https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/21/twitter-will-also-be-at-the-senates-russia-hearings/ "The company will need to explain how it failed to keep propaganda at bay." "A spokesperson for the platform said that it "engages with governments around the world," and that it is "cooperating with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence." They added that Twitter believes in the integrity of the electoral process, and has pledged to harden its platform against "bots and other forms of manipulation."
Never in a hundred years could you have convinced me that liberals in America would be McCarthyites. To borrow a phrase from the alt.left, wow, just wow. Red Scare all over again, time to dust off my War Games movie and teach my kids to start hiding under school desks again. The Russians are coming!!!!!
What "propaganda"? It would be nice to see some concrete examples. What's the difference between 'propaganda' and 'opinion'? Is Twitter supposed to remove all expressions of opinion? That would be close to 100% of its content. All opinion that somebody might find persuasive? All expression of opinion by foreigners, by foreign governments, or what? I seem to recall no end of western European opinion leaders expressing their preference for Hillary before the election. There was that big 1930's-style Berlin rally for Obama in 2008. Was all that 'propaganda'? Was it somehow legally actionable? The main reason they didn't like HUAC is that Joe McCarthy opposed Marxism, and many on the American left were Marxist sympathizers (including all the red-diaper babies in NYC and much of Hollywood). They feared that they or their friends would be caught up in it. Russia isn't Marxist any longer. (Notice how we never hear a peep about communist China?)
Methods. Fake news. Sockpuppetry, accounts pretending to be Americans controlled from a bot farm on Saushkina St. Use of stolen personal data to target ads. Breaking into accounts. In fact, considering that they tried to hack into voting infrastructure in at least 21 states, I'm not wholly convinced it was only propaganda. Did Putin personally come up in support of Trump, beyond that one ambiguous statement? That would not be nearly as objectionable, or effective for that matter. No, Russia is not Marxist any longer. It's proto-Fascist. And if you have information on Red China trying to influence 2016 election, then by all means, it should be publicised.
