August 4, 2016

It looks like Russia hired internet trolls to pose as pro-Trump Americans

http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-internet-trolls-and-donald-trump-2016-7
"It is not surprising, then, that the Kremlin would pay internet trolls to pose as Trump supporters and build him up online. In fact, that would be the easy part. From his interviews with former trolls employed by Russia, Chen gathered that the point of their jobs "was to weave propaganda seamlessly into what appeared to be the nonpolitical musings of an everyday person." "Russia's information war might be thought of as the biggest trolling operation in history," Chen wrote. "And its target is nothing less than the utility of the Internet as a democratic space." From threats about pulling out of NATO to altering the GOP's policy on Ukraine — which has long called for arming Ukrainian soldiers against pro-Russia rebels — Trump is "the gift that keeps on giving" for Putin, Russian journalist Julia Ioffe noted in a piece for Politico."