Poor Al Franken

For John, BLUF:  I wonder if the Democrats are as ignorant of the Internet as the Reporter suggests.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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How an Alt-Right Bot Network Took Down Al Franken"

This article has a strange pedigree, being attributed to Newsweek and Reporter Nina Burleigh, on 19 February 2018, but coming from Yahoo News, out of the UK.

Here is the lede:

White nationalist provocateurs, a pair of fake news sites, an army of Twitter bots and other cyber tricks helped derail Democratic Senator Al Franken last year, new research shows.

I always thought that Senator Al Franken was small potatoes in the search for evil.  Not that I didn't think he was a jerk, but I wasn't convinced he was one to be run out of the US Senate, especially consider fellow members who knowing young ladies would not get in an elevator with alone.

That said, the article has the paranoid approach of someone convinced that the Republicans (and the Russians) are ten feet tall when it comes to the Internet.

Like targeted Facebook ads that Russian troll farms used in the 2016 election, Twitter bots have been around for years and were originally created for sales purposes.  But since the 2016 election, arguably lost due to the right's superior utilization of darker online strategies, the left is not known to have created or mobilized its own fake cyber army to amplify its viewpoint.

"Agreed we need one," Democratic digital media strategist Jess McIntosh, who worked on Franken's campaign and for Hillary Clinton's bid for president, said in an email to Newsweek.  "But it's harder to use these tactics when you can't rely on either lies OR hate to do it."

This makes me think that Ms Nina Burleigh sounds a little unhinged.  Ms Clinton lost because she did a bad job of campaigning.  The idea that she lost due to "the right's superior utilization of darker online strategies" is paranoid.  Who are this evil little men?

Then there is the denial of the left having its own fake cyber army.  Between the FBI (and people from other Intelligence Communities, there was more than enough "Left" skullduggery.  If this whole Steele Dossier imbroglio blows back on the Democrats it will be pretty ugly.

It is time to stop putting out this kind of fantasy and own up to doing a bad job of politics.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff