Fake News and Bots Target Author of Democratic Memo
California Democrat Adam Schiff is the latest target of the disinformation campaign.
By Bethania Palma
VIDEO
A network of Russian social media bots and trolls in February 2018 pounced on Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the main author of a memo about Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election that House Intelligence Committee members voted to declassify.
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Now Trump’s critic is a target of Russian social media influence operations .. https://warontherocks.com/2016/11/trolling-for-trump-how-russia-is-trying-to-destroy-our-democracy/ .. in the United States, which have not abated since the historic 8 November 2016 election. Hamilton68 .. http://dashboard.securingdemocracy.org/ , a live dashboard created by the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan, transatlantic initiative of The German Marshall Fund, monitors the Russian operation. Around the time of the vote on the second memo’s release, Schiff’s name was a top topic and the hashtag #littleadamschiff was popular among Russian bot accounts:
As the Hamilton68 researchers have pointed out .. https://warontherocks.com/2016/11/trolling-for-trump-how-russia-is-trying-to-destroy-our-democracy/ , the influence operation relies on various fake news sites and media personalities to push the desired narrative — including what Hamilton68 calls “white,” “gray,” and “black” measures. “White measures” include overt propaganda outlets like RT, which don’t hide their Kremlin backing. “Gray measures,” on the other hand, have unclear funding and motivations. The sources of funding and motivations of “black measures” are deceptively hidden:
Russia's targeting of Schiff is to Schiff's everlasting credit. Love the way he's on the front foot about Trump, and Russia's targeting of him is a measure of his courage.
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”