"The study analyzed the situation in four countries - Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland. While Estonia has disproportionately frequently been targeted by bots, Poland and Lithuania have seen the least automated activity. Authors of the StratCom study have got an impression that the Twitter in Russian is policed less effectively than it is in English," reported The Baltic Times.
Comment: Coincidentally, Poland and Lithuania who were least targeted for online propaganda, appear to be the countries most compliant with NATO's plans:
- The Ruskies are coming! Lithuania awards $1.45mn contract to erect Russia border wall
- Putin gives grave warning to Romania and Poland against installing NATO's ABM missiles, "no one is listening"
"The first Robotrolling study looks at Twitter-mentions of NATO and one or more of the host countries Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. The period considered is 1 March - 30 August 2017. The total number of Tweets considered is 32 0001 of which 1 in 3 are in Russian. The number of active users is 11 600, of which 1 in 4 wrote in Russian. Russian-speaking users are thus, on average, twice as active as their English-speaking equivalents."
The activity was highest during recent NATO exercises meant to show a credible NATO deterrent on the Russian border of the alliance, especially in light of the militarization of Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave left over from Soviet days.
Estonia received the most attention from robotic accounts with news focusing on British troops, the stationing of US F35 aircraft, together with a number of military exercises; also violations of Estonian airspace by Russian aircraft provoked generated a large amount of engagement on social media over the summer.
The Baltic nations are considered very vulnerable to Russian active measures due to geographic isolation and a large percentage of Russian-speaking citizens.
Comment: The potential power of social media and it's possible use in politics has come under scrutiny recently with the US in the midst of mass hysteria at the highest levels with the baseless accusation that Russia attempted to influence the 2016 elections through the use of Twitter and Facebook promotions. The US has a well documented history of manipulating media in all areas both at home and abroad:
- The CIA, Organized Crime, the Media and Elections
- PropOrNot is evidence of a CIA psychological operation
- Case studies in how the Deep State controls social media and digitally assassinates critics
- State censorship: Twitter admits it buried #PodestaEmail, DNC tweets ahead of presidential election
Comment: Also See: