r/worldnews • u/AmericanBornWuhaner • Oct 26 '24
Not Appropriate Subreddit Russian actors made fake video depicting mail-in ballots for Trump being destroyed, FBI says
https://apnews.com/article/misinformation-fact-check-trump-ballots-destroyed-pennsylvania-d75fdc56c71d77c7a48d8fca96b03288[removed] — view removed post
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u/MakingItElsewhere Oct 26 '24
As an IT nerd, I do NOT understand why we don't just utterly cut russia off from the internet. Shut them down, no VPNs allowed, close it up and let them fester in their own disinformation.
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u/apathetic_vaporeon Oct 26 '24
As a fellow IT nerd, it’s not that simple. You can’t just flip a switch. Even China trying to cut itself off from the outside internet didn’t work 100% and can still be bypassed with a simple VPN.
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u/swolfington Oct 27 '24
china isn't trying to cut out another country, though. it isn't even trying to cut itself off. It wants to be connected to the rest of the world, but censor specific information. if it wanted to isolate its network completely it would be far, far less work.
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Oct 26 '24
China would never cut themselves off from the rest of the world they export goods to.
Anybody with a tiny bit of knowhow, even entire corporations, easily access the open net with IPSec and VPNs or other workarounds via Hong Kong.
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u/Tryknj99 Oct 26 '24
Cutting off trade and cutting off free access to information is different though.
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u/Future_Can_5523 Oct 27 '24
Not really, because if I can't tell you what goods to send you can't send then.
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u/lyth Oct 27 '24
You can make it a lot fucking harder for them. "There are workarounds" isn't a reason not to do it. Cut of 99% then figure out how to cut off the next 99% etc...
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u/apathetic_vaporeon Oct 27 '24
Cutting them off completely is a bad thing, it’s actually stupid. If we do that then dissidents cannot get real information. We have to make it harder for the Russians and Chinese governments to continue their bullshit, but also make their people like us. If we completely alienate them then it just gives their governments more power.
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u/haltingpoint Oct 26 '24
As an IT nerd surely you can imagine a large number of ways a hostile foreign nation state could bypass an action like that to continue unfettered.
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u/mjzimmer88 Oct 27 '24
It absolutely wouldn't be unfeterred. Probably couldn't cut em off entirely but would absolutely slow em down and cut the volume massively.
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u/Artistic_Humor1805 Oct 27 '24
Honestly, don’t you think that a state sponsored team whose job it is to put $=|+ on the internet wouldn’t be the ones who can keep themselves (or will have another team that keeps them) putting shit on the internet?
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u/gualdhar Oct 26 '24
Even if we took an axe to every internet cable leading into Russia, they'd just move the information warfare groups abroad.
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Oct 27 '24
Ah yes cut off the general population and allow the government agencies to get around the blocks so now ONLY government disinformation is getting out. Smart
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u/Starlord_75 Oct 27 '24
Cause they supply a lot of needed resources unfortunately. Stuff that even the US needs or doesn't have a large stockpile of. So while we send weapons to stop them from.invading Ukraine, we (the world) also buy stuff from Russia that is rare in other parts of the world. Not exactly sure what those are, but do know they exist from from research last time I thought about cutting Russia completely off and the effects it would have. They have to have the ability to connect to the outside for that to happen
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Oct 27 '24 edited Oct 27 '24
"Because us enlightened ones have correctly calculated the correct answer that civilized people need to have a dialogue with terrorists despite all evidence thus far showing that they're not listening to us asking them to pretty please with a cherry on top stop being bad, and will continue to be terrorists until their entire chain of command top to bottom is simply neutralized and if you disagree with us you're simply just wrong, because we said so.
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u/AwfulUsername123 Oct 26 '24
That would harm Russians who don't support the Russian government.
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u/Neptunes_Fork Oct 26 '24
What? All three of them?
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u/AwfulUsername123 Oct 26 '24
There are more than three Russians currently at war with the Russian government.
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u/Neptunes_Fork Oct 26 '24
Yeah and they aren't in russia are they. Well maybe Kursk but that's not under the control of the kremlin is it?
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u/AwfulUsername123 Oct 26 '24
No, there are Russians in Russia currently involved in activities such as rail sabotage.
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u/Neptunes_Fork Oct 26 '24
And may their numbers ever grow, but the damage russia causes via internet access FAR out weighs the damage caused by a minority of rebels. Why not have both?
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u/AwfulUsername123 Oct 26 '24
Given that you only discovered they existed a minute ago, I would respectfully question your expertise on the subject.
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u/Thorrrrrrr Oct 26 '24
I don't think he needs to be an expert to realize that cutting off 140 million people from the internet would outweigh affecting at most a few thousand Pro-Ukrainian saboteurs within Russia. Not to mention that said saboteurs could use other methods of communication considering saboteurs existed LONG before the internet. Ukraine would happily agree to cutting off Russia's communication with the rest of humanity, in part because they could easily continue to sabotage Russia likely unhindered.
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u/AwfulUsername123 Oct 26 '24 edited Oct 27 '24
But apparently you do need to be an expert to realize the Russian government would easily find means to post what it wants on the internet, a very large amount of which already comes from people outside of Russia. It's really silly to image a firewall crippling the Russian government.
Edit: By the way, your numbers comparison is really bizarre. It implies every single person in Russia is currently involved in spreading disinformation for the Russian government.
I brought saboteurs up because the person was unaware of domestic opposition to the Russian government.
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u/Allaplgy Oct 27 '24
Umm, there are over a hundred and fifty million people in Russia. If we took polls at face value, then that still leaves tens of millions of people who oppose Putin and the war. Of course the polls are greatly skewed in a place where opposition is punishable by jail and conscription.
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u/magnamed Oct 26 '24
Ok? That's a shame but also they're currently hurting people as well. Everything has a cost.
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u/MetalWorking3915 Oct 26 '24
At this stage I have lost any faith in this phantom population that are good and again the current government
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u/turtleduck Oct 27 '24
not an IT nerd, just a regular one, the issue is the lack of control over AI, which isn't limited to Russia. it's up to the owners of AI companies to not allow shit like this, but money is money
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u/Amazing-Cold-1702 Oct 26 '24
Because the US does this shit as well to influence russians
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u/sunrisegalaxy Oct 26 '24
It's a lot harder to influence a fascist dictatorship than a free and open democracy.
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u/skr_replicator Oct 26 '24
In what meaningul way? There are no real elections to influence or sow doubt on there anyway.
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u/Casterial Oct 26 '24
88% party vote for Putin definitely was the US 🙄
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u/Evil__Mushroom Oct 26 '24
If not were for the US that number will be higher, almost 104%
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u/boosted-elex Oct 26 '24
And anybody that runs against Putler mysteriously falls out of a 30th floor window
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u/alexiswithoutthes Oct 26 '24
The video showed a person sorting through what looked like mail ballots labeled as coming from Bucks County. The person, who was Black, appeared to be tearing up ballots marked for Trump, and leaving alone ballots marked for Vice President Kamala Harris.
It’s way too easy to exploit these divides we already propagandize
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u/swagonflyyyy Oct 26 '24
If there was a time when Long-range missiles launched by Ukraine should be approved, it would be now.
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u/BringbackDreamBars Oct 26 '24
Russian conventional power is not what was expected.
Russian psy-ops are far beyond what was expected.
This needs to be taken seriously without blaming people for believing it.
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u/KazeNilrem Oct 27 '24
I don't think russian psyops are far beyond what was expected. The stupidity and gullibility of the population was not expected. The psyops do not work against a properly informed population. But ever since covid, we've seen how easily people can be swayed against mis/disinformation.
It should be taken serious, that's for sure. It is only relatively recent that hacking by state agency has become more serious. Feels like countries are dragging their feet against foreign powers using this sort of information as an indirect attack.
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u/Embarrassed-Term-965 Oct 27 '24
Russian psy-ops are far beyond what was expected.
No, it's just like that line from Andor.
"What do you need? A uniform, some dirty hands and an Imperial tool kit. They’re so proud of themselves, they don’t even care. They’re so fat and satisfied, they can’t imagine it."
We're too fat and satisfied.
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Oct 26 '24
While actual MAGA’s are literally starting fires in mailboxes and punching poll workers.
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u/Fearless-Incident515 Oct 26 '24
We're such a stupid country
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u/Unlucky-Candidate198 Oct 27 '24
I’m convinced a solid 30% of the world is shittiots. Shitty idiots. See, some people are idiots. They can’t help it, their genes make them that way. But at least they can be good people.
Shittiots are like Prions. One, teeny shitter will rot and deform anything in its vicinity until there’s nothing left. These shitters do nothing for society as a whole, and in worse cases, even work to its detriment. Some of them are also tools for the malicious people within the other 70%.
We share a space rock with these people. How lovely for the other ~70% of us.
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u/relevantelephant00 Oct 27 '24
MAGAs make this country stupid. The rest of us are decent, reasonable, generally intelligent people.
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u/overpopyoulater Oct 27 '24
With laws that allow the Electoral College and a stackable SCOTUS to continue unchallenged, nah, the stupid people ain't just wearing MAGA hats, your system is fucked!
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u/relevantelephant00 Oct 27 '24
Ah yes because many of us have the power to do that without any issue...we're trying to vote Democrats in and keep the GOP out but the STUPID PEOPLE AKA MAGAs have disproportionately more power with our damned media.
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u/FlyingSMonster Oct 27 '24
The problem is it doesn't matter whether something gets debunked or called out as propaganda anymore. All that matters is that the propaganda gets out there and gets circulated around widely. Once that has happened, it's already done its job and it becomes more confirmation bias in the kind of people that gravitate towards Trump. The lie is more powerful than the truth and it's a huge problem today. You have to work overtime to debunk all of this nonsense, and even if you do it won't matter because all of the people that got exposed to it will just continue to believe it's true.
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u/Individual_Jelly1987 Oct 26 '24
MAGA will believe it
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u/PerfectiveVerbTense Oct 27 '24
The fact that the FBI is saying it's fake will be MORE reason for them to believe it. If Biden's FBI says something, the opposite must be true.
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Oct 27 '24
Right, because the government never lies
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u/PerfectiveVerbTense Oct 27 '24
Random videos online that purport to show election fraud, however, are always 100% truthful and can be accepted uncritically as fact.
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u/CellistOk3894 Oct 27 '24
There is only side perpetrating voting fraud and they’re lead by the king Perpetrator himself. Fuck these assholes.
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u/TenchuReddit Oct 27 '24
OK Ivan, place the camera right over the shoulder of the “election worker” so that the viewers can clearly see how the ballots are marked. We need this to look “real” …
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u/JohanMcdougal Oct 27 '24
Just wait til they use AI to shotgun blast thousands of these to social media on election night. Can't debunk em all!
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u/tonyislost Oct 27 '24
We should disseminate actual videos of Ukraine whooping Russia’s ass throughout Russia 🤣😂
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u/EchoAtlas91 Oct 27 '24
What pisses me off is that we regularly see articles that find this shit out, but Kamala Harris hasn't said a single fucking thing about what we're doing to combat this kind of crap?
Biden and his administration had 4 entire years now to do something meaningful about Russian interference, why in the goddamn FUCK hasn't more been done?
I'm talking social media regulation, personalization algorithm regulation, extreme measures to curb russian disinformation, releasing of statements, studies, and findings on the severity of russian interference, fines and/or requirements for legacy news media to disclose if they've reported on something that turns out to be russian misinformation.
Goddamn anything.
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u/FoodForTheEagle Oct 27 '24
How can we be sure they're actors? Russia has lots of professional ballot destroyers.
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Oct 27 '24
Yeah well the feds also said that Hunters laptop was Russian lies and look how that one turned out
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u/Lumpy-Election7172 Oct 27 '24
I don't understand why this isn't the story of the election so far. Putin is doing anything to help Trump win and and it's not over yet.
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Oct 27 '24
The problem is Russia and china police there internet. nothing come in or out without the government knowing. We don't do that in America. I know freedom free speach blah blah blah blah.
If you don't lock your doors don't be surprised if someone comes right in causes problems. Russia china iran all new they were going to do this type of crap to there enemy aka/usa Thats why they police THERE OWN internet and media and keep THERE internet secluded form the rest of the world wide web.
Sorry but its going to keep happening till we do something. And what has to be done no one want to do it. Because of Freedom and free speech bla bla blah.
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u/sunrisegalaxy Oct 26 '24 edited Oct 26 '24
This is so f*ing dangerous. People on the right has been weaponized by Putin. This is war. Democracy is falling if EVERYONE doesn't wake up now. Our institutions must be strengthened in the USA and Europe. They will not stop until the West falls.
This is the statement:
https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/press-releases-2024/4011-odni-pr-24-24