2w ago

Russia tries to exploit divisions sparked by Kirk’s murder, researchers say

www.nbcnews.com

Russia tries to exploit divisions sparked by Kirk's murder, researchers say

The Russian state media network RT was one of the first outlets to broadcast graphic footage of the assassination last week.

Russia and other foreign adversaries have pounced on the assassination of Charlie Kirk as an opportunity to spread propaganda aimed at aggravating U.S. political divisions and painting America as an unstable country on the decline, according to researchers.

Soon after the news broke about Kirk’s murder, Russian state media and pro-Kremlin voices on social media suggested that the United States was poised for a possible civil war and that dark conspiracies — possibly involving elements of a “deep state” — had played a role in the murder.

Chinese state media portrayed the attack as yet another example of a troubled society in decline, plagued by political disorder and gun violence. State media posted video of lawmakers arguing in Congress and highlighted U.S. experts discussing a climate of violence.

46 comments

I mean... USA is painting itself as an unstable country on the decline just fine, no need for external help.
- Oh for sure. But Putin et al sure are enjoying pouring gas on the fire.
  
  Trump is the best president for a country like Russia to serve it's imperial interests. Trump is already doing his job of dividing the usa, he is the only one to blame
  
  There is nothing more damaging that Russia or China could do to America than tell the truth. Like actual legit balanced, insightful well researched and written journalism.
  Propaganda isn't useful. Legitimate journalism is devastating to a regime like Trump.
- Yes, I'm sure there was no foreign interference up to this point.
  
  Definitely less than all the interference of the USA in every country of the world, but what is your point?
Americans really underestimate how much China and Russia are contributing to US decline. They have full information control in their countries and they see information freedom as weakness. These countries literally have professional trolls that go to office 9-5 just to disrupt the internet. These aren't just few hundred bots - it's millions of professional provacoteurs and liars.
- If you're old enough to remember the internet as it was 15-20 years ago it's fairly obvious. Even in the early days of social media a narrative wouldn't spread a fraction as quickly or with as much explosive rhetoric. In a week after a major incident we might get 4 or 5 waves of conflicting or compounding narratives.
  You can imagine our social discourse as a massive pool of competing ideas going back and forth; a large disruption might cause a sizable wave. You'd expect rebound waves (opposing ideas) from the opposite fringe to naturally counteract and disperse the original and each other, keeping the water choppy but level.
  With a larger network (ie: Twitter in 2025 vs Twitter in 2008) you'd expect to see more inertia and more stability, the fact that we don't is damning. Forcing the mass uniformity of rhetoric that we see these days (massive waves sweeping across hundreds of millions on multiple platforms) is not something that could be orchestrated by anything less than state actors. It takes the planning and coordination of both the initial narratives and responses.
  
  Yup I'm a daily internet user since the 90s and I grew up in Soviet Empire and it's so obvious how gamed the internet is today. I love internet and would never trade it for China's intranet or similar but the world needs to wisen the fuck up and treat this trolling like any other weapon. Just because its information and not physical gas or nuclear bombs doesnt mean it's not damaging.
  The problem here is the hubris of everyone involved "they run information campaign against us well ours will be better!" It's fundamentally idiotic way of approaching mass information the same way governments approach geopolitical information as in "tit for tat, if you leak our shit well leak yours etc" when this doesn't work at the scale of the web.
  There will be a day where the camels back will be broken but I'm afraid it'll be too late and we all end up either in a war or isolated, dystopia networks like China or Russia.
- Good thing the US would never do that. Or other awful things like overthrowing democracies and installing fascist dictators.
  Not trying to justify any of this, just pointing out the reality that all the major players are actively destabilizing each other.
  Could you imagine the world we could build if we weren't wasting so much time and energy fighting imaginary others.
  
  Ugh americans with their "but its both sides" is exactly why you guys are so fucked rn.
- i think china is new on the scene, but russia has been using troll farms for the last decade+, it drastically increase when trump got elected his first term.
  
  China is definitely not new.
Magats are doing that pretty well by themselves
- Same picture jpeg.
  
  Indeed but I think it’s still good to separate them from trolls a little bit cos the magats live amongst me and I have to actually encounter them
I would be surprised if china and russia dint pounce, they are usally the ones in all these social media platform sowing propaganda. r/cons is ran buy russian-based mods.
Do you think the west doesn't do the same?
- Yes the west is also exploiting his death to cause division
- The world only has a Putin problem because of the US.
  
  That's a funny way of writing Germany...
- LMAOOOOO
Why do you think we're in this mess in the first place
They're not going to just stop when it's been working so well
LMAO Russia. Americans might look inwards once in a while.
don’t they already do this with almost any “news”? you should assume any story has been hijacked by disinformation promoting either extreme side of an issue.
Ah, yes. Russia, as usual. US is best and would never do anything wrong. Maybe if people started eating bananas sideways, they'd finally woke up and realise who done it for real. They tried blaming DEI from day one, and y'all thought that wasn't it. Well, guess what? Honestly, I don't even know what to say. And for those about to rave… we salute you. Cuz there ain't nu'n like it hot. May June July.
Russia has nothing to do with nazis living, breathing, and somehow still existing in the US for centuries. It's time to stop pretending we're going to get along because of democracy or some constitution. They've already proven they don't really give a damn about either and will neglect every law they can so long as they can paint the world in their nazi image.
- Russia is a Nazi regime mate, wake up!
  
  KKK are just nazis. KKK are just remnant civil war era racists who lost and have always been around.
Just go on to Tiktok and look at the comments, Russian bots are all over it

46 comments