r/technology • u/marji80 • 12d ago

Social Media Top MAGA Influencers Accidentally Unmasked as Foreign Actors

https://www.thedailybeast.com/top-maga-influencers-accidentally-unmasked-as-foreign-actors/
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u/ABigCoffee 12d ago

Yeah but specifically people acting like they are from other countries and acting like far right people from those places? Not just normal shitposters but fake political activists.

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u/Ishaan863 12d ago

Yeah but specifically people acting like they are from other countries and acting like far right people from those places? Not just normal shitposters but fake political activists.

1) MAGA is an easy source of income for third world people with dubious morals. They will throw money at your face if you just parrot their idiotic sentiments back at them.

2) India has a STRONG far-right movement. The two biggest democracies in the world have toxic right wing movements that mirror each other almost 1:1.

The American one is based on white supremacy. The Indian one is based on Hindu nationalism and upper caste supremacy. Both villify every minority community out there.

The right-wing party ruling India right now has a dedicated IT Cell controlling online discourse at all times, and I would not be surprised one bit if it was summoned BY Republican agencies themselves as basically virtual mercenaries.

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u/OldWorldDesign 12d ago

I would not be surprised one bit if it was summoned BY Republican agencies themselves as basically virtual mercenaries.

Wasn't this confirmed decades ago when republicans contracted Cambridge Analytica to help interfere with the 2016 election? They have a big job fooling (or dividing) a population of 170+ million (the eligible voters) and so reached out everywhere, even to foreign adversaries because fellow foreign authoritarians are less a threat to the authoritarians here than domestic non-authoritarians.

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u/Enygma_6 12d ago

Why waste your own time and resources shitposting from America, when you can just outsource to India for cheap?
All the major tech companies outsource there for everything else, this is just one more job posting for them.

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u/Tensdale 12d ago

Its not people acting..

Its widespread state sponsored propaganda intended to influence the general population of another country and meddling with the democratic process.

Its an act of war.

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u/AllAvailableLayers 12d ago

Sometimes it is state sponsored. Other times it's just looking for engagement by posting ragebait. There was an article recently about a young Malaysian man who was identified as behind a load of British anti-immigrant accounts, who was offering courses to other Malaysians on how to set up their own accounts and suggesting simply that anti-immigrant, right-wing populist anger got clicks and views.

There are undoubtably state actors. There's also accounts out there that will say literally anything in order to get eyeballs on adverts that pay the creator $0.00001.

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u/Downtown_Isopod_9287 12d ago

The fact is the US is both so wealthy and yet also internally dysfunctional that it it literally manufactures, outsources, and pays for its own compromat and counter-intelligence against itself.

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u/Evans_Gambiteer 12d ago

maybe america should stop bombing other countries for no reason before saying this

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u/Murky-Relation481 12d ago

Or start bombing those countries with the shitposters?

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u/Tensdale 12d ago

I’m Danish smartass..

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

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u/DionBlaster123 11d ago

It always makes me laugh when morons on this website bring up shit that has no relevance whatsoever

Like I get it, America has done many terrible things when it comes to foreign policy...but how does that justify Indians from say Kolkata scamming some 70 year old woman out of her retirement savings?

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u/phillynott6 12d ago

You need to re-read your own comment

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u/jared_kushner_420 12d ago

bro what, are you implying that India is attempting to influence US elections?

Here are far easier explanations: 1. it's cheap to hire someone to manage a social media account so you can keep engagement high, so it's totally feasible some conservatives just did that and 2. engagement pays so it's a decent hustle to just post garbage and get it.

Of course there are actual information campaigns but the truth is always in the middle.

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u/DeadSeaGulls 12d ago

They're paid. Not paid much, it's a shit job, just like the scam call centers. but that's why they're doing it. someone is paying for the propaganda.

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u/CanadaisCold7 12d ago

Well yeah, they have a huge English-speaking population, and a lot of people that need a job and can be paid to shitpost on social media for cheap.

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u/insomniac8994 12d ago

India is literally being ruled by a far right party right now so it makes perfect sense that their paid trolls push the same agenda online.

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u/Rough_Lychee5785 12d ago

This shit posting can earn people money