Thread by @karolcummins

Russia conducted a “continued and sustained” disinformation campaign against Europe’s recent parliamentary elections, the European Union reported Friday, the latest sign that Russia’s high-tech efforts to influence democratic votes have not slowed down. washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

📌The report found that Russia sought to influence voter behavior and, in some cases, suppress turnout.

📌These conclusions echo the conclusions of official U.S. investigations into the 2016 presidential election.
eeas.europa.eu/sites/eeas/fil…

‼️In other words, this UK Report corroborates the report below, which is part of what Barr & Trump are ‘investigating’ in a lame effort to discredit the findings of our intelligence agencies.

DNI Report January 6, 2017
dni.gov/files/document…

📌Which reported that Russians sought to damage Democrat Hillary Clinton and help elect her rival, Republican Donald Trump, while also working to undermine democratic institutions in the United States.
washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

Friday’s E.U. report said the Russian interference in parliamentary campaigns “covered a broad range of topics, ranging from challenging the EU’s democratic legitimacy to exploiting divisive public debates on issues such as of migration & sovereignty ...
washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

📌There was a consistent trend of malicious actors using disinformation to promote extreme views and polarize local debates, including through unfounded attacks on the EU.”
washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

📌The report said major U.S. technology companies, including Google, Twitter and Facebook, had taken steps to combat Russian disinformation, but it added that “more needs to be done by the platforms to effectively tackle disinformation.”
washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

📌European officials had been fearful that the Kremlin would put the May elections for European Parliament in its crosshairs.
washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

📌The legislature has given a foothold to far-right, pro-Russian lawmakers in past years, and pro-E.U. policymakers thought that Russia might use the recent voting to try to crack open the system.
washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

📌This year, far-right anti-E.U. forces won a record result, capturing about a quarter of the European Parliament’s seats.

📌But it was only a modest boost over their previous share.
washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

📌The good news is security officials, diplomats and candidates said that their worst fears about Russia did not come to pass.

📌There were no known high-profile hacking efforts, such as that of the DNC during the 2016Elex.
washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

Nor did there appear to be efforts to damage individual candidates, as happened in 2017, when then-candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign emails were published online two days before he was elected president of France.
#TeamTrump + #WikiLeaks
washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

But a top E.U. security official said Friday that there was nevertheless an ongoing & significant Russian effort to target Europeans with disinformation on a daily basis.

📌This applies to the US as well. If anything outrages you or is divisive ? source
washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

“The trend is to have a customized, carefully targeted approach that uses in particular fake accounts & bots to accelerate & amplify divisive content that is already out there,” said Julian King, E.U. SUC

📌Russia exploits Right & Left divisive issues.
washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

Understanding Provokatsiya: Alt-Right in Cahoots with Alt-Left ‘Resistors’

Horseshoe Theory In Action on Twitter

Note who is pushing Socialism vs Capitalism & Progressives vs Centrist Democrat divisive narratives

Anti-Fascist = Soviet communist roots

medium.com/@ninaandtito/u…

And, he said, an E.U. group charged with tracking foreign disinformation found double the number of misleading items originating from Russia in the months leading up to the election compared with the same period a year ago.
washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

📌📌The E.U. report said that Russian-backed outlets latched on to the April fire that destroyed part of the roof and spire of Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral as a way to push the idea that Western and Christian values are in decline in the European Union.
washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

📌NOTE: it is a consistent tell when Russia instantly pushes out false narratives surrounding a tragic event, which is then immediately amplified by the RW media machine.

Mr. Kerik, a friend and business partner of Rudy Giuliani. This was posted the morning of the ND fire.

📌Russian outlets also blamed a leaked video that led to the fall of Austria’s government on “a European deep state,” the report said.
washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

📌Oxford University’s Internet Institute found in a report shortly before the vote that there was sharp variation in terms of the vulnerability of European nations to disinformation.
washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

“I worry about a vicious cycle in that voters who don’t have high-quality news elect poor-quality politicians,” who in turn may spread misleading information, said Philip N. Howard, co-author of the Oxford report.

📌We need to pierce info bubbles.
washingtonpost.com/technology/201…

@threadreaderapp unroll please and thank you.