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Russia Technology

New website seeks to expose and track Russian Twitter propaganda

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By John Glenday, Reporter

August 3, 2017 | 2 min read

A new website designed to counter the dissemination of Russian-backed false and misleading information on Twitter has been established by a group of non-governmental researchers in a bid to ameliorate the effect of such propaganda on future US and European elections.

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New website seeks to expose and track Russian Twitter propaganda

The ‘Hamilton 68’ portal offers visitors a ‘near real-time’ snapshot of activity centred on 600 Twitter accounts singled-out for having disseminated Russian propaganda amid fears that Moscow may attempt to utilise such accounts to sway results in future US elections.

This includes official outlets such as Russia Today and Sputnik as well as automated bots created purely to parrot the government line and so-called ‘cyborg’ accounts which marry a mix of human-penned and automated content.

In time it is hoped to expand the service to include other social media channels such as Facebook, YouTube and Reddit.

An investigation is currently underway to examine whether Trump’s campaign team colluded with Russian officials during the 2016 US presidential election.

At home Russia has enacted a controversial ban on virtual private networks as it seeks to tighten the state's grip on control of the internet.

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