Thread by @emptywheel

Nature recently found that, "exposure to the Russian [internet troll] influence campaign was eclipsed by content from domestic news media and politicians."

nature.com/articles/s4146…

In September 2017, I wrote that the RU campaign was, "the equivalent of throwing a few matches on top of the raging bonfire that is the well established, vicious, American-funded inferno of far right media."

That held up!

emptywheel.net/2017/09/16/the…

That said, we've learned since then that the troll campaign(s) also became ways to facilitate cooperation, both IRL and online.

Meanwhile, Elmo is turning this hellsite into a machine for fascism, re-platforming a number of far right figures, including some with ties to Russia.

Relatedly, yesterday I noted that #MattyDickPics ignored his own propaganda when he claimed that FBI's reports to Twitter about campaigns to suppress votes had nothing to do with building cases.

emptywheel.net/2023/01/11/mat…

#MattyDickPics, of course, someone who betrays rank ignorance about cybersecurity in all his Twitter propaganda, is sure he knows better than the entire cybersecurity establishment about whether the 2016 DNC (and DCCC and John Podesta) attacks were actually hacks.