Information Warfare: Russia’s social media war on America

Using social media is a great way to pass time. However, what you see on social media is not always, what it seems. There was a report that Russia expertly tailored messages to target about ten thousand twitter users in the defense department. Once the users clicked on the messages, they were brought to a Russian web site where malware was downloaded to their computers possibly compromising the defense department. The Russians have been spreading propaganda for years on social media. They see it as a platform for disabling the worldwide spread of democracy. The United States does not really try to spread propaganda on social media and because of that, the Russians have about ten years more advanced sophistication of spreading propaganda on social media.

Back in the 2016 election when you heard of the stories about Hillary Clinton deleting confidential emails, there might have been the possibility of Russia spreading this information around the United States. Supposedly, Putin of Russia had it out for Clinton saying that she tried to start a revolution in Russia sending signals for people to stand out and protest. Now I do not know if that was really the case and it sounds plausible, but that is a good enough reason to start a cyber war against the Hillary Clinton political party. There have also been accusations against the trump political party for colluding with Russia to leverage the vote in his favor. Personally, I like the Russians and do not see anything wrong with collaborating with Russia in any sort of endeavor. Maybe some of these accusations are more inflated with personal views than we would like to think.

Spreading propaganda through social media is a big strategy for countries that like to push their political views on other countries. Gaining the approval of the public is a big part of what makes a government sustainable in the world today. The use of bot-nets is a big strategy for governments that use information warfare because they can be relatively cheap and apply spam at an alarming rate. There are also bots on social media networks that can be used to argue with activists and collect opinionated data. In addition, these social media bots can help collect information on which people are easily persuaded to agree with the bots view agenda. When you see and ad on facebook that says, “Sponsored by”, the Russians buy those ads all the time. Information warfare is a constant turning machine affecting every aspect of our lives. You have to have a solid head on your shoulders to not become a tool in the dissemination of messages from an adversary.

source : http://time.com/4783932/inside-russia-social-media-war-america/