Putin’s Kremlin-bots are launching an assault on UK media outlets’ comment sections in attempts to shift public opinion, according to a new report by the University of Cardiff. 32 prominent news websites across 16 countries – including the Mail Online, The Express and The Times – have been flooded with pro-Russian state propaganda in desperate attempts to manipulate public opinion. Not the most effective place to start…
While the university’s report was unable to say definitively who was behind the posts, it claimed the actions were “indicative of a Russian state operation”, and although they didn’t put a figure on the total number of comments, it found evidence of the alleged influence operation in 242 articles published between February and mid-April. Incredibly, many of the pro-Putin comments were then picked up by a Russian state-linked website to claim Western support of their dear leader…
Another report this morning, this time in the FT, rubbishing the claims by fanatical Remainers of Russian intervention in the referendum. Researchers at Oxford University found that just 105 Russia-linked accounts tweeted in the run up to the vote. These numbers are negligible, by comparison there were 2,752 Russia-linked accounts operating during the US election. The report concludes that there was no “significant Russian activity” during the referendum.
This is the latest evidence-based story countering the meme being pushed by Remainers that somehow Russia caused Brexit. Over the last few weeks:
- Twitter said only one Russian account spent any money promoting tweets during the referendum, and they only bought six adverts.
- It emerged that most Russian Twitter activity about Brexit actually took place after the referendum.
- And a number of the Russia-linked Twitter accounts were actually pro-Remain.
- Google told the Electoral Commission it had found no evidence of any paid Russian activity during the referendum.
- Facebook said Russia spent a total of 73p on adverts during the referendum, and they reached 200 people.
- An account accused by one pro-Remain outlet of being a Russian troll turned out to be a run by a security guard in Glasgow.
Ben Bradshaw, Tom Brake and co are oddly quiet about the FT story this morning, and indeed they have been silent about the stories above. Yet still ultra Remainers continue to peddle the patronising idea that Russian bots tricked 17 million people into voting Leave. Good to see the FT calling out this nonsense, not that it’ll stop Remain MPs smearing honest Leave voters as Russia’s useful idiots…
