Saturday, September 12, 2020

PeaceData.net on Reddit

Graphika published a report on the PeaceData.net network, which was attributed to Russia's Internet Research Agency.  The website never reached a wide audience, but it's still interesting to look at the IRA's activity.

In addition to the main website (PeaceData.net), the network also consisted of social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  One of the Twitter profiles was "Alice Schultz" (@AliceSc14113509), which was created on June 3, 2020.  I looked on Reddit and a found a user named /u/AliceSchultz25, which is just about the fakest-sounding username you could come up with.  Alice's account was created on June 1, 2020.  She shared two links to PeaceData.net in /r/History and made another self-post in /r/PoliticalDiscussion (which likely contained a link to PeaceData.net).  All three links were removed by the automod and none of them got any upvotes.

I went onto RedditSearch.io, and found 10 other submission to PeaceData.net.  The most successful of these posts received 6 upvotes.

One post came from /u/Thisisntthespace, which is a shadowbanned account, so I can't see when the account was created.

So I assume /u/AliceSchultz25 is a sockpuppet, and perhaps /u/Thisisntthespace was a sockpuppet, too.  None of the other submissions came from accounts that I would say are sockpuppets, but I'll give a summary for the sake of completeness.

Three posts came from /u/gregorjamessmith40, which is a four-month old account with a lot of posts about Turkey and Syria and the Middle East.  He shares a lot of links to sites I haven't heard of, such as LibyaPolicy.com and TheArabWeekly.com.

Two posts came from /u/kavabean2, which is a 12-year-old account with 112,000 karma points.  KavaBean2 is a moderator of /r/Labour and he shares links to a lot of left-wing sites such as PeoplesWorld.org and PeoplesDispatch.com.

One post came from /u/IntnsRed, which is a 14-year-old account with 400,000 karma points.  IntnsRed is a moderator of /r/WorldPolitics2, and he shares links to a ton of websites, including The Guardian, Newsweek, and CounterPunch.

Two posts came from /u/captainwaffles, which is a 10-year-old account.  CaptainWaffles also shares links to videos from Jimmy Dore and articles by Aaron Maté.

One post came from /u/human-no560, and he was sharing the link in order to highlight an example of Russian propaganda, so that doesn't really count. 

Below are all the links:

AliceSchultz25:
https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/gugch5/war_crimes_committed_by_british_troops_peacedata/
https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/gugpx0/western_special_services_role_in_the/
https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalDiscussion/comments/gugynt/brazils_ailing_welfare_state_clashes_against/

Thisisntthespace:
https://www.reddit.com/r/inthenews/comments/h9h4my/indian_government_is_abusing_the_covid19_lockdown/

Gregorjamessmith40:
https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews2/comments/hi1sxx/how_erdogans_government_is_hiring_mercenaries_for/
https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/hi1rjz/how_erdogans_government_is_hiring_mercenaries_for/
https://www.reddit.com/r/socialmedianews/comments/hi1sls/how_erdogans_government_is_hiring_mercenaries_for/

KavaBean2:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Labour/comments/i7r06n/housing_how_coronavirus_has_exposed_this/
https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/i7r2f9/housing_how_coronavirus_has_exposed_this/

CaptainWaffles:
https://www.reddit.com/r/InformedTankie/comments/igr827/svetlana_tikhanovskayas_deleted_webpages_show/
https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageImperialism/comments/igr7tf/svetlana_tikhanovskayas_deleted_webpages_show/

IntnsRed:
https://www.reddit.com/r/worldpolitics2/comments/i4lb98/does_the_us_military_assassinate_journalists_the/

Human-no560:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ActiveMeasures/comments/ikzshh/this_is_the_website_the_russians_were_using_to/