https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/m...he-agency.html
This is a very telling article and it uncovered the Russian troll propaganda farm way before it was used in our election. Russians were using hired troll armies to create fake news well before the US election of 2016.
They were doing orchestrated and well planned attacks on social media claiming things like chemical plants which didnt exist had blown up or cases of ebola being spread in the US. Creating fake websites, videos and doctored photos to support their claims.
In 2015 before the elections this troll army had a budget of over $400k a month. They went as far as to create videos and fake websites to push the fake news as in the case of the chemical plant explosion.
They also infiltrated forums like this one (say hello onwebcam) creating users to spread propagranda just like we see here on GFY with all the alt right fake nicks and conspiracy nutters our mods here refuse to do anything about. They use both accounts which act as part of the community and the random fake accounts. They are doing it on a massive scale all across the web.
Its a very damning article that now sheads much more light as its read today in hindsight. Again, this article was from 2015 before the Russian trolls were widely known about or before they were ramped up to attack our election process and other countries..
Seriously mods, do the right thing and start banning all these fake nicks.. When all they are doing is pushing Russian propaganda and racist hate, its obvious they are part of all this. Its the same exact MO that happens here just like it happens on facebook and twitter.. its the same people being paid to disrupt this place.