Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

Thursday 16 November 2017 TECHNOLOGY
A24

Russia Twitter trolls deflected Trump bad news

By RYAN NAKASHIMA and investigators ahead of the mits he was born in Kenya.”
BARBARA ORTUTAY social media giant’s Oct. But the Russian accounts
AP Technology Writers 31 and Nov. 1 appearanc- weren’t in lockstep. The
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — es on Capitol Hill. It said 9 handle “hyddrox” retweet-
Disguised Russian agents percent of the tweets were ed a post by the anti-Trump
on Twitter rushed to de- election-related but didn’t billionaire Mark Cuban that
flect scandalous news make the tweets them- the “MSM (mainstream me-
about Donald Trump just selves public. dia) is being suckered into
before last year’s presiden- That makes the archive the chasing birther stories.”
tial election while straining AP obtained the most com- On Sept. 15, Clinton re-
to refocus criticism on the prehensive historical pic- turned to the campaign
mainstream media and ture so far of Russian activ- trail following a bout with
Hillary Clinton’s campaign, ity on Twitter in the crucial pneumonia that caused
according to an Associ- run-up to the Nov. 8, 2016, her to stumble at a 9/11
ated Press analysis of since- vote. Twitter policy requires memorial service. The
deleted accounts. This April 26, 2017, file photo shows the Twitter app on a mobile developers who archive its Russian account “Pame-
Tweets by Russia-backed phone in Philadelphia. material to delete tweets la_Moore13” noted that
accounts such as Associated Press from suspended accounts her intro music was “I Feel
“America_1st_” and “Ba- to Nov. 10, 2016, posted by with women, saying, “when as soon as reasonably pos- Good” by James Brown —
tonRougeVoice” on Oct. 382 of the Russian accounts you’re a star, they let you sible, unless doing so would then observed that “James
7, 2016, actively pivoted that Twitter shared with do it.” violate the law or Twitter Brown died of pneumonia,”
away from news of an congressional investigators Within an hour of the Post’s grants an exception. It’s a line that was repeated
audio recording in which last week. Twitter deacti- story, WikiLeaks unleashed possible the existence of at least 11 times by Rus-
Trump made crude com- vated the accounts, delet- its own bombshell about the deleted tweets in the sian accounts, including by
ments about groping wom- ing the tweets and making hacked email from Pod- archive obtained by the AP “Jenn_Abrams,” which had
en, and instead touted them inaccessible on the esta’s account, a release runs afoul of those rules. 59,868 followers at the time.
damaging emails hacked internet. But a limited selec- the Russian accounts had The Russian accounts didn’t According to several obitu-
from Clinton’s campaign tion of the accounts’ Twit- been foreshadowing for just spring into action at the aries, Brown died of con-
chairman John Podesta. ter activity was retrieved by days. last minute. They were simi- gestive heart failure related
Since early this year, the matching account handles “WikiLeaks’ Assange signals larly active at earlier points to pneumonia.
extent of Russian intrusion against an archive ob- release of documents be- in the campaign. Racial discord also figured
to help Trump and hurt tained by AP. fore U.S. election,” tweeted When Trump reversed him- prominently in the tweets,
Clinton in the election has “MSM (the mainstream both “SpecialAffair” and self on a lie about Barack just as it did with many of
been the subject of both media) is at it again with “ScreamyMonkey” within Obama’s birthplace on the ads Russian trolls had
congressional scrutiny and Billy Bush recording ... What a second of each other on Sept. 17, declaring abruptly purchased on Facebook
a criminal investigation about telling Americans Oct. 4. “SpecialAffair,” an that Obama “was born in in the months leading up
by special counsel Robert how Hillary defended a account describing itself as the United States, period,” to and following the elec-
Mueller. In particular, those rapist and later laughed a “Political junkie in action,” several Russian accounts tion. One Russian account,
investigations are looking at his victim?” tweeted the had 11,255 followers at the chimed in to echo Trump’s “Blacks4DTrump,” tweeted
into the possibility of col- America_1st— account, time. “ScreamyMonkey,” subsequent false claim that a Trump quote on Sept. 16
lusion between the Trump which had 25,045 followers self-described as a “First it was Clinton who had in which he declared “it is
campaign and the Rus- at its peak, according to frontier.News aggregator,” started the birther contro- the Democratic party that
sians. metadata in the archive. had 13,224. Both accounts versy. is the party of slavery, the
AP’s analysis illuminates the The tweet went out the were created within three Others continued to push party of Jim Crow & the
obvious strategy behind afternoon of Oct. 7, just days of each other in late birther narratives. The Rus- party of opposition.”
the Russian cyber med- hours after The Washington December 2014. sian account TEN_GOP, TEN_GOP, meanwhile,
dling: swiftly react, distort Post broke the story about Twitter handed over the which many mistook for asked followers to “SPREAD
and distract attention from Trump’s comments to Bush, handles of 2,752 accounts the official account of the the msg of black pastor ex-
any negative Trump news. then host of “Access Holly- it identified as coming from Tennessee Republican Par- plaining why African-Amer-
The AP examined 36,210 wood,” about kissing, grop- Russia’s Internet Research ty, linked to a video that icans should vote Donald
tweets from Aug. 31, 2015, ing and trying to have sex Agency to congressional claimed that Obama “ad- Trump!”q

New internet TV service has $16 monthly tab and no sports

By TALI ARBEL Unlike the existing services, included, does televise company, according to now, the only gadget it’ll
AP Technology Writer though, Philo doesn’t offer some mixed martial arts, a Philo. The 6-year-old startup work with for watching on
NEW YORK (AP) — The hook many of the networks that type of fighting.) helps traditional cable a TV is a Roku.q
of the latest internet TV are often considered must- The lack of expensive and satellite TV providers
service is a low price and have. It lacks sports and sports channels and other stream video on college
no sports channels. the dominant cable news popular networks helps campuses. That technology
Analysts estimate that networks and excludes lower Philo’s cost to just $16 business still exists.
internet TV packages such broadcast networks like a month for 37 channels. For the new service,
as Sling TV, YouTube TV NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox. That’s cheaper than the available Tuesday, Philo lets
and DirecTV Now have so Instead, it focuses on music other internet-TV services. you stream simultaneously
far signed up a few million and comedy, scripted The companies that own on three different devices
customers. These services series and reality shows, the networks included and has an online video
are meant to replace with networks like AMC, in Philo — A+E, AMC, recorder that stores
cable TV with a cheaper Food Network, HGTV, MTV Discovery, Scripps and programs for 30 days. You
price and a smaller bundle and Comedy Central. (The Viacom — together can watch on computers,
of channels. Spike channel, which is also invested $25 million in the phones and tablets. For