This time around, the US has seized a network of Russian-run internet domains, and sanctioned ten people including Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT (formerly Russia Today), for “activities that aim to deteriorate public trust in our institutions”. Sanctions include freezing any property or assets in the US, and potentially restrictions on any US citizen or company that works with them.

Here are five key features of Russian information manipulation we identified, and which can help understand the latest election-meddling scandal.

  1. Using local influencers
  1. Fake news outlets
  1. Adding fuel to the fire
  1. Flipping the script
  1. Humour
  • Tinidril
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    6 days ago

    the meme that you should vote third party or stay home because the Democrat isn’t liberal enough for them.

    You understand Russia well enough, but if you think the left is upset at a Democrat for not being liberal enough, you really don’t understand left politics. Liberalism is fundamentally a conservative ideology. It was liberals that made the Democrats into weak and ineffective corporate bureaucrats, thus setting the stage for the latest rise of fascism. (That’s how fascism always takes root BTW.)

    You are also buying into the establishment bullshit argument that the left doesn’t show up for elections. Left leaning voters are the most reliable voting demographic in the country, in spite of the Democratic establishment blaming them for all their failures.

    If just half the energy wasted lecturing the left were put to good use, we wouldn’t have Trump in the first place.