The Whistleblower Is Not The Only One Who Needs Safety -- Adam Schiff Has Been Repeatedly Hit

[ancianita]

First, they moved on Schiff with the bot armies to slash at him and the public's trust.

I've been so sick of the attacks, I've posted this notice to Facebook commenters as often as I see a thread full of haters-for-rent. I also tell them that Brad Pascale has probably been spending on social media digital "individuals." Just speculating, cuz I haven't evidence. Yet.

Here's what Snopes has found out about bot use against Schiff:

Adam Schiff is a target of Russian social media influence operations in the United States, which have not abated since the historic 8 November 2016 election.

Hamilton68, a live dashboard created by the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan, transatlantic initiative of The German Marshall Fund, monitors the Russian operation. Around the time of the vote on the second memo’s release, Schiff’s name was a top topic and the hashtag #littleadamschiff was popular among Russian bot accounts:

?w=600

Hamilton68's monitoring shows that a small army of social media operatives — a mix of Russian-controlled accounts, useful idiots, and innocent bystanders — are deployed to promote all of this material to unknowing audiences.

Some of these are real people, others are bots, and some present themselves as innocent news aggregators, providing “breaking news alerts” to happenings worldwide or in specific cities.
The latter group is a key tool for moving misinformation and disinformation from primarily Russian-influenced circles into the general social media population.

As of 6 February 2018, this network was in full swing, with Russian bots and trolls utilizing President Trump’s derogatory nickname for the congressman with the hashtag #LittleAdamSchiff.
Fake news and rumors circulated reporting Schiff’s sister was married to the son of billionaire philanthropist (and frequent target of conspiracy theories) George Soros — despite the fact that Schiff does not have a sister.

The false information wended its way from the message board 4chan to a corollary of disreputable web sites and social media posts.

https://www.snopes.com/.../fake-news-bots-target-author.../

About Hamilton68: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_Securing_Democracy

Second, Trump steps up, tweets tough talk about old school offing of anyone he wants to label a "spy."

-- sends henchmen to Ukraine to "find" "enough" evidence to gaslight impeachment processes and persons with.

-- declares Pelosi no longer speaker of the house.

-- turns on Adam Schiff with his full force pretend presidential outrage -- in tweets -- to resign, and be investigated for "fraud and treason" (Seriously, the ridiculousness of tweeting as presidential behavior, I think I'll never get over.).

-- demands to know who the Whistleblower is, or else.

Third, social media allow these collective attacks, saying that massive negativity still stays within FB's "community standards." I have written to FB about this, read about theirs and Google's business model, and will make a good case for deleting (not suspending) social media accounts in the future.

Finally, to fellow DU'ers. Never, ever underestimate the violence that can follow such a process. When we worry about the safety of the Whistleblower, please don't underestimate the similar danger to the safety and security of those who help the Whistleblower.

Retaliation, from the alt-right forces in this and other countries, starts early and lasts until after impeachment is complete. Just when people breathe a sigh of relief, or celebrate, thinking "it's over" or "we won" ...

they take "active measures."

This won't end after Democrats win.

It's not the new normal, either.

No. It can never be the new normal.

Good, no-drama Obama democracy (and even boring governance) is normal.