Russia Used Pokemon Go to attempt to influence the 2016 election - Polidicks

[url]https://www.cnet.com/news/pokemon-go-reportedly-used-for-russian-meddling-too/[/url] (cnet is [URL="https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/cnet/"]not on the rating scale of media bias fact check[/URL], factual reporting is high tho) [QUOTE]Even Pokemon Go, the mega-popular smartphone game that became a phenomenon last year, was the target of Russian agents trying to meddle with the 2016 US election, according to a report Thursday by CNN. The effort was allegedly centered on a campaign called "Don't Shoot Us," an apparent reference "Hands Up, Don't Shoot," a mantra in widespread use after the shooting of Michael Brown. The campaign is said to be tied to agents in Russia, and it reportedly used social media services like Facebook and Twitter to try to exploit racial tensions in the US. But there was one surprise target: Pokemon Go. In playing Pokemon Go, people go to real-world locations to find and train digital monsters, which appear on their phone screens against the landscape picked up by the phones' cameras. According to the CNN report, the Don't Shoot Us campaign announced a contest on its Tumblr page in July 2016 for Pokemon Go players. The contest encouraged them to visit locations where alleged cases of police brutality took place. Players were also asked to give their Pokemon critters the names of people shot by police, including Eric Garner. The campaign offered players Amazon gift cards as rewards. The CNN report says it's not clear what the campaign was trying to accomplish with the Pokemon Go contest, though it might have been to upset the people living near those places and remind them of the police brutality issues.[/QUOTE] why didn't you pokemon go to the polls

Honest truth that's insaneley clever, despite being really worrying. Seriously how you can come up to use a widespread app to manipulate elections?

Stir tension and divide people against eachother. It worked brilliantly.

Wait a second. So we did exactly the same shit we blamed USA for in summer of 2016? That's cheeky as fuck, if true.

I don't get what they were supposed to have done with it beyond just using its name to get attention. Pokemon nicknames are not visible to other players in-game, so the nicknames wouldn't make a difference. There's no in-game interaction with other players beyond battling for Gyms, and even that is just an indirect action. Seems more like a use of typical social media, i.e. 'post screenshots from the game'. The headline makes it sound like they got people to actually do something in-game, but that's not the case. A Niantic rep pretty much says the same thing in the article: [quote]"It's clear from the images shared with us by CNN that our game assets were appropriated and misused in promotions by third parties without our permission," a Niantic spokesman said in a statement. "It is important to note that Pokemon Go, as a platform, was not and cannot be used to share information between users in the app, so our platform was in no way being used. This 'contest' required people to take screen shots from their phone and share over other social networks, not within our game."[/quote]

POKEEE MONNN GO TO THA POLLS

cnn would blame tripping on a sidewalk on russian hacking

What if Russia is behind rick and morty? [editline]13th October 2017[/editline] Or this new cuphead fad

[quote]CNN report[/quote] yeah alright

[video=youtube;vwaiyjh1dGk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwaiyjh1dGk[/video] So how long till we get people saying Hilary was a russian agent lol

[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;52775765]What if Russia is behind rick and morty? [editline]13th October 2017[/editline] Or this new cuphead fad[/QUOTE] Russia invented Bitcoins to crush global economy.

[QUOTE=DoktorAkcel;52775415]Wait a second. So we did exactly the same shit we blamed USA for in summer of 2016? That's cheeky as fuck, if true.[/QUOTE] Tell Putin to cut it the fuck out. Christ, we got enough problems over here.

[QUOTE=Daddy-of-war;52775936]Tell Putin to cut it the fuck out. Christ, we got enough problems over here.[/QUOTE] I tried to, but he is too busy trying to catch Dragonite

Yeah, but can Russia hack itself and stop being a shithole? 🤔

[QUOTE=DoktorAkcel;52775932]Russia invented Bitcoins to crush global economy.[/QUOTE] Bitcoin is obviously a communist currency.

Is there any red flag bigger than an activism campaign that offers rewards for participation

[QUOTE=Kentz;52775749]cnn would blame tripping on a sidewalk on russian hacking[/QUOTE] This story isn't about Russian hacking can you at least pretend you read the article instead of driveby shitposting? [QUOTE=Araknid;52775803]yeah alright[/QUOTE] Both the Facebook and Twitter account have been suspended and Facebook has said their service was used by Russian interests. Doesn't really seem like a stretch.

This story reads like an Onion article and at this point I wouldn't be surprised if CNN ran an article headlined "Russia Did 9/11"

Wait, so Russia is now being accused of trying to bring to attention racial tensions by the left? Wouldn't that be the opposite of supporting Trump?

[QUOTE=MrRalgoman;52783055]Wait, so Russia is now being accused of trying to bring to attention racial tensions by the left? Wouldn't that be the opposite of supporting Trump?[/QUOTE] they want to agitate both sides to the point where they start beating the shit out of each other

[QUOTE=MrRalgoman;52783055]Wait, so Russia is now being accused of trying to bring to attention racial tensions by the left? Wouldn't that be the opposite of supporting Trump?[/QUOTE] The point is reducing America's hold on Eastern Europe (and ideally the rest of it). One way to do that is by stirring domestic unrest, as well as supporting a candidate who will voluntary reduce America's influence by ending treaties & agreements, pulling out of groups, and promoting isolationism, as well as stirring domestic unrest on his own accord.

So the argument is Russian agents are trying to stir civil unrest by... pointing out legitimate issues of police brutality that need to be addressed? Through a mobile phone game no less? Uh, thanks for helping us raise awareness, Russia.

[QUOTE=MrRalgoman;52783055][B]Wait, so Russia is now being accused of trying to bring to attention racial tensions by the left?[/B] Wouldn't that be the opposite of supporting Trump?[/QUOTE] No Russia is accused of running pages or ads that use divisive political themes to either A) directly attack Clinton and the Democrats by associating faux campaigns like Don't Shoot with BLM or B) sowing discord by putting out as many conflicting, identity-driven cultural pieces as possible. It's the same as those ads that [URL="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/russian-operatives-used-facebook-ads-to-exploit-divisions-over-black-political-activism-and-muslims/2017/09/25/4a011242-a21b-11e7-ade1-76d061d56efa_story.html?utm_term=.25c82562db57"]highlighted support for Clinton amongst Muslim women[/URL]. The idea wasn't to show how great Clinton was, it was to connect Clinton as an identity to Muslims. Russia knows that identity politics and "culture wars" are a big pressure in American politics on both sides and likely sought to capitalize on that. [editline]15th October 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=Jim Morrison;52783163]So the argument is Russian agents are trying to stir civil unrest by... pointing out legitimate issues of police brutality that need to be addressed? Through a mobile phone game no less? Uh, thanks for helping us raise awareness, Russia.[/QUOTE] They did it through a variety of social media. They didn't even really do it [I]through [/I]Pokemon Go, they just hosted a contest for it.

congrats russia on so flawlessly reaping the abysmal state of identity politics we've sewed

I'm pretty happy that people aren't laughing this off, since that was probably what they intended when they concocted this. It's brilliant, really. Just concoct plans that sound absolutely fucking ludicrous and that are easy to laugh off if they get caught.

[QUOTE=phygon;52783178]I'm [B]pretty happy that people aren't laughing this off[/B], since that was probably what they intended when they concocted this. It's brilliant, really. Just concoct plans that sound absolutely fucking ludicrous and that are easy to laugh off if they get caught.[/QUOTE] Have you seen this thread? People do what they do over every Russian influence allegation and only read the headline and go "Haha how dumb! Stoopid CNN!"