Is Boards actively looking into Russian troll accounts?

UsedToWait

It's widely reported and accepted that social media manipulation is a policy of the Russian government.

There are a number of threads on here relating to Russian issues (Putin appreciation thread in After Hours, Salisbury attack in Politics), where there are several posters who have a clear pro-Putin agenda, and an obvious non-native level grasp of the English language.

A number a posters have questioned this but have been censured by mods for having done so..

Fair enough, I suppose, if there's no evidence, but it would be helpful to know whether boards actively check the origin of such posts.

I'm just interested to know whether they are in fact paid shills, or, in the parlance, 'useful idiots'.

Beasty

Without seeing examples it's difficult to comment. I have skimmed through some of the Russia-related threads in AH and it would appear to me that those seen as "supporting" Putin are often long-standing members of the site. Grasp of English really has little relevance - Ireland is a multi-cultural society with many inhabitants from non-English speaking nations

The point I would make though is of course mods are going to censure posters for what is essentially back-seat modding. If you, or anyone else, has particular concerns about posts or the veracity of posters, please report the posts. Mods can then consider if further action is needed. However, as a general point, this is an open society and if posters wish to express views that appear to be "against the norm", then, unless it's done in a fashion that's aiming for a reaction, or otherwise against site or forum rules, why should we treat the poster any differently from anyone else?

UsedToWait

^ Thanks for your considered response..

It was really a general query though, to ask, in light of the widely reported dissemination of misinformation and 'fake news' by paid and unpaid sources, into election campaigns and social issues in the US, UK and many other countries, Boards as an organisation is taking the issue seriously - perhaps examining IP addresses etc. to ensure that this site isn't going to be used as a part of the propaganda network by those with nefarious intent.

Beasty

On the back of your OP I did a search for email addresses with a ".ru" suffix. TBH I was surprised at how few there are, and equally would expect contributions to discussions from Russian nationals based in Ireland (and elsewhere). The fact that some Russians support Putin is not altogether surprising

What we have seen is a number of attacks from IP's based in Asian and Eastern European countries (including Russia) - whether they are bot generated or someone simply trying to spam their message (often with, for example, Russian text!) by registering numerous accounts

Any such activity is usually picked up very quickly and we've blocked a number of IP addresses on the back of it. However I'm sure some of these spammers will try to be more creative as they attempt to circumvent such action. Spamming is so easy to spot though and therefore, although a bit of a pain to police, can be generally dealt with quite quickly

Obviously someone trying to get across political messages is a different kettle of fish. Again if someone alerts us (via the report post function) of their suspicions we can do a check on the IP address, but as with spammers there are relatively simple ways to hide true IP addresses. But yes we do have and do use some tools to check suspicious activity when alerted to it. We don't though have tools to automatically check for and reject particular types of account.

We could try and implement a more rigorous sign-up process, but my understanding is that's typically quite off-putting (I, for example, would think twice about providing my personal mobile number to get a text from an organisation like Boards allowing me to post here - but then again I'm a bit of a dinosaur and quite protective with personal information)

Spear

Beasty, try a search for .su instead. There's still some ironic or nostalgic use of that TLD, including historically for botnet C&C.

wexie

Spear wrote: »

Beasty, try a search for .su instead. There's still some ironic or nostalgic use of that TLD, including historically for botnet C&C.

.....whut.....but....

Oh yes.....I guess the Soviet Union was still around in the early days of the internet.

Thanks,

Don't feel half old now

UsedToWait

^ Fair play Beasty, appreciate your time.

Beasty

Spear wrote: »

Beasty, try a search for .su instead. There's still some ironic or nostalgic use of that TLD, including historically for botnet C&C.

It appears I may not be alone in the dinosaur stakes...:p

Boards.ie: Ronan

Beasty wrote: »

On the back of your OP I did a search for email addresses with a ".ru" suffix.

I took a look at our metrics this morning. Boards is often the subject of a lot of undesirable traffic originating out of Eastern Europe so it can be sometimes hard to filter through the noise so all I can say at the moment is that based upon the data before me, I cannot find any statistical evidence to support a theory that Boards is the subject of any kind of concerted campaign originating from that part of the world.

UsedToWait

Boards.ie: Ronan wrote: »

I took a look at our metrics this morning. Boards is often the subject of a lot of undesirable traffic originating out of Eastern Europe so it can be sometimes hard to filter through the noise so all I can say at the moment is that based upon the data before me, I cannot find any statistical evidence to support a theory that Boards is the subject of any kind of concerted campaign originating from that part of the world.

Thanks Ronan.
Good to know the issue is being taken seriously, particularly in light of the recent revelations..

Skedaddle

Trolls use VPNs. You're not necessarily going to see tons of traffic from trollfarm1.russiantrolls.ru

dudara

Skedaddle wrote: »

Trolls use VPNs. You're not necessarily going to see tons of traffic from trollfarm1.russiantrolls.ru

No, that's obviously true. But a combination of analytical investigation and spidey sense often points us towards trolls and so forth. However, in some cases, a user can appear entirely genuine. That's the bloody problem