Fascinating/unsettling seeing pro-Trump media, Russian bots, a few Congressional Republicans, and Trump's online fans turn a memo by a disgraced recused-then-unrecused Congressman into proof of a grand conspiracy. Not coordination. Each acts independently. Overlapping interests.
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Those Russian influence accounts' use of the word "memo" increased over 60,000% in the last 48 hours, with related terms like "FISA" (+ about 30,000%) and "Watergate" (+ almost 20,000%) dramatically increasing as well.pic.twitter.com/Mr9OzNwrdc
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Here's an example of a sitting Congressman joining the grand conspiracy hyperbolizing. Representative Andy Briggs (R-AZ) called it "the scandal of our time."https://twitter.com/dannowicki/status/954378635099566080 …
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And here's Fox's Sean Hannity (of course) arguing that the memo reveals a scandal that is "worse than Watergate." "Watergate," you'll remember, is one of the topics the Russian influence accounts have been pushing.https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/954254600890134528 …
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Amplifying this narrative are Trump fans on social media. For example, here's someone named Bradley Scott, who has over 85k followers, also convinced the memo shows a scandal that is "Worse than Watergate." (Note, this has been retweeted over 2k times).https://twitter.com/Hoosiers1986/status/954342404211003392 …
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So there you have it: A few Republican Congressmen + Russian bots + professional pro-Trump media + Trump fans on social media = loud enough to shape public narrative. And they've likely convinced millions there's clear evidence of a grand conspiracy.
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Remember, all this fulminating is over a short memo by Rep. Devin Nunes, who was on the Trump transition team, and had to step away from the House's Russia investigation for rushing in March to inform the White House of developments before other committee members found out.
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Less motivated reports doubt the memo's credibility:https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/954363342562480129 …
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The GOP Congressmen, pro-Trump media, Russian bots, and Trump's online fans didn't coordinate. It's not a conspiracy. They're all just doing it. Each individually motivated, building an echo chamber convincing each other they're right. As I said, fascinating and unsettling. (END)
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Re: comments/questions: -"What are you afraid of? Why not release the memo?" Nothing. Fine by me. A Congressman's memo doesn't prove/disprove anything. It's his take, not a primary source. And that's true of a Congressman with credibility--Nunes' squandered his a while ago.
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I have little doubt people convinced the memo proves a grand FBI/"deep state"/Clinton/Fusion GPS/Democrats/whoever anti-Trump conspiracy will continue believing that if it's released, no matter what it says. Much as they believed in that conspiracy before hearing of Nunes' memo
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-"It's not 'the Russians.' Many regular Americans made
#ReleaseTheMemo trend." In part, yes. That's why I listed 4 groups who, without coordinating, spread the narrative. Bots and human influencers did some tweeting/retweeting, but thousands of people with few followers did too.Show this thread
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And here's the
@ACLU agreeing that the memo should be released. And there went your argument...https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/954410376711598080 … -
What argument? In the same thread, I wrote this: -"What are you afraid of? Why not release the memo?" Nothing. Fine by me.
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Why do you bring up Russia?
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Because, as you can see from that thread, I found it interesting that various groups--one of which was accounts linked to Russian influence operations--were, without coordination, promoting the same argument.
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One thing for sure, everyone is promoting a conspiracy theory these days.
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I mostly agree with Greenwald on this. But my partic take is estab is upset they didnt get another war in Syriahttps://theintercept.com/2016/08/09/ex-cia-chief-who-endorsed-clinton-calls-for-killing-iranians-and-russians-in-syria/ …
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I bet before Feinstein and Schiff had ABC put this letter out, it was about 2 percent Russian.
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The activity from accounts linked to Russian influence operations was much larger before Feinstein and Schiff's statement than after. However, though it's tough to measure the exact amount of activity, the Russian-linked accounts were definitely a minority of the total.
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Check news sources. Twitter investigated & found
#releasethememo being used by real Americans. The Alliance is spreading disinfo IMO on purpose. -
Your mistake is thinking it's either/or. As I explain in the thread, many real Americans are promoting the hashtag. Some bots and trolls linked to Russian influence operations are promoting it as well. They're not mutually exclusive.
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Read new stories. Almost every use of # by Americans. Russians trolls vastly over rated. Main tool of Hillary die-hards to shut down progressives.
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