Russian bots with a Kremlin disinformation network published 120,000 fake anti-Ukraine quotes falsely attributed to celebrities, including Jennifer Aniston and Scarlett Johansson, in one day, the independent Russian media outlet Agentsvo reported June 15.

Quotes appeared over celebrity photos, displaying messages calling to end aid to Ukraine and describing European collapse.

The images were published between June 14-15 by the Kremlin disinformation network Dvoynyk, a representative of the Bot Blocker project told Agentsvo. The fake quotes have since garnered over 500,000 views.

MBFC
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  • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
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    5 months ago

    Do… Do people care what the REAL scarlet Johansson, Jennifer Aniston or Elton John have to say about Ukraine defending itself and it’s people against a fascist invasion?

    I mean, I find their stuff entertaining, sure, but like… Why would I listen to their tactical analysis in the first place?

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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      5 months ago

      Of course people are swayed by celebrities. I’m surprised you even have to ask that. Celebrity worship is huge in Western culture. Taylor Swift told her fans to register to vote and thousands did just because she said so.

        • fuckingkangaroos@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          I think they already did. There were rumors she would support Biden and I thought “will she get Kremlin shills attacking her on social media?” Over the next few weeks there was a bunch of noise about her private jet.

      • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        It’s the same thing as putting typos in phishing emails so you only target stupid people.

    • rammer@sopuli.xyz
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      5 months ago

      Yes!

      As stupid as it sounds people trust them more than the experts. We live in the post truth times anyway.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I mean, Jennifer Anniston and Taylor Swift DID lead the armies in the congo jungles against the contra groups of the 1980s…They have military experience!!!

    • Netrunner@programming.dev
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      5 months ago

      Yes they do. A few weeks ago everyone on here cared what George clooneys wife was saying about Israel.

      • ShawiniganHandshake@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        You mean Amal Clooney, the international Human Rights Lawyer? The adjunct professor of law at Columbia University? Advisor to the International Criminal Court? That Amal Clooney?

        The fact that she’s married to a celebrity is the least interesting thing about her in the context of Israel and the ICC.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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          5 months ago

          And I will once again say that the actor should be referred to as “Amal Clooney’s husband” rather than the other way around.

          • CitizenKong@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            My favourite description under a picture of the two in a (German) newspaper read (paraphrased): Civil right’s attorney Amal Clooney and her husband, an actor.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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                5 months ago

                Through the use of satellite imagery, SSP provides an early warning system to deter mass atrocities in a given situation by focusing world attention and generating rapid responses to human rights and human security concerns taking place in that situation.

                Did you think we wouldn’t look at your link or do you think trying to get attention and a rapid response to atrocities is a bad thing?

          • skulblaka@startrek.website
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            5 months ago

            Plenty of people knew who she was before. You didn’t, because you don’t pay attention to international human rights struggles.

  • SarcasticMan@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    These damn bots are out of control lol

    “I’ve met Putin, what a guy, some say he’s the second-best guy. I don’t know, what I do know is I am the best guy. People say Mr. President you’re the best guy, no guys better just the best of the best they say. I told Poots, that’s what I call him Poots it’s like a pet name, he calls me cyka, which means friend in Russian because we are best friends some say the only true friends because we are such good friends. Anyway, he gets a bad rap poots, he just wants to stop the nazis and help Russians stuck in Ukraine by the criminal Biden crime family. Crooked Hillary won’t let Russia grow, they need to grow. Nazis, Hillarys, maybe even a few Obamas that’s Ukraine. Obama is trying to stop Russia, I said you can’t do that, they can’t do that. Let’s help Poots stop the crooked Clintons and bring back Taco Tuesdays, you remember Taco Tuesdays? On Tuesdays, before Obama outlawed it we used to have tacos. I had big Macs because I am not Mexican, not a fan of beans. Putin says nazis took his beans to Ukraine, I don’t know…maybe, some say it’s true. Smart people say it, they say Mr. President we need to leave Ukraine and let Russia have it so they can grow and stop Hillary from sending Hunter over there to steal their beans.” - Donald Trump

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      No, it ended when attention optimization and monetization became the objective.

      If social media was all “dumb” it would be totally different, though I suppose keeping third party monetization out is always difficult.

      • lennybird@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I’m just a shitty software engineer but I’ve always dreamed up a social media network — perhaps opensource/non-profit — that promoted in good faith the best of humanity… I think there are methods that this could be achieved and I wish someone like Wikipedia or Mozilla would pursue in earnest. I’ve been part of the Jimmy Wales Wiki Social discord but I’m not yet sure if they’re on the right track.

      • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        Bro the fediverse is one of the worst platforms when it comes to information warfare. One of the major instances is pretty clearly a training ground for Russian propagandists before they get promoted to Facebook or reddit.

        • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          But it doesn’t work as well because you can block entire instances. These people self identify by choosing the instance so it’s easy to just block all posts and comments, even those from people you’ve never seen before.

          • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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            5 months ago

            Blocking an instance only removes your individual ability to interact with an instance. It doesn’t have any impact on the information warfare value of the instance. If anything, it only amplifies it by self-sequestration of opposing voices.

            • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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              5 months ago

              It’s not my responsibility to fix everyone in the world. It’s good that these people sequester themselves. They can yell at each other.

              Lemmy has good tools for blocking bad users and communities / instances. That’s sufficient for now. Better moderation will help too.

  • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    CIA: we have overthrown well over two dozen governments sometimes for reasons we aren’t even clear about. A noticeable fraction of the human race lives under the regimes we have installed.

    NSA: we proved your conspiracy theorist uncle right and can read the emails and text messages of over a billion people.

    And neither one can stop a government agency of under 100 people, who live in a country that can’t make a CPU over 8 bits, from shit posting on the internet? Not fucking possible.

    Check this out: the guy who runs the largest pro-kremlin misinformation website in the world lives in NJ

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ivandjiiski

    And yet all these powerful three letter agencies can do nothing?

    We know Russia has been funding the NRA and members of the GOP. We know they have blackmailed them. We know they ran stuff through Epstein and have videos of them rapping kids. And yet despite all this, despite the power of tens of billions of dollars a year, despite being only answerable to literal god not a single act can be done to stop trolling? They can overthrow Pakistan but not block an IP!?

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      They haven’t committed a crime posting on privately owned social media sites. The celebrity first needs to file a complaint.

        • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          And neither one can stop a government agency of under 100 people, who live in a country that can’t make a CPU over 8 bits, from shit posting on the internet? Not fucking possible.

          How do you expect the FBI stops people from creating fake accounts and sharing false information? Those are not crimes. Fraudulent misrepresentation is a crime, but the misrepresented person first needs to report it.

          • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Knock on the door

            Guy opens door

            FBI agent: hey we know Putin is sending you money. Stop posting stuff on the internet supporting him or we will plant cocaine and child porn on you, then tell the local police. This is of course if we are in a good mood. If we aren’t in a good mood you will be kidnapped and thrown out of a helicopter into the ocean at night.

            Guy: shocked silence

            FBI agent: almost forgot. Here is a folder containing pictures of all your family members, with their addresses on the back. Bet you didn’t know that your favorite aunt was a tax cheat. Hope no one calls the IRS and let’s them know. And your nephew Johnny, who just got an internship. How do you think his new employer would react to me calling them and telling them that we are opening an investigation into him?

            These are shitty evil people. Who don’t even come close to following basic rules of decency. The fact that they continue to take no action against what Russia is doing hints very strongly that they aren’t opposed to it. You can’t be powerful enough to wage a secret war in Cambodia that kills millions and so weak you can’t intimidate a guy living openly in the US with a lifestyle of tens of millions a year.

            Here is another fun fact for you: Monica Lewinsky only agreed to testify after a single member of the Justice department threatened to have her mother thrown in jail. We aren’t talking the entire resources of the federal government here, we are talking about one lawyer.

          • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            How do you expect the FBI stop people from creating accounts and sharing false information? That’s not a crime.

            Hmmmmmm…perhaps it’s about time that it becomes illegal.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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              5 months ago

              The FBI does not create laws. Congress does. The same congress that is being currently run by people who are pro-Russia.

              So I’m thinking there’s some sort of Putin-related reason why that won’t happen.

              • sunzu@kbin.run
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                5 months ago

                While technically correct… it appears that you are missing the point here and more broadly misunderstanding how the system actually works.

    • sunzu@kbin.run
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      5 months ago

      Spooks work in mysterious ways, dear. And we pay for it :)

    • mlg@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Considering the recent report on the Pentagon running an anti vax bot spam in the Phillipines, it’s probably that they don’t want to help nullify social media spam in case they ever need to use it (again).

  • Doom@ttrpg.network
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    5 months ago

    Watch as they desperately grasp for straws.

    They know they’re teetering so hard