Russian trolls used Tumblr to influence American voters
Written by Daniel Cooper
kizilkayaphotos via Getty Images
Russian trolls used Tumblr to influence American voters
If you thought that Tumblr was just fan fiction and monochrome erotica GIFs, then you probably haven't been paying attention. The blogging platform has also, in recent years, become a hotbed of Russian activists seeking to disrupt American politics. That's the charge leveled at the platform by Buzzfeed and Professor Jonathan Albright, an authority on so-called fake news.
The outlets teamed up to examine if Tumblr, like Facebook and Twitter, had been compromised by the notorious Internet Research Agency. The agency has been described as a professional trolling agency, using social media to wage an information war on foreign powers. Unlike on those other networks, however, it appears that the efforts were designed to drive a wedge in the African American community.
According to research from Buzzfeed and Albright, Russia launched accounts that initially propagated false accounts concerning Hillary Clinton's attitude towards African Americans. Older footage, including video of a South African police officer attacking a 15-year-old girl, which was edited into GIFs and attributed to the NYPD. Counter to this were memes praising Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, before switching to a pro-Trump tone during the election.
Albright and Buzzfeed believe that Tumblr has escaped scrutiny so far, and may not be aware of the state of the issue. It's claimed that reports have contacted Tumblr's representatives several times without reply, and also unsuccessfully reached out to Senator Mark Warner for comment. At this point, it's not clear what Tumblr's awareness is, or how it is planning to address the accusations that Russian interference was on the site.
Engadget, which is owned by Oath, which also owns Tumblr via its purchase of Yahoo, has reached out for comment. No response had been received by time of publication, but we will update this story when we are able.
Verizon owns Engadget's parent company, Oath (formerly AOL). Rest assured, Verizon has no control over our coverage. Engadget remains editorially independent.
Source: Buzzfeed
Welcome to steemit! Looking forward to more internet publishers getting involved here and bringing value to this platform.
Any plans for some steemit exclusive content?
Absolutely. In the past we've created custom content for Facebook and Twitter, and we'll do the same for the Steem platforms :)
You are an establishment troll sent here to spread their dirty propaganda...It's only a coincidence that within 24 hours you join the platform you write the same regurgitated pile of garbage as the 'fake news' mafia.
interesting you got started over here. presuming their is a plan to deploy an SMT in the coming months? :)
What do you think about the political agenda being pushed here in a copy/paste manner without Steem unique content and with leftist agenda? Instead of concentrating on tech news it is being redirected to serve political messages against Russia. No concerns that manipulative main stream agenda has entered Steem? Personally, I neither need such a channel here nor their SMT. I think the massive truther community here on Steemit will have their joy with this account. The auther is from Vice, right? Isn’t that this pro-Antifa magazine that ridicules basically any different opinion?
I might be wrong about this but after reading this article I feel like being pulled back into the mainstream. As a German there is nothing more disturbing than an anti-Russian agenda. Russians are our neighbors, our friends, our business partners and our relatives. And one of the biggest US agendas has always been to stop the German-Russian friendship as that would be a desaster for US economy.
We report facts.
Look, I am sorry for this rather aggressive comment. I never said this report is false. What I said is that it fits perfectly into the neverending Russia bashing. I am particularly sensitive to that as are most Germans. We are being pushed into a war against Russia for years now with reports like that and it will be Germany that is wiped out first. I want to believe you are doing some sincere work here. I was just shocked to see that within 24 hours on Steemit the first very political article like that appears here from a tech mag and is not even prepared particularly for us but just copied from the main page which is a big no-go here as you will learn quickly.
I love engadget for their tech news and I hope you will bring us many great reports from that area.
Because people, and the companies they work for, should stay in their lanes and refuse to see the implications that technology has on the wider world. So wait, why do crypto folks talk about anything other than the price of crypto? Like how it will liberate people in developing worlds? They should be like haejin and only write about price predictions.
If the Steem ecosystem is to succeed, there needs to be the ability for publishers of any and all mindsets to have the opportunity to succeed as well. The value generated largely by Steemians using this as a bastion of non-traditional/non-mainstream philosophy is a testament to the system's ability to cut through "agendas" and empower people of all beliefs. That said, it is imperative, if we all want Steem to grow, that it incorporate the philosophies and perspectives typically associated with the "mainstream". It will be the curation of the community, the implementation (or lack therof) of content filtering algorithms of the various User Interfaces, and the choices of Steemiams to utilize those interfaces which will determine the financial success and incentive structures. Being anti-mainstream is not only short-sighted, but also short-sells the potential of community regulated systems.
i have no concern for drama or putting fuel in it. i have a life at local level to live, only then i can add context to the wider world.
Welcome Steemit all the way.
Great post tnx for sharing I just upvoted.
Check out my new posts if you can plz
upvote resteem comment @gclipse
Tumblr??? Were they after the feminazi vote??