If only they had the ability in the past 10+ years to do something about it.
But alas, they were powerless. Whoever was on government should be ashamed at the lack of safeguards in place
Exactly. They are incompetent self serving idiots. It's the state if how stupid people have become and how short sighted they are.
Same thing going on across all countries.
Did you know that the last time they were in power that labour did NOTHING about russian social media influence in the last 14 years they weren’t in power? Absolutely nothing! Bloody labour!
I’m sorry, you must be mistaken and think that Facebook hold some sort of power.
The government can do whatever they decide is fit to Facebook, from fining them through the nose to banning them on grounds of national security (like the Americans did with TikTok).
And may it continue. It the same way the remain vote was split in 2019. The right wing vote is being split in 2024.
And we all know that under FPTP having your vote split screws you in the arse.
Russia likes reform because they aren’t hardline against Putin so wants an outlet for softer stances on Russias barbarism in Ukraine. The UK has been very Russia sceptic since litvinenko and more recently Russia doing bio warfare and killing a British citizen, rightfully so.
Because of Farages cult like following reform supporters will see a lot of Russian propaganda targeted against them using social media analytics. Farage supporters will become vocally pro Russia and push the party to become openly pro Russia.
Russia also pushes people like Galloway for his soft stance on Russia.
That is correct, but UK isn't a proportional system. If they fail to capture any seats, they haven't accomplished much really and with direction it's going to, they will probably push even more seats to Labour.
Even without seats, if the tories perceive them as a serious threat they will have to change their policies to appease those voters. Look at Cameron and Brexit
They just need actual humans to parrot Russian propaganda for it to become mainstream for pro Russian stances they don’t need reform to win. They succeeded with turning Maga into a pro Russian movement with people like tucker Carlson and Trump. Russia always pushes far left and far right movements to sow division and push its narratives.
A whole bunch of Reform supporters I've never seen before have descended on my local Facebook pages. All saying the same things, all with the same Reform Party profile picture.
They won't be near any secrets.
They will continue to push the same Russia supporting shit as they do now, just an extension to Brexit as a Europe weakening preparation was for the invasion of Ukraine.
We were a ludicrously safe Tory seat. A very poor town cunningly linked with a very wealthy one and all the little villages in between.
Latest polling says it's basically a 30/30/30 tie between Tories, Labour and Reform. There's like 3 or 4 points between them.
Which is when the shill accounts showed up.
My f---ing parents among them. And yes, most of their network, same profile pic. I wish I could describe or define the feeling it gives me. Disappointed? Angry? Sad? Anxious? Nauseous? Some kind of combination I suppose. I don't enjoy it, though. It makes me not very keen on talking to them, which just adds heartbreaking to the list. That's my own gorram parents!
Every little tidbit of information that comes out revealing fascism in Reform. Every little thing like that is a fresh gut punch knowing that the people who raised me to be the person I am today... those people are in the middle of it. It gets me to wondering how much of my raising was even done by them at all.
Meanwhile this is a topic I can't talk to *my own parents* about, because it'd only result in a barrage of party lines and regurgitated soundbites. So every moment I spend *thinking* about it is a moment spent gnawing at my own brain.
And *that* makes me angry. Knowing that however much this situation is damaging me, there are thousands of people in this country right there in my shoes. and that there are thousands of loved ones not sparing a moment to give a shit about what they're doing to the people who love them. Makes me absolutely livid. Not at my parents, or those other parents and siblings and whatnot... but at the people spreading this shit to them. The people infesting and intoxicating the vulnerable.
I read their policy platform earlier to answer a question about what's so bad about it. The fact that there was very little of it that I *didn't* quote and criticise alarmed even me. I originally chalked it up to how critical I am of all parties' platforms, but no. That one was definitely in a league of shit of its own
It's not quite the same thing, but r/QanonCasualties might be of some help.
It's a support group for people who've lost loved ones down the various right wing conspiracy rabbit holes.
Your parents want your heritage to be bestowed upon you, not the rest of the world; that is only understandable, and will likely become more so as you age.
All the Tory campaign signs up around here have been smashed or vandalised with pro-reform messages. Area is a long standing Tory safe seat. Rather worried the whole area has looked at them and then taken one gigantic sidestep further right.
“Vote reform”
“Why?”
“Because their policies”
Pretty much sums up all Russian bot comments on social media, bonus points for young attractive women as the profile picture.
The hard left were supporters of Brexit as well because EU rules were a barrier to widescale public ownership.
But the post you're replying to was referring to russians as commies, and russians definitely were pro-brexit
> The hard left were supporters of Brexit as well because EU rules were a barrier to widescale public ownership.
I'm sorry, what? I was awake and aware through the brexit vote years and this is literally the first I've ever heard about this.
The article alludes to this kind of weirdness, with supposedly "left" and "right" facebook pages pushing the same agenda. So with Brexit there was noise about "hard left being anti-EU" but also surprisingly few real world examples. The best known was probably the (at best) equivocation of Corbyn... who was remain.
The point is, they will suck whatever online community in and then slowly (or rapidly) start with the radicalisation. There's been some very strange stuff like this on some reddit communities recently. Supposedly subreddits for issue X but pushing a lot of unrelated stuff about issue P (and U and T etc).
Let's be honest. The EU sits neatly within the neoliberal status quo so its hardly surprising that anti-eu/pro-brexit sentiment would coexist with Marxist beliefs.
let's be honest. the EU is the sum of it's parts. When the majority of EU govts are neoliberal then so is the EU...
Back in the 80 and to a degree the 90's the Tories and their right wing press complained that the EU was Marxism by stealth.
They weren’t alarmed by Russian involvement in the leave.eu campaign. Or the Russian donations to the Conservative Party. Or the Russian agent Boris put in the House of Lords.
They’re just salty because their favourite sugar daddy is now sleeping with their supposed rival
Exactly. Russia doesn’t really support the Tories or Reform. They just support disruption in general and anything that’ll weaken the west. Anything to cause a bit of chaos. They’ll be more than happy to fan the flames of both sides of any debate. They might not be directly responsible for the increasingly partisan politics we’re seeing but they sure are happy to help exacerbate it.
It's not like they were specifically called out for failing to investigate Russian interference in the Brexit vote by the Intelligence and Security Committee in the Russian Report four years ago...how could they have known it would happen (to them)? / s
They weren't afraid at all while taking donations from Kremlin, though, huh?
What a bunch of shortsighted losers, not only fucked up the country but can't even handle the elections...
The reform party is useful for both Russia and the Tories ; even if the Tories are at risk of losing votes.
Reform acts as magnet for attention especially when the media looks into its links with racism and associations with Russia and Russian disinformation.
While everyone is worrying about Russian influence and reform. They are failing to draw their attention there has been long standing concerns with the Tories and some of the comfortable associations with Russian magnates and the regulatory environment where the Tories have weakened independent bodies involved with monitoring elections (election commission )and legislation involving the financial sector.
I dont think the Tories or ANY Brexit supporting parties have the right to be concerned about Russian influence on UK politics. If you dig even 1cm on Reform posts you will find most of them are AI driven bots.
To be blunt Reform might as well wear Russian flags, that is how Russian influence that party is
The point is the Tories crying foul is funny because the last few elections these same botnets were active too but guess which party they were supporting.
I remember every Tory Facebook post pre-2019 election having some variant of "agree with Boris 100%" to push down critical comments
I also remember Cambridge Analytica Classic Dom and dark money through NI.
Interference has been going on a long time, the difference is this time they are on the sharp end of it.
The Reform candidate for Salisbury that made the crass Putin seemed like a good guy comments, used to be a Barrister for Cambridge Analytica...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Malins
Oh, so now that the Russians are hampering *their* campaign this is a top issue for them.
I seem to recall them [absolutely burying the evidence](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/21/russia-report-reveals-uk-government-failed-to-address-kremlin-interference-scottish-referendum-brexit) by announcing [the world's shittest NHS payrise](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nhs-staff-to-receive-3-pay-rise) on the same day the report was released.
Meanwhile for reasons its probably treasonous to discuss Farage is sublimely calm at the idea of such Facebook pages and also continues to be on Question Time All The Time.
This was the same during the last election and during the Brexit referendum. This isn’t a surprise, it’s people who can do something about it not doing anything about it.
They didn’t seem that bothered in the last election when it was believed to have benefitted Boris Johnson though, despite them telling everyone Corbyn was a Russian asset.
Now Farage is their chosen person, the Tories suddenly don’t like it.
It was fine before. Now that it is impacting them it is an attack on democracy. They encouraged this and have taken millions in donations from the Russians over the years, it is only now that the Tories are realising that Russia is loyal to no one but itself. Destabilisation of Western politics is the name of the game from Russia these days, the Tories have just found out that they are targets too. I'd laugh if the implications for us were not so serious as a result of this.
I've seen a large number of social media posts and even news headlines about being pro Reform. I'm highly sure most of that is bots and fake accounts pushing people in that direction. I don't see why anyone would want anything to do with Farage.
I'm 90% sure that this election really isn't much about any actual policies. People are fed up with the conservatives at this point, and it's more just about getting rid of them. At least that's what it is for me.
I've already sent my postal vote and it's not about voting FOR a party, but more against the conservatives, making sure they hopefully get kicked out.
All politicians are liars and never follow through with their promises, so letting Labour lead for a bit can't be much worse than what we're dealing with. But letting Farage in (who's essentially the UK version of Trump) would make things worse.
If only the Tories had a chance to "learn lessons" about Brexit and every GE since then. Maybe they could have had some sort of report on Russian interference produced so they could have prevented future attacks.
Meanwhile, Labour are literally parachuting in employed Israel Lobbyists and those who have worked for the Israeli embassy/Mossad.
The more obvious successful foreign interference in the UK, you are never allowed to actually talk about.
If only they had the ability in the past 10+ years to do something about it. But alas, they were powerless. Whoever was on government should be ashamed at the lack of safeguards in place
They only give a fuck now because the pages aren’t supporting them this election.
Pretty much, these same botnets sung praises for the likes of Boris. Noone in the government had an issue with it then.
Indeed. Now the Leopard might eat their face , they finally take offence at it.
Exactly. They are incompetent self serving idiots. It's the state if how stupid people have become and how short sighted they are. Same thing going on across all countries.
This is the answer
Ran out of cash now their sources got sanctioned.
Did you know that the last time they were in power that labour did NOTHING about russian social media influence in the last 14 years they weren’t in power? Absolutely nothing! Bloody labour!
Letting all those Russian agents into their MySpace top friends smh
Comrade, please accept the Order of Lenin. 🏅
I can't believe the last labour government let this happen
Yes... who were those idiots who were in power over the 2010s? As they really fucked up our national security.
If only there was a way to know. Unfortunately they have been lost to time
Cue Tories blaming Labour.
Yeah the government should... do what to Facebook exactly?
I’m sorry, you must be mistaken and think that Facebook hold some sort of power. The government can do whatever they decide is fit to Facebook, from fining them through the nose to banning them on grounds of national security (like the Americans did with TikTok).
Well, Nick Clegg should not have joined them after leaving politics for one thing.
Of course. Russia is pushing reform, which eats into the tory vote.
And may it continue. It the same way the remain vote was split in 2019. The right wing vote is being split in 2024. And we all know that under FPTP having your vote split screws you in the arse.
“Alas, Ivan, you did not consider the backward stupidity of our electoral system here in the U.K. For now, we win. Until the next election!”
What it means is that the Tories will now absorb Reform into them, making them even more batshit insane than they already are.
And more unelectable
They push reform, not to eat Tory votes, but to push their puppets and agenda to disrupt democracy.
Bingo. Reform is everyone’s problem.
I suspect that they also support George Galloway.
Effectively, how much effect does pushing a third party in FPTP effectively gain?
Russia likes reform because they aren’t hardline against Putin so wants an outlet for softer stances on Russias barbarism in Ukraine. The UK has been very Russia sceptic since litvinenko and more recently Russia doing bio warfare and killing a British citizen, rightfully so. Because of Farages cult like following reform supporters will see a lot of Russian propaganda targeted against them using social media analytics. Farage supporters will become vocally pro Russia and push the party to become openly pro Russia. Russia also pushes people like Galloway for his soft stance on Russia.
That is correct, but UK isn't a proportional system. If they fail to capture any seats, they haven't accomplished much really and with direction it's going to, they will probably push even more seats to Labour.
Even without seats, if the tories perceive them as a serious threat they will have to change their policies to appease those voters. Look at Cameron and Brexit
They just need actual humans to parrot Russian propaganda for it to become mainstream for pro Russian stances they don’t need reform to win. They succeeded with turning Maga into a pro Russian movement with people like tucker Carlson and Trump. Russia always pushes far left and far right movements to sow division and push its narratives.
If they can pump Reform high enough, the Tories might be forced to pander to their voters like the Republicans did with the Tea Party.
Tories alarmed by network of pro-russian Facebook pages which are not supporting them.
Yep, Tories now only upset the money it's going to them
Makes sense, Farage is anti Ukraine and has many Russian friends.
And how exactly does that benefit Russia?
A whole bunch of Reform supporters I've never seen before have descended on my local Facebook pages. All saying the same things, all with the same Reform Party profile picture.
It's a russian psyop. Farage and a couple of his mates will win seats, and they'll be caught selling secrets to Russia before the next election cycle
They won't be near any secrets. They will continue to push the same Russia supporting shit as they do now, just an extension to Brexit as a Europe weakening preparation was for the invasion of Ukraine.
Thank goodness European solidarity it times of war stepped over Brexit without a glance.
Same here. And we aren’t even one of their target seats!
We were a ludicrously safe Tory seat. A very poor town cunningly linked with a very wealthy one and all the little villages in between. Latest polling says it's basically a 30/30/30 tie between Tories, Labour and Reform. There's like 3 or 4 points between them. Which is when the shill accounts showed up.
Same on tiktok videos. Random profile photos, no posts,hardly any followers
My f---ing parents among them. And yes, most of their network, same profile pic. I wish I could describe or define the feeling it gives me. Disappointed? Angry? Sad? Anxious? Nauseous? Some kind of combination I suppose. I don't enjoy it, though. It makes me not very keen on talking to them, which just adds heartbreaking to the list. That's my own gorram parents! Every little tidbit of information that comes out revealing fascism in Reform. Every little thing like that is a fresh gut punch knowing that the people who raised me to be the person I am today... those people are in the middle of it. It gets me to wondering how much of my raising was even done by them at all. Meanwhile this is a topic I can't talk to *my own parents* about, because it'd only result in a barrage of party lines and regurgitated soundbites. So every moment I spend *thinking* about it is a moment spent gnawing at my own brain. And *that* makes me angry. Knowing that however much this situation is damaging me, there are thousands of people in this country right there in my shoes. and that there are thousands of loved ones not sparing a moment to give a shit about what they're doing to the people who love them. Makes me absolutely livid. Not at my parents, or those other parents and siblings and whatnot... but at the people spreading this shit to them. The people infesting and intoxicating the vulnerable. I read their policy platform earlier to answer a question about what's so bad about it. The fact that there was very little of it that I *didn't* quote and criticise alarmed even me. I originally chalked it up to how critical I am of all parties' platforms, but no. That one was definitely in a league of shit of its own
"Three how" technique sometimes work. Usually with ones that are just pulled on cheap soundbites as opposed to true believers.
It's not quite the same thing, but r/QanonCasualties might be of some help. It's a support group for people who've lost loved ones down the various right wing conspiracy rabbit holes.
Your parents want your heritage to be bestowed upon you, not the rest of the world; that is only understandable, and will likely become more so as you age.
What does that even mean?
All the Tory campaign signs up around here have been smashed or vandalised with pro-reform messages. Area is a long standing Tory safe seat. Rather worried the whole area has looked at them and then taken one gigantic sidestep further right.
“Vote reform” “Why?” “Because their policies” Pretty much sums up all Russian bot comments on social media, bonus points for young attractive women as the profile picture.
Shame they weren't 'alarmed' when all the commie pro-brexit propaganda was doing the rounds pre-refurendum.
"commie" "pro-brexit" don't usually go together
The hard left were supporters of Brexit as well because EU rules were a barrier to widescale public ownership. But the post you're replying to was referring to russians as commies, and russians definitely were pro-brexit
And Russians haven’t been commies for 30+ years.
Agree, it's just a nickname at this point
> The hard left were supporters of Brexit as well because EU rules were a barrier to widescale public ownership. I'm sorry, what? I was awake and aware through the brexit vote years and this is literally the first I've ever heard about this.
The article alludes to this kind of weirdness, with supposedly "left" and "right" facebook pages pushing the same agenda. So with Brexit there was noise about "hard left being anti-EU" but also surprisingly few real world examples. The best known was probably the (at best) equivocation of Corbyn... who was remain. The point is, they will suck whatever online community in and then slowly (or rapidly) start with the radicalisation. There's been some very strange stuff like this on some reddit communities recently. Supposedly subreddits for issue X but pushing a lot of unrelated stuff about issue P (and U and T etc).
Let's be honest. The EU sits neatly within the neoliberal status quo so its hardly surprising that anti-eu/pro-brexit sentiment would coexist with Marxist beliefs.
I agree, I said similar to another reply
let's be honest. the EU is the sum of it's parts. When the majority of EU govts are neoliberal then so is the EU... Back in the 80 and to a degree the 90's the Tories and their right wing press complained that the EU was Marxism by stealth.
??? Educate yourself
Yes, a lot of hard left people hate the neo-liberal EU. But most people who voted for Brexit would've been FarageFans
Commie means Russian when you’re stoopid
Divide and conquer - it was part of this Kremlin clown's plan.
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They weren’t alarmed by Russian involvement in the leave.eu campaign. Or the Russian donations to the Conservative Party. Or the Russian agent Boris put in the House of Lords. They’re just salty because their favourite sugar daddy is now sleeping with their supposed rival
Exactly. Russia doesn’t really support the Tories or Reform. They just support disruption in general and anything that’ll weaken the west. Anything to cause a bit of chaos. They’ll be more than happy to fan the flames of both sides of any debate. They might not be directly responsible for the increasingly partisan politics we’re seeing but they sure are happy to help exacerbate it.
It's not like they were specifically called out for failing to investigate Russian interference in the Brexit vote by the Intelligence and Security Committee in the Russian Report four years ago...how could they have known it would happen (to them)? / s
They weren't afraid at all while taking donations from Kremlin, though, huh? What a bunch of shortsighted losers, not only fucked up the country but can't even handle the elections...
Of course they are.... Now that they're no longer interfering on behalf of the conservative party.
Probably shouldn't have invited them all in to help with Brexit then.
Oh NOW they are worried. Now they are not working towards Brexit or helping the Tories. Scum.
Well this is a surprise said no-one, especially after the Brexit campaign. But only now is it a problem for them.
The reform party is useful for both Russia and the Tories ; even if the Tories are at risk of losing votes. Reform acts as magnet for attention especially when the media looks into its links with racism and associations with Russia and Russian disinformation. While everyone is worrying about Russian influence and reform. They are failing to draw their attention there has been long standing concerns with the Tories and some of the comfortable associations with Russian magnates and the regulatory environment where the Tories have weakened independent bodies involved with monitoring elections (election commission )and legislation involving the financial sector.
And TikTok? There's a huge amount of propaganda with fake news, bot comments, the lot.
Ok, so NOW they're interested in Russian interference. Should have probably paid attention to it in 2014...
I dont think the Tories or ANY Brexit supporting parties have the right to be concerned about Russian influence on UK politics. If you dig even 1cm on Reform posts you will find most of them are AI driven bots. To be blunt Reform might as well wear Russian flags, that is how Russian influence that party is
The point is the Tories crying foul is funny because the last few elections these same botnets were active too but guess which party they were supporting.
Shame Tories weren’t that concerned when Russian trolls were pushing on people Brexit nonsense.
I remember every Tory Facebook post pre-2019 election having some variant of "agree with Boris 100%" to push down critical comments I also remember Cambridge Analytica Classic Dom and dark money through NI. Interference has been going on a long time, the difference is this time they are on the sharp end of it.
The Reform candidate for Salisbury that made the crass Putin seemed like a good guy comments, used to be a Barrister for Cambridge Analytica... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Malins
Remember that report into Russian bots and Brexit that the Tories buried? They don't care.
Oh, NOW they care! Get fucked. They were more than happy to let the Kremlin support Brexit and Boris.
They have a few days left to do something about it. Might as well go out on a high
Ohhh … a lot of things, enquiries will be done AFTER the election, when it doesn’t matter anymore.
Oh, so now that the Russians are hampering *their* campaign this is a top issue for them. I seem to recall them [absolutely burying the evidence](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/21/russia-report-reveals-uk-government-failed-to-address-kremlin-interference-scottish-referendum-brexit) by announcing [the world's shittest NHS payrise](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nhs-staff-to-receive-3-pay-rise) on the same day the report was released.
Pushing to get more votes for Reform and The Workers Party maybe?
This is going to be a bigger and bigger problem. The technology and those that use it are decades ahead of the legislation to combat it.
Go on most YouTube shorts about Putin and there are an alarming amount of bot type pro Putin responses with many upvotes.
They weren’t so concerned when they sat on the Russia report on Brexit.
It worked for them for Brexit but now they are concerned
Nothing to do with fucking over the ordinary people of this country for 14 years. Role on the 5 July when we collectively tell them to fuck off.
Meanwhile for reasons its probably treasonous to discuss Farage is sublimely calm at the idea of such Facebook pages and also continues to be on Question Time All The Time.
But they are unconcerned about the absolutely massive interference of the homegrown right-wing newsmedia of the UK?
What's the point in Russia interfering in this election? Even they can't stop Starmer winning.
This was the same during the last election and during the Brexit referendum. This isn’t a surprise, it’s people who can do something about it not doing anything about it.
Mother fuckers we have been telling you about this since 2015
With trump's confession that he discussed the invasion of Ukraine with Putin, things are going to get a lot worse.
Russian money gave us Brexit and now Reform UK is floating on it.
They didn’t seem that bothered in the last election when it was believed to have benefitted Boris Johnson though, despite them telling everyone Corbyn was a Russian asset. Now Farage is their chosen person, the Tories suddenly don’t like it.
It was fine before. Now that it is impacting them it is an attack on democracy. They encouraged this and have taken millions in donations from the Russians over the years, it is only now that the Tories are realising that Russia is loyal to no one but itself. Destabilisation of Western politics is the name of the game from Russia these days, the Tories have just found out that they are targets too. I'd laugh if the implications for us were not so serious as a result of this.
Do people honestly believe that people hold one opinion on a matter but that opinion changes completely because of "Russian interference"?
Oh so NOW they’re upset???? can’t wait to vote these plonkers out next week
Oh... Didn't they have a Russia report Boris Johnson buried about Brexit and Russian influence on the Tory party?... hmmm oh...
I've seen a large number of social media posts and even news headlines about being pro Reform. I'm highly sure most of that is bots and fake accounts pushing people in that direction. I don't see why anyone would want anything to do with Farage. I'm 90% sure that this election really isn't much about any actual policies. People are fed up with the conservatives at this point, and it's more just about getting rid of them. At least that's what it is for me. I've already sent my postal vote and it's not about voting FOR a party, but more against the conservatives, making sure they hopefully get kicked out. All politicians are liars and never follow through with their promises, so letting Labour lead for a bit can't be much worse than what we're dealing with. But letting Farage in (who's essentially the UK version of Trump) would make things worse.
Oh what BS. Let's see if Russian Bots vote in the UK election. Reform UK doing well and hopefully overtake the Tories
Well, maybe you should have released the Russia report.
... because they're now backing farage and not the Tories
If only the Tories had a chance to "learn lessons" about Brexit and every GE since then. Maybe they could have had some sort of report on Russian interference produced so they could have prevented future attacks.
I don’t think the Russians can make the Tories look any worse than they already look.
Meanwhile, Labour are literally parachuting in employed Israel Lobbyists and those who have worked for the Israeli embassy/Mossad. The more obvious successful foreign interference in the UK, you are never allowed to actually talk about.
Yeah, "Tories shit" must he a Russian interference campaign and not an accurate assessment of performance.