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Kremlin bots spam internet with fake celebrity quotes against Ukraine (kyivindependent.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Russian bots with a Kremlin disinformation network published 120,000 fake anti-Ukraine quotes falsely attributed to celebrities, including Jennifer Aniston and Scarlett Johansson, in one day, the independent Russian media outlet Agentsvo reported June 15.

Quotes appeared over celebrity photos, displaying messages calling to end aid to Ukraine and describing European collapse.

The images were published between June 14-15 by the Kremlin disinformation network Dvoynyk, a representative of the Bot Blocker project told Agentsvo. The fake quotes have since garnered over 500,000 views.

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[-] [email protected] 36 points 4 weeks ago

Do.... Do people care what the REAL scarlet Johansson, Jennifer Aniston or Elton John have to say about Ukraine defending itself and it's people against a fascist invasion?

I mean, I find their stuff entertaining, sure, but like.... Why would I listen to their tactical analysis in the first place?

[-] [email protected] 35 points 4 weeks ago

Of course people are swayed by celebrities. I'm surprised you even have to ask that. Celebrity worship is huge in Western culture. Taylor Swift told her fans to register to vote and thousands did just because she said so.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago

Literally the perfect person for Russia to target

[-] [email protected] 8 points 4 weeks ago

I think they already did. There were rumors she would support Biden and I thought "will she get Kremlin shills attacking her on social media?" Over the next few weeks there was a bunch of noise about her private jet.

[-] Socsa 3 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

It's the same thing as putting typos in phishing emails so you only target stupid people.

[-] [email protected] 24 points 4 weeks ago

Yes!

As stupid as it sounds people trust them more than the experts. We live in the post truth times anyway.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 4 weeks ago

"This is terrible, can someone please find Ja Rule ?"

[-] Socsa 1 points 4 weeks ago

Pray for Omarion

[-] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago

I mean, Jennifer Anniston and Taylor Swift DID lead the armies in the congo jungles against the contra groups of the 1980s.....They have military experience!!!

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[-] [email protected] 22 points 4 weeks ago

Lemmy.ml moment.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 4 weeks ago

Any hope of civility and partisanship ended when social media received widespread appeal.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

No, it ended when attention optimization and monetization became the objective.

If social media was all "dumb" it would be totally different, though I suppose keeping third party monetization out is always difficult.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

I'm just a shitty software engineer but I've always dreamed up a social media network — perhaps opensource/non-profit — that promoted in good faith the best of humanity... I think there are methods that this could be achieved and I wish someone like Wikipedia or Mozilla would pursue in earnest. I've been part of the Jimmy Wales Wiki Social discord but I'm not yet sure if they're on the right track.

[-] Socsa 2 points 4 weeks ago

Bro the fediverse is one of the worst platforms when it comes to information warfare. One of the major instances is pretty clearly a training ground for Russian propagandists before they get promoted to Facebook or reddit.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

But it doesn't work as well because you can block entire instances. These people self identify by choosing the instance so it's easy to just block all posts and comments, even those from people you've never seen before.

[-] Socsa 1 points 4 weeks ago

Blocking an instance only removes your individual ability to interact with an instance. It doesn't have any impact on the information warfare value of the instance. If anything, it only amplifies it by self-sequestration of opposing voices.

[-] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago

It's not my responsibility to fix everyone in the world. It's good that these people sequester themselves. They can yell at each other.

Lemmy has good tools for blocking bad users and communities / instances. That's sufficient for now. Better moderation will help too.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 4 weeks ago

I dislike Ukrainians. -real Tom Cruise

[-] [email protected] 8 points 4 weeks ago

To be fair, it's never been proven that the real Tom Cruise isn't just a russian internet bot.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

You know, you have a point

[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

I thought he was a bot for Scientology? Is there a connection to Scientology and Moscow?

[-] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago

I don't understand the concept of a "real" Tom Cruise.

Is this like a "real" Bugs Bunny?

[-] [email protected] 11 points 4 weeks ago

First they came for weird al and I was silent

[-] [email protected] 11 points 4 weeks ago

CIA: we have overthrown well over two dozen governments sometimes for reasons we aren't even clear about. A noticeable fraction of the human race lives under the regimes we have installed.

NSA: we proved your conspiracy theorist uncle right and can read the emails and text messages of over a billion people.

And neither one can stop a government agency of under 100 people, who live in a country that can't make a CPU over 8 bits, from shit posting on the internet? Not fucking possible.

Check this out: the guy who runs the largest pro-kremlin misinformation website in the world lives in NJ

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ivandjiiski

And yet all these powerful three letter agencies can do nothing?

We know Russia has been funding the NRA and members of the GOP. We know they have blackmailed them. We know they ran stuff through Epstein and have videos of them rapping kids. And yet despite all this, despite the power of tens of billions of dollars a year, despite being only answerable to literal god not a single act can be done to stop trolling? They can overthrow Pakistan but not block an IP!?

[-] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

They haven’t committed a crime posting on privately owned social media sites. The celebrity first needs to file a complaint.

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[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

Spooks work in mysterious ways, dear. And we pay for it :)

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

Considering the recent report on the Pentagon running an anti vax bot spam in the Phillipines, it's probably that they don't want to help nullify social media spam in case they ever need to use it (again).

[-] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago

Watch as they desperately grasp for straws.

They know they're teetering so hard

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

I'm surprised they didn't use deepfakes.

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this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2024

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