International Politics

[benji]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-04/russia-war-ukraine-propaganda-disinformation-australian-media/103927386

Australian news outlets, including the ABC, have been targeted by a sophisticated new pro-Russian influence campaign, designed to sway public opinion about the war in Ukraine, according to researchers.

Australian Associated Press (AAP), The Daily Aus, The Conversation and the ABC are among 800 organisations in more than 75 countries that have been approached over email or social media to debunk purpose-made false content, such as anti-Ukrainian graffiti or fake news clips.

...

The name Operation Overload was chosen because one of its main goals seems to be clogging fact checking systems in newsrooms.

Australian newsrooms do a lot of "fact-checking" of events around the Ukraine War? And graffiti?

Although there's no indication that any Australian outlets were among them.

The overarching purpose of the operation, according to Check First, is to sow doubt about the wisdom of supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia.

The campaign's aim is to "propagate these narratives in the heads of Australians", says Mr Kuster, so that people ask: "Should we be with the US and the Europeans in support of the war effort in Ukraine?"

...

Check First has been tracking the campaign since it began in August 2023, before ramping up in January and reaching a peak in February and March 2024.

The overall volume of activity has diminished slightly since then, but not by much — some of the tweets targeting the ABC were published as recently as May.

While only a small number of Australian targets were identified in the report, Mr Kuster said their research was focused on Europe, and most likely provides only a glimpse of the true scale of activity in other countries, including Australia.

"There is no way for us to assess how exhaustive we are … we think we've just seen the tip of the iceberg," he said.

...

Each attempt starts with an email or a tweet, purporting to be from a concerned citizen, containing bait in the form of links.

The journalist or investigator is encouraged to "check out" the content.

In some instances, it's images of fake graffiti on the streets of Paris.

...

Another commonly used bait is a fake news video, seemingly from another outlet, smearing Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, or Ukrainians in general.

...

Occasionally, the falsehood is something completely unexpected, and seemingly irrelevant — perhaps an eye-grabbing fake headline related to a celebrity.

For example, one email said: "Moby has not given any concerts lately, this is very strange information, please check it out."

Usually though, there's a clear link back to Ukraine, or an attempt "to emphasise divisions within European societies," Mr Kuster says.

Most importantly, in order for the technique to work, the fake content must appear to already be widespread, and therefore in desperate need of debunking.

"They would post different versions of the same narrative… on websites they control, Instagram channels and multiple Telegram channels, and coordinate… to give a false impression that, hey, that piece of content is everywhere," Mr Kuster said.

If the journalist is taken in and publishes an item debunking the fake, it's a case of 'the Streisand effect' — where an attempt to suppress information amplifies it instead.

...

While the aims of Operation Overload align with the interests of the Kremlin, researchers say it's not possible to confirm whether Russia itself might be responsible.

"All we can say is, looking at the narratives, it's pro-Russian," Mr Kuster said.

...

Even the size of the team behind the operations remains a mystery, he said.

"There could be one or two people behind the fake accounts or tens of them."

However the sophistication and scale of the operation is a clue in its own right, according to Shane Ripley, from Recorded Future.

"There aren't many private entities or individuals that would have the expertise, the resources, the know-how and the strategy to identify targets on this scale," he said.

"This would be a very, very big operation… requiring multiple experts in different things.

"You've got [to have] an army of people behind you to do something like this on the scale that we've seen."

Check First warns that Operation Overload is unlikely to stop any time soon.

Dr Ripley says the AUKUS alliance, coupled with an upcoming federal election, may further motivate groups like this one to target Australia.

"AUKUS unfortunately puts us in the crosshairs," he said.

"Influencing Australia also directly influences the US and UK at a political level.

"If [fact checking] gets harder to do … then we've got a much wider problem on our hands."

What about Australian journalists running stories about paranoids who see elaborate threatening conspiracy theories that are "just the tip of the iceberg" and must be Russia trying to do uh... something... everywhere?

[benji]

BE VIGILANT! Everything you see might be part of a Russian plot! Don't let them sow divisions in our society, EXPOSE THE RUSSIANS!

[benji]

Also:

The name Operation Overload was chosen because one of its main goals seems to be clogging fact checking systems in newsrooms.

I misread this and thought these guys really misunderstood the goal of D-Day.

[Besticus Maximus]

Unironically, be vigilant, expose the russians

[benji]

Unironically, be vigilant, expose the russians

This is exactly the kind of division the Russians would attempt to sow.

[Polident]

Amazing.

[Nintex]

oh shi

[Eric Cartman]

Unironically, be vigilant, expose the russians

Expose them?
Bro, they're constantly showing up here trying to sell us shit

[Nintex]

They're trying to get backlinks and I doubt they're even Russian.

If I wanted to I could hire a bunch of Pakistanis from Fiver who will create hundreds of backlinks like these for $5 - $50 depending on the domain score in any language. 
The most effective ones though are the people that post a lot and then insert the links afterwards. I've seen some folks on ResetEra do that with their gaming blogs.

[Nintex]

Hell yeah, Dinosaurs ain't got shit on me 

[Potato]

oh shi

Imagine thinking the Dutch contribute anything of worth...

[Nintex]

[Potato]

Isn't that Belgian

[benji]

Was the meteor really in danger?

[Potato]

Well, I guess there wouldn't have been much left of the meteor when it smashed into the earth.

[benji]

At least the meteor died doing what it loved.

[Nintex]

Dutch Exit poll for EU elections

Final result to be announced sunday.
Turnout was higher than last time at 46% but still much lower compared to national elections (~80%).

Geert Wilders PVV just 1 seat behind the Greens-Labour party of Frans Timmermans and has gained 6 seats. Final result too close to call.
It seems that his voters generally accept the compromises he made with the other parties. His voters usually don't turn out for EU elections.
Wilders has pledged support for Ukraine politically, morally and military and has dropped plans to leave the EU or Eurozone in favor of reforms. 

- Right/center: 18/31 seats
- Left: 13/31 seats
- Current government coalition (VVD+D66+CU+CDA): 10/31 seats
- Wilders upcoming right/center government coalition (PVV+VVD+BBB+NSC): 14/31 seats.
After a strong 3rd place finish in the national elections, NSC is now the weakest party in Wilders coalition.

Most important issues surprisingly migration, housing, healthcare and not climate and defense/Ukraine war (which was the focus of most campaigns). 
"Nexit", "anti-woke" and Pro-Russia FVD party likely lost all seats.

[Nintex]

All going according to the plan

[Besticus Maximus]

It's incredible how shit Sunak is. One of the biggest dickheads in human history at this point.

[Chudder Barbarity]

It's incredible how shit Sunak is. One of the biggest dickheads in human history at this point.

I still can't believe the last two picks for tory leadership. because nothing says conservative like a woman or a paki lmao. They will be rightfully crushed in the upcoming election.

[benji]

I think we should try to refrain from the overt slurs and stick to dogwhistles like not being interested in Disney products.

[Nintex]

This fucking guy  

Biden shitting his pants, this fucking clown leaving early, those poor vets 

[who is ted danson?]

sunak is a complete disaster 

at least biden has the excuse that he is old when he makes a gaffe

[Nintex]

I think Sunak is just throwing this election. It's obvious that he goes where the money is. For a short while during COVID 'politics' and the public sector were the safest and most influential place to be in that regard and it looks good on his resume. Now with war in Ukraine and turmoil in China he'd rather not be in charge. 

He was clearly selected to "fix" the economy, foreign relations and restore investor trust after Liz Truss tanked it. Labour won't be able to do much unless they can find ways to collect more revenue such as increasing taxes and/or dropping military support for Ukraine. Both either unpopular measures or damaging for foreign relations.

I'm seeing the same thing here with Wilders incoming government. 
He can't do any big spending until 2027 or so and even that depends a lot on the state of the global economy and the wars.
So while his plans do paint a better economic picture, they are mostly less than single digit percentages.

[Eric Cartman]

He's not throwing shit, he's just crap.

It's why we've had a string of second rates since pig fucker, because they all knew they've fucked it and don't want to be the one it gets hung on in the history books. BoJo fucked up Covid so bad the Tories being out on their arse was a foregone conclusion.

Rishis big claim to fame was "eat out to help out", which put a bunch of public money into Tory backers like 'spoons by making people get a buy one get one free meal deal, but only by going into a restaurant for a meal, which fucked the economy AND caused another entirely preventable wave of death.

His 'fixing' the economy was Hunt releasing the most New Labour budget there's been in 20 years, which they've committed to if by some miracle they get in again, which hands Labour an easy win by being the kind of budget they would have done anyway. They can't throw 'bu-bu-but more taxes under labour' out, because there's more taxes committed under the Tories too, in all the places Labour would have been / will be adding them.

They've also come out swinging for removing VAT exemption for private schools, which the private schools can't really fucking defend having and is a tough sell to the population why schools for poshos get effectively a 20% tax break while state schools have been hugely underfunded, even though 90%+ of the population goes to state schools, and is going to put more than £1.5b into the public coffers from the wealthiest people choosing the more expensive option.

[Nintex]

Le Pen beat Macron 2:1 in the EU elections

[Nintex]

Macron has dissolved parliament and has called for new elections.

The parties of President Macron of France and Chancellor Scholz of Germany have equal results.

14% each 


AFD biggest party in Germany among young voters.

[Nintex]

Party of the Belgian Prime Minister got only 5.8% of the vote.

[benji]

He was clearly selected to "fix" the economy, foreign relations and restore investor trust after Liz Truss tanked it.

I think it was more like last man standing.

[Nintex]

Do you want the guy that skips D-Day or the party that wanted to make a deal with Hitler