Thread by @kurteichenwald

1. It's amazing that, even after all we've learned, so many people dont understand the magnitude of what Russia did in its disinformation campaign.

And most important, Americans don't get how their gullibility and participation were essential to making it work, then and now...

2...We are under cyberattack by a foreign enemy. It is the first attack on America to be largely ignored by our government. The magnitude and significance of it cannot be overstated.

So, I am going to give you all the data to understand...

3...this thread may be attacked. Whenever I write about Russia, they are. In 2016, when I wrote about Russian disinformation being pushed onto the internet by an account @TEN_GOP my reporting from the intel world slammed here and elsewhere online, as well as by WashPost....

@TEN_GOP 4...ars technica, Greenwald, etc. But now everyone knows, @TEN_GOP was Russian, that the information it put out was propaganda, but so many people - including reporters and those who had reasons not to want to know - gulped it down. I am using this @TEN_GOP as an example...

@TEN_GOP 5...based on data released by twitter, @TEN_GOP had only 150,000 followers, and was set up in 2015. Its propaganda was retweeted by 1,850 accounts also controlled by Russian intelligence.

But the real people who did it: 6 million of us. WE retweeted them, millions of times....

@TEN_GOP 6...why? Because it fit what we wanted to believe. It reinforced our biases. Attacks on HRC, using manipulated real facts, or edited documents, rushed out onto the internet by the millions because millions of us who wanted to hate her could not understand what was going on....

@TEN_GOP 7...now, I know from personal experience of being attacked, once the storyline is agreed upon on twitter or Facebook, countering the millions is impossible. That is exactly what Russia hopes for. Our ignorance. Our gullibility. Our willingness to believe anything, so long as...

@TEN_GOP 8...it agrees with what we want to believe.

Now, I am going to give you the identifier lines of a bunch of twitter accounts now known to be Russian.

"Southern. Conservative. Pro God."
"Teacher, Reader, Writer, Resister"
"Love for all my people of Melanin."...

@TEN_GOP 9..
"Your BLACK is BEAUTIFUL! #MyPussyMyChoice #BlackGirlsMagic #BlackLivesMatter"
"Proud TEXAN and AMERICAN patriot #2a #prolife"
"We want equality and justice! And we need you to help us. Join our team and write your own articles! DM us or send an email: [e-mail]"...

@TEN_GOP 10..
"For a second at least, I'm resurrecting the peace #Blacktivist #BlackLivesMatter"
"Conservative, daily news that you won't find on mainstream media #MAGA "
"Activist. Feminist"
"Business Owner, Proud Father, Conservative, Christian, Patriot, #2A #GOP #tcot #WakeUpAmerica"..

@TEN_GOP 11...ALL of those were Russian. ALL of them were operated by the Internet Research Agency under the direction of Russian intelligence. After luring people in with normal tweets, ALL of them were utilized for disinformation.

And we fed on their lies, millions at a time...

@TEN_GOP 12...the 3,800 accounts Russia operated tweeted 10 million times. They collected 6.4 million followers (in other words, us.) The amount of data they got across the internet? 275 GB.

You don't think you could be fooled? You were. I was. Everyone was. The problem is, many have...

@TEN_GOP 13...not learned the lesson. Fictions put out on the internet by Russian intelligence led to Americans arguing about things that were not real. It drove debate. It drove votes. The BIG thing they were doing was trying to drive segments of American voters to stay home....

@TEN_GOP 14...while inducing others to believe (with LARGE targeting of evangelicals) that this was a battle of the soul of America, thus driving them out to vote. That group STILL is consumed by the propaganda that has been beaten into their heads.

So are you. If, as a democrat.....

@TEN_GOP 15...you are out here, slamming democrats, the Russians are looking for you. They are retweeting you. They are taking your statement of "A" and manipulating it just a tad to be "A+1." After it goes through a few more, it is "A+5" - and then it is a lie accepted as fact....

@TEN_GOP 16...Russia WANTS democrats tearing at each other, creating a mindset that WHICHEVER candidate wins the nomination is a threat. If it's Biden, they will go for the progressives. If it is Bernie, they will go for the moderates. And no matter who it is, they will go for....

@TEN_GOP 17...the conservatives telling them that this or that democrat poses a threat to America. Hell, you see it - it is already happening.

Russia has not stopped. It has escalated for 2020. THIS is why I rage at democrats who attack democrats. They dont see or want to believe that...

@TEN_GOP 18...the Russians are looking for them (hell, i probably have attracted Russian "critics" on this thread already.) They WANT to push their criticism, until democrats think that certain democrats are not worth voting for. The problem that Russia is exploiting is KNOWING that....

@TEN_GOP 19...there are huge segments of the Democratic vote that merely have to be nudged a bit with some manipulations and they will stay home or protest vote.

THAT is the Russia scandal. It is not manipulating votes at the ballot box. It is manipulating them HERE....

@TEN_GOP 20...so what can you do? Democrats STOP attacking democrats. Sure, criticize policies. But DONT base your conclusions on ANYTHING you find on the internet. The Russians have been so insidious that, remember - as Mueller found, they were actually sending people to rallies...

@TEN_GOP 21...recognize, if someone is portraying someone as evil incarnate, its could all be a lie.

Today, of all days, remember the sacrifices brave Americans accepted to fight tyranny, putting their lives on the line.

All you have to do in this war is stop retweeting stuff...

@TEN_GOP 22...that you don't know to be true, to do REAL research before you reach conclusions, and to always always remember that Russia is counting on you to be stupid.

And if you want to know more about what happened, here is a great report by Symantec. symantec.com/blogs/threat-i…