Russian Propoganda Is Rapant on YouTube

6 points by perpetualmaniac ↗ HN
I'm investigating fake news on YouTube today, and I'm shocked. Yes it's clear that this is NOT just a bunch of misguided/angry citizens of the US but actually appears to be a nation state waging active and ongoing information warfare through open social media platforms.

What I've seen is a whole network of YouTube channels, all produced by anonymous content producers pushing out the exact same message to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt.

The theme is the same: economic collapse of the US currency, bank runs, rioting, buying gold and propping up of Donald trump. If you want to start down this rabbit hole search for "currency collapse December 31 2016" on YouTube.

The telltale sign that this is nation-state information warfare is that the content producers are all anonymous. Case in point: "financial argument" on YouTube. Nearly 100 videos, with each video having an average of around 2k views in its lifetime. Great production value and so few users that there is no way in hell the producers could make their money back on the investment.

Is it Russia? Most certainly because of some of the telltale signs like how Russia is always painted in a good light, especially the president. Also Russia has been running similar campaigns in the Ukraine and other Eastern European countries. Both Germany and the UK have announced massive online privacy restrictions in the last few days. The timing of these restrictions now makes sense if viewed as a response toward Russians infiltration of open social media platforms and especially given the very likely possibility that Russia changed the outcome of the presidential election in favor of Trump (who was the first candidate in a century who spent less in a presidential election and WON).

Make no mistake, if you enjoyed your online civil liberties, Russia just crashed the fucking party.

4 comments

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Well that's the exact same argument conspiracy theorists use in defending censorship in China, to guard against information warfare.
> The telltale sign that this is nation-state information warfare is that the content producers are all anonymous.

[citation needed]

> The timing of these restrictions now makes sense if viewed as a response toward Russians infiltration of open social media platforms

You can't filter youtube videos per-country - at least not in a non-obvious way. Unless you've got a good explanation how this would work?

I'm a fan of a good conspiracy theory, but you literally posted FUD about people posting FUD on youtube. So let's try this: you're a marketing front for a network of supposed anonymous individuals, now you're starting to post related search queries to social networks. Sure - the volume is low now, but you've got over a month to build it up. By pretending you're yourself part of the social network's target demographic, you want to make others interested in the content. So I guess you're the person that wants to get those returns on investment.

(also, same predictions were posted before for end of september, for the day results are announced, for the end of october, etc.)

Not exactly. cats country:russia will set your content location to Russia and search for cats. The YouTube icon will switch to YouTube ru. BTW, in order to switch back (you're stuck right now) you have to page to the bottom and click on Content Location and set it back to your country.
I meant from the ISP side. You can block YouTube completely, or you can intercept traffic with custom certificates (which will be caught). But you can't make some specific videos silently disappear for your local uses.