Bots Against US Page 4

  What happens to normal, non-digital dialogue if our minds are filled with untruths, or altered facts, or facts we perceive to be true but are not, through an intentional effort by a hostile foreign nation state?

  What if you sort of realized you were being played somehow but could not quite put your finger on it? Some people might react by telling others, warning.

  Others will pretend they never got played and/or that it was not something to talk about. Since no one was really issuing any bot alerts nor were there any “bot services” to tell you when an account you followed or engaged with on social media was indeed a bot.

  There were no large-scale warnings beyond from people like me.

  The long-term effect can be soft, i.e., it changes conversations and or suppresses a vote by making people feel like not voting—out of anger or out of not understanding dates, times, where to go.

  It can be a hard effect too, causing people to actually switch their votes, lose friendships, and in other ways disrupt normative behaviors.

  Just think about all the abusive players on both sides during the election of 2016.

  Almost all of us lost a friend or two in the frenzy. Ask yourself how happy would a hostile foreign nation be to stir up civic unrest, sow distrust in media and break institutions of usual trust?

  What if they could enrage us to the point of us quite literally staying home and not participating in the civic act of voting?

  This is what Putin did, by using Russia’s intelligence services in combination with Wikileaks/DCLeaks/Guccifer 2.0 and a willing and co-conspiring Trump campaign.

  The Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal revealed in 2019 how persuasive the bots were on Facebook alone.

  Add in Twitter, Google, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and many others, and the problem is much larger than most realize.

  If you just multiply the times of day you use many websites/social media + then add in people sharing stuff on social media, through email and texts. You can start to see the scale of what all of the USA was facing down, with the majority of us oblivious.

  Chapter 6.

  Lots of Putin/Trump love prior to conventions

  As the summer of 2016 got hotter and hotter, both inside political conventions and outside too; Americans were introduced to the Putin Trump love affair.

  Actually, President Kim of North Korea was part of the party very early on.

  Both he and Vladimir Putin endorsed Trump.

  Wait. Stop.

  Two presidents of hostile foreign countries known to have exceptionally close ties suddenly announce publicly their support for Trump?

  No one paid any attention. The story of Putin endorsing Trump got about 1 day of media coverage, and the story of Kim endorsing Trump got even less. Suddenly, the story that had been quietly building in the shadows was in the open. There was indeed a supportive relationship, at least publicly, by Putin towards Trump.

  Little did we all know the extent of the existing inter-relationships then.

  Obviously, writing this now, it is quite clear for all but the most die-hard, brainwashed Trump supporters what happened.

  But in the summer of 2016 it was more like a story that was floating out there, seeming to be the axe that would end Trump’s campaign weekly, but instead it ended up tipping the scales in the favor of Trump on barely registerable levels in multiple ways all at once.

  We were all manipulated.

  The Cambridge Analytica/ Facebook scandals revealed in 2018 showed us clearly how micro-targeted the misinformation; and disinformation was in the weaponized media aimed at us.

  If you add the sheer number of fake accounts pushing the bot-driven troll drivel, plus the micro-targeting, plus the propensity of worked-up people to share even more often on social media, we all basically played right into the most massive disinformation campaign ever.

  At the time, I remember being very upset that so many of our fellow citizens were being duped.

  I started getting pretty active on Twitter about the Russian support of Trump and also how they were using weaponized media against us. Now in 2019, it is clear we were part of a cyber act of war.

  But in 2016, for many people, there was so much noise and so much civic dissent caused by outsiders, many were blind the threat right in front of us.

  Some were willingly blind, and some were blind because they were purposely duped. Played. Digital psychological manipulation of millions at once.

  But by June/July of 2016 it was not just me using Twitter to raise the alarm. Indeed, there was a slew of media stories about the nature and role of the relationship then known between Trump and Putin. Also Trump’s other Russian oligarch friends and interested parties.

  What was known already was highly suspicious and damaging.

  Now almost two years later, it seems that one of the reasons we did not pay as much attention as a nation as we should have was indeed due to the purposeful manipulation of our society through both social media and traditional media. We were subjected to bots, digital clouds, artificial intelligence, and live media players constantly amplifying each other 24 hours a day.

  Perhaps part of the noise and chaos was designed specifically to manipulate us into not paying as much attention to the Putin/ Trump relationship as we needed to be. Not to mention Wikileaks and the relationship between it and Russia/Putin.

  This coordinated effort by Russia/ Putin/ Guccifer 2.0/ DCLeaks and Wikileaks was highly planned. It was highly executed complete with planned releases, coordinated twitter use and amplification of social media accounts both ways.

  But suffice to say, in summer 2016, even before the weaponizing of the hacked information began, we knew there was hacked information.

  The DNC was waiting for the other shoe to drop, which of course it did in the Summer of 2016.

  This relationship and coordination were shared with Trump and the Trump Campaign during the 2016 Elections.

  Robert Mueller has issued his redacted report now at the time of the writing of this book, one of the key areas that was examined is indeed the coordination of the efforts between Russia/Guccifer 2.0, / DCLeaks/ Wikileaks/ Trump/ Trump Campaign. (See last part of this book for more)

  In 2017 the Central Intelligence Agency officially labeled Wikileaks a hostile Intelligence Service acting at the orders and with coordination of Russia.

  But back in the summer of 2016, there were a few, not many, publications openly discussing the reality of the situation.

  There were plenty of warnings and one did not have to look too hard to find examples. There were well written, documented and sourced articles that revealed the relationship and warning about the dangers.

  So why would Putin and Russia be supporting Trump so much?

  In the summer of 2016 the answer to that basic question was essentially, because Putin hated Hillary Clinton, and wanted to make sure she did not win, after blaming her for “interfering” in the Russia elections of 2014.

  However this answer also seems to be too basic, and not layered with the nuance of what really happened.

  Now in 2019, we see that Putin clearly has some long term/long time control over Trump either through blackmail, money, or both. Trump appears to idolize Putin daily it seems. The White House is second often in releasing information about contacts between Putin and Trump; second to the Kremlin.

  In 2016, how many Americans actually could believe that Trump was not just randomly picked by Putin to receive his support?

  But indeed has been groomed for years as a real-life Manchurian Candidate like the film from the 1960s, but with a Russian twist instead?

  That he was groomed by over a decade of accepting Russian money in his projects and going to Russia and doing things while there?

  The disinformation campaigns against us played on this hesitation to believe the truth.

  It is called “The suspension of disbelief.” They used long honed media tricks, technology and content to create a situation where people could actually
believe the non-truth. The opposite of the actual reality in front of them.

  During the run-up to the conventions, both parties’ digital operations started to sling massive amounts of content.

  What was also starting to happen was the tightening of the digital coordination between the Russia/Wikileaks/Trump.

  The triad of groups began tightening their twitter coordination by retweets, and even sharing common messaging and talking points but originating from each groups account(s); to seem like original content.

  The coordinating was done both through artificial intelligent databases as well as actual human coordinating.

  The internal non-public planning and execution messaging was likely done in a combination of whisper, confide, WhatsApp and or signal/telegram messaging so as to leave as small an email trail as possible.

  But I started noticing very specific accounts publicly retweeting each other within minutes sometimes seconds.

  Accounts like Trump and his family and campaign and accounts like Russia Today, Russian interest groups and even Kremlin controlled media accounts.

  This coordination continued throughout the campaign and got to be within minutes of each other sharing similar or retweeting each other. This coordination continued after the Campaign into the transition and beyond.

  In 2019 we now see hard evidence; time and time again the Kremlin announces something before the White House, usually involving a phone call or meeting.

  Additionally, there are multiple instances in 2017/2018/2019 of Russian bot armies jumping into US policy discussions in efforts to split the US and fragment democracy.

  As of 2019, there have been several studies that have looked into the timing issue between the players and how this points in a digital forensic way to coordination. The studies have looked at various data points and even have been visually mapped to show the linkages and level of coordination.

  The coordination between the Kremlin, Kremlin controlled media, Russians, Donald Trump, Trump Campaign, and people like Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn and Sean Hannity among others was highly controlled.

  They had the same messaging, same timing, same use of Wikileaks materials. They also had Russian control and command of bot armies fueling hundreds of thousands of fake social media accounts, fake news postings, disinformation and misinformation.

  The Mueller Report also comments on this aspect of the information war. However. In the summer of 2016, the general public basically had no clue about this going on in any serious way.

  The more the summer dragged on the closer in unity these accounts started to work. There was full on coordination between Russia/ Guccifer 2.0/ DCLeaks/Trump/ Trump campaign / Wikileaks. One did not have to have a secret account on telegram to see it.

  This was happening right in front of us in a way, if you look at it through the lens of twitter retweets, mentions and sharing similar public messaging points on so many issues, day after day. The coordination of messaging was so perfect that sometimes one side would actually release information a few seconds before the other. Sometimes it seemed like they were working in unison, and sometimes like they were just sharing.

  Never in the history of the modern US, has a hostile foreign power played such a critical role in the messaging and information dissemination of the US Presidential elections. This is not for many countries lack of trying either. But no campaign in our history has ever so openly encouraged, so openly worked with a hostile foreign power to coordinate messaging in a Presidential campaign.

  This alone, without the money/meeting trail around it should have been enough to disqualify Trump from competing.

  His campaign was breaking federal law daily with the coordination of messaging during the campaign with a hostile foreign power, in this case Russia.

  Like the bot armies, the messaging coordination was right in front of all of our eyes and ears 24 hours a day. One did not need a security clearance, or work for the CIA or NSA to see.

  The only thing was one had to look.

  Even though this timing coordination was happening in real time, and in front of us all, almost no one paid this any attention.

  It was not until much later in the 2016 election cycle that some media outlets started to run stories questioning the appearance of coordination in timing and messaging between the Kremlin and Trump and his campaign/people.

  It is my personal belief that beyond the classified evidence the US Government has in abundance explicitly detailing the hard proof of conspiracy between Trump and the Kremlin.

  That it was exactly the same types of public source digital signals we were seeing on the outside, that helped to push an investigation forward.

  The sheer volume of digital forensic evidence taken from the timing and coordination of messaging, information, retweets and mentions is huge. Just between the Trump camps and the Putin/Kremlin camps must be in the terabytes of information range.

  I am just talking about open source/ publicly available information if it was all collected at the time of the digital events.

  Whatever else the Mueller investigation relied on in terms of classified evidence, I have no idea. Obviously in the redacted version released to the Public in April 2019, there are many questions still left unanswered. (See later part of this book for snippets related to this story.)

  I do know that the sheer volume of digital contacts per hour/per day for the entire course of the 2016 General Election was enormous.

  The amount of coordination that was exhibited in multiple online outlets as well as with certain parts of traditional media and social media was tight. It was extremely well thought out; well-coordinated, and for the most part well executed.

  We only had a glimpse of what was really going on. The US Government would/should have had a much, much wider and expansive view, based both on public source collection and classified sigint and or humint assets and evidence.

  Chapter 7.

  DNC hacks + subsequent initial releases

  Of course the stolen emails and information from the DNC were going to be released.

  Like a bomb with precision timing, it was dropped a few days before the Democratic National Committee convention in Philadelphia.

  The DNC 2016 almost turned into a free for all as a result, but luckily was brought under control again quickly.

  This resulted in causing a reshuffling of the top leadership of the DNC as an emergency measure.

  There was tremendous embarrassment at the DNC when the initial emails hit, as they revealed severe infighting, pettiness and the usual give and take of politics.

  Congresswoman Schultz had to step down as the head of the DNC right before the convention, and Donna Brazile was named to replace her immediately.

  This was the opening of the DNC convention, and so of course the media story became the reshuffling of staff, and fear of the hacked information being released right as the convention started.

  However the timing of the releases through Guccifer 2.0 initially, then DCLeaks, then Wikileaks pointed to a very specific and sinister agenda.

  This was definitely no accident. It was highly calculated and timed for maximum impact just as the DNC was gathering for its convention.

  In fact this was the other shoe dropping that many at the DNC had been expecting. I do not believe anyone at the DNC expected the result to be as damaging a result as it was.

  Initially it was a just swirl of news-stories, being fed initially by Guccifer 2.0, then DCLeaks, and then Wikileaks in rapid succession picked up the stories.

  As of March 2019, it has been confirmed that “Guccifer 2.0” was indeed a Russian Intelligence agent. This occurred because he made a mistake and revealed part of his identity one time. It was caught.

  The Mueller Report redacted version also discusses this confirmation.

  This raises the question of exactly how much coordination and conspiracy was occurring between the Kremlin and Trump. This is especially true since the Trump campaign is now known to have had kn
owledge/access to those emails at least a month before they were released.

  It also makes the connection between the Kremlin intelligence groups, DCLeaks and Wikileaks become hardened into a very real one.

  Of course the Trump campaign and surrogates were enjoying the moment.

  Happily they started to use the stolen/hacked/illegally gotten information in blog posts, tweets, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, attack direct mail and even tv + radio spots. There was not a single person on the Trump team who questioned where these documents came from, or the legality of using them like this. Not one person called the FBI. Not one person went to the media.

  Even though it was a crime to knowingly accept, use, or distribute information that was exfiltrated in a hacking scenario, the Trump campaign and its allies rushed to use this stolen and illegal information.

  Most Americans have heard about the Patriot Act which was created after the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, DC.

  One of the provisions in it is the illegal use of computers to transmit false information; and also accessing controlled computers without authorization.

  Most Americans have never heard of the CFAA, the Computer Fraud Abuse Act, which was initially enacted in the 1990s, and later updated.

  Later updates included through the Patriot Act twice, and later through the Identity Theft and Restitution Act in 2008.

  The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is a United States cybersecurity bill that was enacted in 1986 as an amendment to existing computer fraud law (18 USC. § 1030), which had been included in the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984.

  The CFAA is in some ways even stronger than the Patriot Act when it comes to dealing with electronic crimes.

  There are multiple penalties for receiving stolen electronic records, for using them, and for disseminating them on any public airwave or electronically. Also for accessing controlled computers illegally.