NDM 15

British MP calls on Twitter to release Russian 'troll factory' tweets- The Guardian

The article talks about Damian Collins, the chairman of the Commons culture, media and sport select committee, wanting examples of  posts linked to British politics. In reference, to Twitter giving out a list of suspended Russia-linked accounts to US intelligence committee.

• 2,752 Twitter accounts coordinated by humans at the research agency- tweeted 131,000 times during the period 1 September to 15 November 2016.

• discovered almost 37,000 Russian “bot” accounts tweeting 1.4m times over the same period

• Twitter said the tweets impersonated US news entities, political parties, and groups focused on social and political issues.

• "Prime Minister would not have spoken out on Russia without briefing from our spooks when can Parliament be briefed @BBCr4today ?" - Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, also asked why the government was continuing to let Russia meddle in UK affairs.

An MP of superiority wants for Twitter to release examples of posts concerning the Uk in Russian "troll factory", which he states would be an “interference by foreign actors in the democratic process of the United Kingdom”.

Damian Collins, the chairman of the Commons culture...select committee wanted to see examples of posts about British politics after Twitter handed a list of 2,752 accounts to the US intelligence committee, which it had suspended for being linked to Russia. 

One problem was referenced concerning the a list circulated in Washington posted a widely shared tweet at the time of the March terror attack on Westminster Bridge in London. A Twitter account by the name of  @SouthLoneStar made a post of  a woman in a headscarf the scene of the attack and captioning it with “Muslim woman pays no mind to the terror attack, casually walks by a dying man while checking phone #PrayForLondon #Westminster #BanIslam.”

The woman from the picture commented in response to her picture being circulated: 

•  “Not only have I been devastated by witnessing the aftermath of a shocking and numbing terror attack, I’ve also had to deal with the shock of finding my picture plastered all over social media by those who could not look beyond my attire, who draw conclusions based on hate and xenophobia.”

The article made another reference to an account, which had been deleted by twitter,  after the EU referendum reportedly had posted that Brexit leavers should "clean their land from muslim invasion!”. 

The MP said he wanted the information about impact on UK politics by the end of November(from the knowledge of the stats above) . Last month in a letter to the Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, Collins also asked for “information regarding the use of Facebook advertising and pages by Russian-linked accounts in the lead-up to, and during, the 2016 referendum”.

This really brings to light how digital news has been used negatively. This is due to the ability for some to make multiple 'fake' accounts to write skewed information of 'fake news' about certain parties and people to promote a certain ideal. The power which is also held by Twitter is show also as they were able to collect information easily about these 'bots' but refuse to give them up, much like, the Tinder app having detailed information on their users via Facebook to promote and target specific images catered to a group they are in. New digital media is used to throw certain ideals to audiences that even political parties from foreign countries are able to change the ideas of audiences.