Google shuts YouTube channel implicated in Kremlin political propaganda ops

https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/11/google-shuts-youtube-channel-implicated-in-kremlin-political-propaganda-ops/

by doppp • 9 years ago

58 49 9 years ago

techcrunch.com

mushinron4• 9 years ago

"Hey, Alexei, activate account number two"!

bolololo122• 9 years ago

"Hey Sasha, niet problema I'll ask Kaspersky Lab to help us with this one"

sschueller2• 9 years ago

Will Google shut down all the USA [1] propaganda channels as well?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America

arrrg• 9 years ago

VOA is not covert and its intentions are quite clear.

This equivocation makes no sense.

coldtea5• 9 years ago

On the other hands, tons of "NGO"s, foreign journalists, parties, etc sponsored under the table and over the table by various agencies, think tanks, etc, are indeed covert.

misleading• 9 years ago

That's the American equivalent to RT, neither of which is in dispute. The channel mentioned in TFA features black actors pretending to be american aimed at discrediting political opponents of Russia and inciting racial conflict to sow instability among Americans. That's not censorship of an alternative viewpoint: this is unambiguously hateful propaganda.

cremno• 9 years ago

discrediting political opponents [...] and inciting racial conflict to sow instability among Americans

Your mass media/ruling class does that too (especially on the political right). And they have much more influence than some largely unknown YT channel allegedly backed by Russia.

bolololo122• 9 years ago

when will they shut down Russia Today?

saalweachter• 9 years ago

I would note there is a bit of a difference between something called "Russia Today" (or Voice of America) and something purporting to be grassroots activism. If you want to trust clearly labeled foreign news, whether it's Russia Today or Voice of America or the BBC, you're at least making a semi-informed decision.

hasenj6• 9 years ago

So, Russia influenced the election by having two black men run a YouTube channel?

redblacktree• 9 years ago

Among other things, yes.

neuronexmachina4• 9 years ago

Yup. This was just one channel among many, following the Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" approach to propaganda. It used the same DDoS-like approach during it's incursion into Georgia and annexation of Crimea.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PE198.html

The Russian propaganda model is high-volume and multichannel, and it disseminates messages without regard for the truth. It is also rapid, continuous, and repetitive, and it lacks commitment to consistency. Although these techniques would seem to run counter to the received wisdom for successful information campaigns, research in psychology supports many of the most successful aspects of the model. Furthermore, the very factors that make the firehose of falsehood effective also make it difficult to counter.

zeep• 9 years ago

If they would shutdown all news channels that sometime distribute "propaganda", there would not be many left...

aluhut7• 9 years ago

Sure, but only if your definition of "propaganda" is completely useless.

hasenj6• 9 years ago

So you think that there are a lot of honest media channels that never ran propaganda pieces, not even once!

bestest2• 9 years ago

Will they shut down the Russian YouTube offices, which are overrun by the same Kremlin propagandists, wrecking havoc on Russian Youtube (shutting down opposition videos etc)?

kushti• 9 years ago

What are you talking about? Do you have credible links?

bestest2• 9 years ago

Of course I have no proof, but there are links, and this is one of them: http://www.bbc.com/russian/news-40674508, which you can use as a point of reference.

The Russian net is talking about it (on youtube, on twitter, on VK etc), but no one has proof — if there was proof, it would be scandalous. Thus it's just common knowledge.

enord• 9 years ago

This is only suprising (or outrageous) under the assumption that we live in a global civil rights society. Only commerce is more or less global because it directly serves the interests of states around the world.

Is normal.

readhn2• 9 years ago

"..although the videos did not gain significant traction .. only garnered “hundreds” of views prior to the channel being closed (vs the pair’s Facebook page having ~48,000 fans before it was closed, and videos uploaded there racking up “thousands” of views)."

really hundreds of likes and thousands of views are going to have any impact on the election? Come on! Show us the money, i want to see proof of some real money (millions of dollars channeled in) before i buy this whole "Russia backed" story. Not some pocket change lunch money and a couple of guys (are they even real?).

They are basically saying i can sell an average home and use that money to influence the results of the American elections. Complete BS.

sschueller2• 9 years ago

If 100k is all it took to win an election then facebook must be the best advertising that money can buy. Why even run TV ads? :)

aluhut7• 9 years ago

To be sure the TV stations will be thankful for your money and to reach all the old people?

aluhut7• 9 years ago

I'm pretty sure that it never is one thing. However if you have a US president who is knee deep in Russia and several accounts here and there, RT, subreddits, twitter bots who also support Russian policies, doesn't that make you think a bit?

You are taking one (obviously failed) campaign and act like it's all while ignoring the whole picture that is evolving around this presidency. This looks...weird.

readhn2• 9 years ago

i would like to see them expose a real money channel if there is one. Why cant they do that? Real names, real money and banks involved. Not 2 ghosts with a failed youtube channel.

....you know what nobody cares though. Average intelligence of an American citizen is pretty low so they will buy any story they are fed.

lbenes• 9 years ago

thousands of views are going to have any impact on the election?

We're not talking about Prime Time TV grabs, this is microtargeting, death by a thousand cuts. This one just one of dozens of campaigns that we are just now learning about. Here are some more examples:

* Russian-funded Facebook ads backed Stein, Sanders[1]

* Shuttered Facebook group that organized anti-Clinton, anti-immigrant rallies across Texas was linked to Russia[2]

* Russians Impersonated Real American Muslims to Stir Chaos on Facebook and Instagram[3]

Just over a month ago FB was denying any Russian influence. And now we know of 4 different demographics, with 4 different campaigns. These "thousands of views" that you pooh-pooh start to add up and you can see how the cumulative influence could have a real effect.

[1] http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/26/facebook-russia-tru...

[2] http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-group-russia-texas-a...

[3] https://www.thedailybeast.com/exclusive-russians-impersonate...

marindez• 9 years ago

this is microtargeting, death by a thousand cuts

Nah this isn't. This is a failed propaganda campaign.

creaghpatr2• 9 years ago

The content appeared intended for an African-American audience, although the videos did not gain significant traction on YouTube, according to The Daily Beast, which said they had only garnered “hundreds” of views prior to the channel being closed (vs the pair’s Facebook page having ~48,000 fans before it was closed, and videos uploaded there racking up “thousands” of views).

Hundreds of views? For the whole channel, huh? Not sure what their distribution targets were but they sure failed to meet them.

And they (presumably) shared these videos on their 48k fan facebook page, yet the videos only managed to get "thousands" of views? Hope they didn't have that Kremlin ad spend behind them because those numbers are pitiful.

And their content was pulled from Facebook back in August after being identified as Russian-backed propaganda, according to the Daily Beast’s sources.

I think it would be helpful for community moderators everywhere, including Hacker News, to understand how they were identified as Russian-backed propaganda.

aluhut7• 9 years ago

And they (presumably) shared these videos on their 48k fan facebook page, yet the videos only managed to get "thousands" of views? Hope they didn't have that Kremlin ad spend behind them because those numbers are pitiful.

Wasn't the main aim for the facbook network to host Ads? I've read somewhere that they reached millions with that.

I think it would be helpful for community moderators everywhere, including Hacker News, to understand how they were identified as Russian-backed propaganda.

The most obvious would be the content. You can just turn on the still existing propaganda channels like Russia Today to compare the content.

coldtea5• 9 years ago

The most obvious would be the content. You can just turn on the still existing propaganda channels like Russia Today to compare the content.

So, like, anything not agreeing with the mainstream US opinion on things?

creaghpatr2• 9 years ago

I want to know specifically the Williams and Kalvin Johnson affiliation with the Kremlin and how it was identified. They are obviously real people (maybe not their real names) right?

How did Facebook determine that they were Russian government-backed counterinformation agents?

coldtea5• 9 years ago

Which shows why China (corrupt/autocratic ruling elite or not) feels a need to control its own internet/web -- and would still would be justified to feel that need even if it was a perfect democracy.

Because when country X runs the most/biggest internet properties, then X country's propaganda ops can run uninterrupted on all of its-owned/run web players and services spanning the globe, but other countries' political propaganda can be stopped at any time.

Now, if you're in the side which owns the most/biggest internet properties, then you'll probably feel there's no problem with this imbalance -- nor would you find any reason to control your own internet.

That's because, since all the big players are yours, the global internet is "your own internet" anyway. Plus it's not like your citizens are ever going to venture that far of your national services for alternative news sources. Heck, it's not even like your domestic alternative news sources are much popular, the vast majority is fed 2 partisan shades of the same BS.

And because facts are facts, it gets worse when one side get to unilaterally control and mark as "political propaganda ops" not just actual political propaganda ops, but facts too for everybody concerned.

Especially since, whether you're in country X or another, if you never venture outside of mainstream media (of whatever political persuasion), you'll also tend to find your country's propaganda ops as just neutral reporting. After all, that's what your own media tells you 24/7, what your "neutral" official history books say, etc.

AlexC04• 9 years ago

I saw this on Rachel Maddow this morning. http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/us-tech-giants-oddl...

Near as she can tell, they live in Nigeria (though I don't think she's actually been able to back that up).

She also digs into a number of the other accounts that did this. The "I love Texas" twitter account was another one that seemed pretty egregious. For example encouraging armed revolt if hillary wins. Switching their account-name and branding to "Secede if Hilary Win" days before the election to make it LOOK like their followers were ALWAYS in favor of extreme political action.

This stuff is pretty dark.

golemotron• 9 years ago

Many companies play up the pretense that they are 'global' corporations. There are only nations. Google is a US corporation.

A global corporation would not pay this much attention to the influence of a single nation or it would pay more attention to all of them.

Overtonwindow• 9 years ago

So Google is censoring again. It's not extremist. It's not violent. Why does it need censorship? What will they label and censor as "propaganda" next?

Google shuts YouTube channel implicated in Kremlin political propaganda ops

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