and media reports.
The first study -- "Trolling for Trump: How Russia is Trying to Destroy Our Democracy" -- appeared in early November in War on the Rocks, an online magazine.
"Russia's propaganda mechanisms primarily aim for "alt-right and more traditional right-wing and fascist parties," Clint Watts, one of the co-authors of the paper, tells CNN, but they're also "hitting across any group in the United States that is anti-government, or fomenting dissent or conspiracies against the US government and its institutions."
READ MORE: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/02/politics...
War on the Rocks? Never heard of them?