Meddling by Russian Bots in UK 2017 General Election?
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Here we go again. The UK Sunday Times reported the latest phony Russian election meddling accusation. They continue despite no credible evidence proving them.
According to so-called Times research (sic), thousands of “Russian Twitter accounts rallied behind Labor in the weeks before last year’s election, helping supportive messages to reach millions of voters and denigrating its Conservative rivals,” adding:
“Many of the Russian accounts can clearly be identified as internet robots – known as bots – that masqueraded under female English names but were in fact mass-produced to bombard the public with orchestrated political messages.”
Russia’s UK embassy called the Times report “nonsense…def(ying) logic,” published it believes to influence upcoming May 3 municipal, district, and council elections in Britain, aiming to sway things for Tories.
How could a few thousand Twitter accounts supporting anyone or anything compare in potential influence to 17 million UK Twitter users.
What effect could they have on public opinion compared to enormous amounts of money and effort expended by politicians and corporate interests backing them to gain voter support.
Britain is extremely hostile to Moscow, its media used as Russophobic tools, operating like their US counterparts – reporting rubbish, suppressing hard truths on major issues, notably geopolitical ones, especially on imperial wars of aggression and Russia.
The Times claiming so-called “Russian Twitter bots tried to swing (the) general election for Jeremy Corbyn” is a bald-faced lie.
So are all other fabricated Russian election meddling accusations, not a shred of evidence proving them.
The Times failed to release its list of alleged Twitter accounts “studied (sic).” Nor did it explain their number of followers.
Its report was an embarrassment to what journalism is supposed to be. It’s hard imagining any sensible person taking it seriously.
It’s another example of disgraceful Russophobic hate-mongering – anti-journalism with nothing credible supporting it.
Take it with a grain of salt. Expect lots more rubbish like it coming – in America, Britain and elsewhere.
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