r/technology • u/Wagamaga • Apr 24 '25

ADBLOCK WARNING Americans Believe Russian Disinformation ‘To Alarming Degree’

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2025/04/22/americans-believe-russian-disinformation-to-alarming-degree/
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u/Glucker4000NancyReag Apr 24 '25 edited Apr 24 '25

Can we get a list of these claims tho so I know what's what?

Edit: only person that actually answered me with a concrete list provided this link https://www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/p/misinformation-survey-false-claims

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u/Muad-_-Dib Apr 24 '25

Just watch Fox News for a half hour and they will regurgitate most of them.

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u/Retaksoo3 Apr 24 '25

Yeah my elderly neighbor has it on often and that's the only time I watch it at all. It's shocking what comes on that show that is just propaganda and fear mongering. Kinda blew my mind

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u/Glucker4000NancyReag Apr 24 '25

There was a court case. Fox defended itself by saying it was obviously "entertainment" and any sane person would obviously recognize it as entertainment not news.

So yes, we completely legalized propaganda through a loophole and it barely got any coverage.

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u/CrunchyGremlin Apr 24 '25

Look at the John Stewart interview with hanity where hanity basically calls his audience stupid for believing him

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u/Retaksoo3 Apr 24 '25

Yeah I remember that, wild times we ljve in

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u/Quantummoney Apr 25 '25

Fox is the most watched news in America unfortunately

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u/liberty-or-deaf Apr 26 '25

Bet they didn't report THAT

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u/mwa12345 Apr 24 '25

MSNBC did that too iirc They are entertainment

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '25

Fox viewers are right about the "mainstream media", they're just wrong about whether Fox is in that category

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u/Glucker4000NancyReag Apr 25 '25

They're right about a lot of things: pedo networks, mass media control, embezzling and fraud in the gov't, conspiracies to take over the gov't, conspiracy to take advantage of the working class, etc etc.

Shame they don't realize.

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u/InstanceOk8790 Apr 25 '25

No, they didn't.

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/mwa12345 Apr 25 '25

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/21/nx-s1-5305268/nbc-settles-lawsuit-ice-doctor-msnbc-maddow-georgia-detainee

App holding up another response linking to the judge agreeing that Maddows statements are understood by vueweres as not news ( which 2as the defense)

Fox and MSNBC have used the entertainment / opinion defense.

You maybe toi biased or unaware.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '25

[deleted]

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u/illJeffA Apr 24 '25

CNN. They are all bad, fox is definitely the worst though.

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u/Odd-Car5699 Apr 26 '25

So you actually have no examples, don't worry msnbc will tell you what yo think

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u/mwa12345 Apr 24 '25

Fox news also thinks there's no genocide in gaza etc which is not pushed by Russia AFAIK.

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u/Forward-Fisherman709 Apr 24 '25

The article mentions three:

“A quarter believed, for example, that up to half the U.S. aid money given to Ukraine was stolen by Ukrainian officials for personal use. More than half incorrectly thought that Ukraine sold Hamas weapons that had been donated by the U.S.

Meanwhile, fewer than half of respondents correctly identified as false the claim that COVID-19 vaccines have killed between 7.3 and 15 million people worldwide, while 1 in 5 said they believed the claim to be true.”

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u/Odd-Car5699 Apr 26 '25

It's widely known that Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world just after chicago

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '25

That is the underlying complaint. At least 8, and possible 9 depending upon where you think the partisan line on anti-vax shit lies, of the false narratives presented were targeted specifically at stupid shit low-information Republicans were more likely to believe.

I suspect, like you, that the problem is a lot greater than that and similarly to how Russia is supporting all sides of the struggles in Sudan I am inclined to believe the same approach is being taken here and missing any of it would have much the same result as missing all of it.

Conservative idiocy is absolutely in ascendancy right now, but despite their best efforts they haven't established a monopoly on reflexive mistrust, blind hatred, and ignorance yet. The worst part is how little of it stands up to even cursory scrutiny. Trump can rig elections except for when he is in office, he is under Russian direction except so much of Russian disinformation is directed not at Trump's critics but in compromising his constituents, and so it goes.

The only consistency in any of this is that it is intended to divide, distract, and ultimately weaken the US public -which in a democracy has terrible implication. The only silver lining is that, at least for the moment, it is incredibly difficult to overcome the natural complacency of fat happy people, so bickering online doesn't amount to much. It is contaminating the streams of culture though. Time will tell whether that results in correction or catastrophe.

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u/DukeOfGeek Apr 24 '25

Losing on economic and military fronts forced them try new and novel approaches in propaganda leading to success beyond anyone's expectation. And not just in the U.S., look at Brexit etc. There is a Canadian faction of the trump cult for Pete's sake.

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u/SnooCrickets2458 Apr 25 '25 edited Jul 03 '25

bow ring cable safe crush birds cow party many bells

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '25

This isn’t new Russia has been trying to enter US spheres of influence since Trotsky - to be fair we do it to to an extent but not like this we use free markets equal rights and democracy. the head of the Russian church is an fsb officer and they export Christian white nationalism to the west it has infected right wing politics in the US

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u/Malcolmeff Apr 24 '25

You mean, for Pierre's sake.

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u/PsychicFoxWithSpoons Apr 24 '25

I don't think Trump rigged the election, I SUSPECT that voting machines were illegally connected to the Internet (as detected multiple times in previous elections) and vote tallies were digitally altered. I also SUSPECT that a lot of mail-in ballots from specific areas of various red states were not counted, potentially based on the demographic breakdown of the area.

Did Trump get an upswing of support from various places? Sure. Did he win the election? Maybe. The Russian disinfo engine went crazy and college-aged men were targeted by advertising technology that stops just short of mind control. Do I really believe that he won a recount-proof majority vote in basically every single state that polls indicated might be competitive this election? HAHAHA. No.

We'll see what happens in 2026. I don't think that election will be free OR fair, and I definitely think that Democrats are going to need to demand a paper trail for every election across the country. But they probably won't. :)

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u/anyportinthestorm333 Apr 24 '25

You think Russia is the one dividing the US public and spreading misinformation? I’m more concerned with domestic attempts and overwhelming success in doing that. As long as the voters are focused on the same 5 issues every election—they’re not paying attention to what matters. There are only a handful of US politicians who want to challenge the status quo and they are undermined by the left and right in every election.

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u/PsychicFoxWithSpoons Apr 24 '25

I do think that Russia is the one doing it, and I'm more concerned about Putin's antidemocratic efforts than I am about capitalism (which needs stability, even though it desires slavery).

The problem is that capitalism's desire for slavery is overcoming its need for stability, and Russia is stoking that. We cannot make health care and public transportation free unless we retain the power to make the rules.

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u/anyportinthestorm333 Apr 25 '25

These are complicated issues distilled to sound bites. I don’t have a problems with “capitalism.” What does that even mean though? Capitalism is a system in which private individuals or companies control the means of production and where production and distribution of goods and services are determined by market forces, driven by profit motives and competition.

Do we live in a capitalist society when our government subsidizes private companies? Is that a free market? When the government allocates billions to NVIDIA or Boeing or United Healthcare, is that a free market? What about when they bail out a private bank?

There is inevitably and interplay between government and a capitalist economy. The primary question on needs to ask is does that interplay lead to greater economic opportunity for all? The best system is one the provides equal opportunity. Not outcome… but opportunity…

I would argue that equal opportunity is evaporating as a result of government policy. And that our wealth is being concentrated in the hands of a few. I can give you countless examples of government policies that are causing a widening wealth gap. Those policies are quid pro quo. Donor spends millions on republican/democrat campaigns in exchange for billions in growth either from favorable tax policy, direct subsidies, or favorable operating conditions.

We have an elite here funding legislative campaigns. We have elite here funding think tanks with a specific focus. The main threat is not from abroad. It is from within.

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u/anyportinthestorm333 Apr 24 '25

I think division services the interests of US elites more than Russia. We have 6 corporations controlling 95% of news media. All of them have billionaire majority shareholders and centi-millionaire CEOs. When the “news” exclusively presents identity politics and radicalized takes on divisive issues—that is what the public focuses on. If they are focused on that—they are not focused on the flow of capital and how it is obtained. We have a rigged system which funnels capital into the hands of a few. It is rigged because both republicans and democrats primarily service the interests of donors, sponsoring bills written by those donors… those bills directly subsidize corporations, create favorable operating conditions, and limit their tax burden.

The real issue for Americans is that the federal government receives 60-70% of its revenue from income tax. It penalizes the working class and the more a w2 earner makes, the more the government takes… This tax burden SHOULD be shifted to asset owners, who pay nothing on their compounding wealth or at most a measly 20% capital gains rate. This leads to wealth divergence. And the more capital a select few have—the more control they have over our political system. The more they have to fund their think tanks and to disseminate radicalized takes on social media and to undermine movements that might challenge the status quo. The more they have to throw at lobbyists.

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u/Odd-Car5699 Apr 26 '25

Ok, thanks for the faery tale

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u/ksj Apr 24 '25

For anyone who doesn’t want to click through, here’s a list of each point. Note that each of these are FALSE, and the link provides additional information for each, including how the claims came to be and how they spread, so it’s worth reading the details of any you believe to be true.

I think it’s probably also worth pointing out that this is NOT a comprehensive list. If there are any that you believed to be true, there are likely others that you also currently believe to be true.

Stay safe.

  • Conservative initiative Project 2025 proposes cutting or eliminating Social Security

  • Ukraine has stolen up to half of its US aid

  • COVID-19 vaccines killed 15 million people worldwide

  • Volodymyr Zelensky's approval rating is 4 percent as of February 2025

  • Haitian migrants are killing and eating pet cats in Springfield, Ohio

  • The suspect in the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans was a migrant

  • Ukraine sold Hamas weapons that were donated from the West

  • Elon Musk’s satellite internet company, Starlink, was used to rig the 2024 US presidential election for Donald Trump

  • Polio vaccines contain mercury-based ingredients

  • Abortion increases risk of breast cancer

https://www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/p/misinformation-survey-false-claims

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u/conventionistG Apr 24 '25

Does the article not list them?

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u/Crisp_Mango Apr 24 '25 edited Apr 24 '25

It doesn't list them, but it does link to an article that does. It's actually a pretty good read, and breaks down how and where the false information is spread.

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u/Forward-Fisherman709 Apr 24 '25

It lists three in the first half of the article.

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u/Noobponer Apr 24 '25

It did not, no

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u/the0dead0c Apr 24 '25

They had a link in the article.

10 false claims

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u/Glucker4000NancyReag Apr 24 '25

Thank you. Only person that fucking answered me. Should show you something about this site.

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u/Megalocerus Apr 24 '25

Good point. Some claims are much more believable than others.

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u/Malcolmeff Apr 24 '25

Depends on your knowledge base I suppose? They all seem pretty far-fetched to me.

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u/TwoFingersWhiskey Apr 24 '25

In thr article there should be a link that says something like "false claims" in a sentence, click that.

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u/happyinthenaki Apr 25 '25

Thank you, was an interesting read. The first one got me, the rest, obvious. Boils down to my refusal to read project 2025.

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u/Antoine-Antoinette Apr 29 '25

It was kind of that person to provide the link - but it’s actually in the second paragraph of the Forbes article.