You May be a Russian Co-Conspirator if ...

... you have a Twitter account and lean towards conservative politics.

It's no secret to anyone who knows me that my personal politics tend towards the conservative side of the aisle. That said, even I was surprised to discover that I was part of the Russian hacking conspiracy to elect Donald Trump. Who knew? Certainly not me, until the following arrived in my inbox Saturday evening:

                  Dear Tammy,

As part of our recent work to understand Russian-linked activities on Twitter during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, we identified and suspended a number of accounts that were potentially connected to a propaganda effort by a Russian government-linked organization known as the Internet Research Agency.

 

Consistent with our commitment to transparency, we are emailing you because we have reason to believe that you either followed one of these accounts or retweeted or liked content from these accounts during the election period. This is purely for your own information purposes, and is not related to a security concern for your account.

 

We are sharing this information so that you can learn more about these accounts and the nature of the Russian propaganda effort. You can see examples of content from these suspended accounts on our blog if you're interested.

Now let's pause right there and take a look at examples of the offending Russian bot tweets:

They are scandalous! These tweets were posted by Russian operatives posing as normal Americans with names like Crystal and Pamela and the GOP? I can't believe that this red-blooded American patriot was bamboozled by what is so obviously a Russian plot to take over the world!  I mean look at those memes; it's so clear to me now. They scream Russian takeover, practically dripping in hammers and sickles.

My family and I enjoyed some good (laughs) dialogue about this over breakfast Sunday morning. The question that kept coming to the surface during the conversation was how on earth do the owners of a social media platform in which everyone can participate (even anonymously using an unbelievable alias like Pamela Moore), believe that these memes are going to cause someone to run out and campaign for Donald Trump? I'd be willing to bet that anyone on the planet who liked or shared one of the Russian tweets was already inclined to like President Trump. Just a crazy theory on my part.

 Here's the rest of the message if you're interested:

People look to Twitter for useful, timely, and appropriate information. We are taking active steps to stop malicious accounts and Tweets from spreading, and we are determined to keep ahead of the tactics of bad actors. For example, in recent months we have developed new techniques to identify accounts manipulating our platform, have improved our process for challenging suspicious accounts, and have introduced new measures designed to identify and take action on coordinated malicious activity. In 2018, we are building on these improvements. Our blog also contains more information about these efforts.

People come to Twitter to see what's happening in the world. We are committed to making it the best place to do that and to being transparent with the people who use and trust our platform.

 

Twitter

This from a social media platform that has deteriorated into a cesspool of partisan hate and name-calling? According to their blog, Twitter identified 3,814 IRA-linked accounts which posted 175,993 Tweets, approximately 8.4% of which were election-related. 8.4%!!!!! Let that sink in.

I view this email as an attempted scare tactic to the 800,000+/- folks who received it (big brother IS watching). Either that or they want you to be horrified you are a horrible American for participating in the enormous 8.4% problem of the Russian conspiracy. 

Insert eye roll here. #tb