A website has been created which bills itself as a tracking website to determine what "Russian propaganda" social media accounts and "bots" are sharing on Twitter in order to "influence" Americans. This mysterious website has been quoted or discussed in left leaning publications such as Politico, Ars Technica, USA Today, The Hill, NPR, Mother Jones, just to name a few.
For example, a recent article in The Hill, titled 'Russia’s propaganda machine amplifies alt-right,' it states: "Russia’s army of media influencers, social media bots and trolls has increasingly amplified alt-right and far-right narratives in the United States since the 2016 presidential election," in which they link to a site called the Hamilton 68 Dashboard, hosted by "GMF - alliance for securing democracy."
Interestingly enough it isn't until we get to the last paragraphs of that article that we see the following, which contradicts their headline:
When it comes to pro-Russia accounts engaging in the U.S., they are not solely reaching out to the alt-right.
There are also anti-Trump bots and trolls tied to Russia, Kalember said, that engage with left-wing audiences to push disinformation. For now, though, the engagement is more prominent on the right because the narrative fits Russia’s aim, experts say.
“It goes to show that this is not in anyway a phenomenon that is restricted to the alt-right,” Kalember said. “That’s just a vehicle of convenience for whatever the Russian agenda happens to be.”
So, despite the hype in the headline, it appears that the "Russian army of media influencers" highlights whatever narrative seems to be in the best interest of Russia, whether it is on the left or the right.... sounds like what all countries do, including the U.S., doesn't it?
Since the The Hill and the Hamilton 68 dashboard, which supposedly tracks "600 monitored Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence operations," both refer to the "alt-right," it seemed logical to see what they consider content shared that they believe should be attributed to the "alt-right," and we see the answer in their "Top Themes" showing on the top of their page:
Unrest in the United States was front and center for Russian influence operations on Twitter this week, as users in the network sought to amplify alt-right alarmism about the left-wing Antifa (short for anti-fascist) movement. For consecutive days, the most-tweeted link in the network by far was a whitehouse.gov petition to declare Antifa a terrorist group. In addition to pushing hashtags and a direct link to the page, stories about the petition were the most-retweeted over the last 24 hours by two different Twitter accounts for Russia today, while the RT-affiliated Ruptly pushed video of a fight between neo-Nazis and Antifa activists in Berlin.
Because their "Top Themes" change often, here is a screen shot, so we cannot be accused of misquoting or misrepresenting the information on the Hamilton 68 dashboard.
The AP actually has guidelines on how to write about the "alt-right" and what the term encompasses, stating the following under the category of Usage:
“Alt-right” (quotation marks, hyphen and lower case) may be used in quotes or modified as in the “self-described” or “so-called alt-right” in stories discussing what the movement says about itself.
Avoid using the term generically and without definition, however, because it is not well known and the term may exist primarily as a public-relations device to make its supporters’ actual beliefs less clear and more acceptable to a broader audience. In the past we have called such beliefs racist, neo-Nazi or white supremacist.
According to the screen shot above from Hamilton 68, it is "alt-right alarmism" to be concerned about the terrorist methods and tactics of Antifa groups, and "alt-right" according to the media definition automatically makes a person a "white nationalist" or "white supremacist." Furthermore, Russians are "amplifying" the "alt-right" message when they share the White House petition which 306,889 people have signed to date, demanding that Antifa be listed as terrorist organization.... and all this is now propaganda "backed by Russia."
Funny how that works, huh?
This is Antifa, watch the short clip and decide for yourself whether this group is an "alt-right" concern, or whether it should be a concern to every American.
On Saturday, a Freedom Rally was cancelled because of Antifa threats, where the organizer, Joey Gibson, chose to cancel the event because he believed it "felt like it was a set up," and he thought it would turn into a huge riot due to the threats by Antifa groups. Despite the cancellation, Antifa groups still managed to shut down a freeway and members were arrested.
Gibson has publicly denounced white supremacy and Nazism and was profiled in an article on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website, which infamously puts conservative and Christian groups on its “hate map” because of their traditional views on marriage, family, and other social issues.
Neither Gibson nor Patriot Prayer are listed on the “hate map.”
At the press conference Gibson said that, in fact, it is Antifa that is instigating violence at otherwise peaceful gatherings in support of liberty and free speech.
“When are these politicians, these corrupt, establishment, these corrupt, career politicians going to start to speak out against Antifa?” Gibson said at the press conference.
Points: 1) Every rally, protest or event that Antifa groups, funded by George Soros, attend, have included violence against participants, and; 2) The media calls any event that Antifa opposes, a "white supremacist or "alt-right" event, in order to protect and justify Antifa's violence.
As to the Hamilton 68 website, highlighting this type of terrorist activity by Antifa, on U.S. soil, is connected to a "Russian propaganda" campaign.
WHO IS BEHIND THE MYSTERIOUS WEBSITE?
After noting how often this Hamilton 68 dashboard was highlighted by the mainstream media, and especially the most recent claim that Russians were amplifying the "alt-right" message as part of their "Russian" influence campaign, specifically in regards to Antifa, I decided to look into who is behind this campaign to attempt to tie conservatives to "Russian propaganda," and the results were surprising even to me.
At the top of the Hamilton 68 dashboard webpage, it says GMF - alliance for securing democracy," so I started researching who was behind GMF, and found a page which shows who is on their "Advisory Council" and found a list of people who are Republican "NeverTrumpers," many of which were part of a campaign to prevent Donald Trump from becoming the Republican nominee for President, as well as former Obama officials, and those that endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.
Four out of the twelve members of the GMF Advisory Council signed the much-hyped letter in January, expressing their "deep concern with President Trump’s recent Executive Order directed at the immigration system, refugees and visitors to this country. "
One of the Advisory Council members is Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard, a well-known neverTrumper, a man who once stated publicly that he would "prefer the deep state to the Trump state."
The day before the 2016 presidential election, Kristol wrote a "Final Word," about #NeverTrump, stating "And I'm lucky I had a chance to stand with so many allies, known and unknown, in the effort that came to be called #NeverTrump. In Donald J. Trump we faced a candidate who is a repulsive person, with dangerous prejudices, who's unfit to be president. Whatever the results tomorrow, I'm proud to have been a part of the opposition to him. We chose to fight and we were right to do so."
Another member of the GMF Advisory Council is Mike Chertoff, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, a man that endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.
Another council member is David Kramer, a writer for Foreign Policy, an anti-Trump website that once claimed "We are the last defense against Trump," as well as Kramer being very anti-Russia.
Michael Morrell, acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 2011 and again from 2012 to 2013, was one of those that signed the letter linked above against President Trump's immigration policy, endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, and signed another letter in early 2016 "condemning" Donald Trump and pledging to "oppose" his candidacy. Morrell also accused Trump an "unwitting agent of the Russian Federation."
Another member is Mike McFaul, who served for five years in the Obama administration, first as special assistant to the president and senior director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House from 2009 to 2012, and then as U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation from 2012–14. In November of 2016, McFaul, who blamed Russia for Clinton's loss, was placed on the Kremlin's sanctions list and banned from entering Russia.
Another member is Julianne “Julie” Smith served as the deputy national security advisor to the U.S. vice president from 2012 to 2013, acting national security advisor to the vice president in 2013, and principal director for European and NATO policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the Pentagon. Smith also writes for the anti-Trump website Foreign Policy, and signed the letter opposing Trump's EO on immigration. Smith has written a number of anti-Trump articles.
Jake Sullivan is another GMF council member, served in the Obama administration as national security advisor to Vice President Joe Biden and director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State, as well as deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, signed the opposition letter to Trump's immigration EO, and who called Donald Trump "dangerous," in May 2016.
Another member is Nicole Wong, former deputy U.S. chief technology officer in the Obama administration, and was Google’s vice president and deputy general counsel, and Twitter’s legal director for products.
A group of Hillary Clinton supporters along with NeverTrumpers, created a page to "track Russian Propaganda," where they falsely claim that anyone that speaks out against groups like Antifa, or supports President Trump and are members of the "alt-right" and are being amplified by a Russian influence campaign.
Sounds to me like establishment "deep state" members infuriated that the candidate they fought against won the presidential campaign, so decided to create a "dashboard" that would link any Trump supporters to Russian Propaganda.
Editor’s Note: The Washington Post on Nov. 24 published a story on the work of four sets of researchers who have examined what they say are Russian propaganda efforts to undermine American democracy and interests. One of them was PropOrNot, a group that insists on public anonymity, which issued a report identifying more than 200 websites that, in its view, wittingly or unwittingly published or echoed Russian propaganda. A number of those sites have objected to being included on PropOrNot’s list, and some of the sites, as well as others not on the list, have publicly challenged the group’s methodology and conclusions. The Post, which did not name any of the sites, does not itself vouch for the validity of PropOrNot’s findings regarding any individual media outlet, nor did the article purport to do so. Since publication of The Post’s story, PropOrNot has removed some sites from its list.
No one, to date, has been able to trace the shadowy group of people behind the PropOrNot website which listed sites such as ANP, ZeroHedge, Daily Sheeple, Natural News, Infowars, SHTF Plan, SGT Report and others among the list of 200+ websites they accused of spreading Russian propaganda during the 2016 presidential election.
According to the Hamilton 68 Methodology page, the lists on it are "Accounts likely controlled by Russian government influence operations," and "Accounts for “patriotic” pro-Russia users that are loosely connected or unconnected to the Russian government, but which amplify themes promoted by Russian government media," and " Accounts for users who have been influenced by the first two groups and who are extremely active in amplifying Russian media themes. These users may or may not understand themselves to be part of a pro-Russian social network. "
So under their "Top Domains" section, which supposedly shows what websites these "likely" Russian influence accounts are tweeting about, the are attempting to claim that today, sites like True pundit, Truthfeed, Fox News, and Breitbart, are part of a "pro-Russian social network."
Bottom line ladies and gentlemen is this website is nothing more than an attempt to smear websites that supported Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, created by and having an Advisory Council full of angry establishment deep state members hell bent of smearing those that refused to go along with their determination of what was best for America.
If Americans speak up against the 18 months of violence, shown below, by Antifa groups, this Hamilton 68 website wants you to think that it is "propaganda" backed by Russia.
