Disinformation similar to the pro-Russian "Matryoshka" campaign is emerging on Bluesky, using deepfakes and fake profiles to spread pro-Russian messages, prompting calls for more proactive action from the platform.

Disinformation similar to the pro-Russian “Matryoshka” campaign is emerging on Bluesky, using deepfakes and fake profiles to spread pro-Russian messages, prompting calls for more proactive action from the platform.

    • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      12·
      6 hours ago

      @rahaeli.bsky.social is an old school trust and safety worker/Dreamwidth admin who also runs an excellent collection of lists of inauthentic accounts.

      • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        17·
        6 hours ago

        Just be very sure you trust the list owner, as some have already started doing shit like turning them into grudge lists once a bunch of people subscribe, using lists that are popular for leftist reasons to mass add trans people without subscribers knowing, etc. I think Bluesky has been cracking down on that sort of thing, but it’s also something they can only act on once they know about it.

    • Ofiuco@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      3·
      5 hours ago

      Wish there was one for mexican propaganda… The mexican userbase is really small, but I’ve already run into some bots

  • atro_city@fedia.io
    186·
    8 hours ago

    That’s why institutions should be on mastodon, not bluesky. @user@social.someinstitution.com is much more recognizable than whatever bluesky has.

    • x00z@lemmy.worldEnglish
      131·
      6 hours ago

      The Feddiverse doesn’t really protect against these kind of campaigns. That’s up to the instances themselves.

      And it’s not about mimicking official accounts. It’s about spreading and gaining traction to specific opinions. It’s known that disinformation campaigns have been targeting posts from real politicians. They boost the opinion while also boosting a counter opinion. Not to mention spread hate in the comments below them.

      • fuckingkangaroos@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        3 hours ago

        The Fediverse is terrible at handling misinformation, maybe its biggest flaw. The budget is precisely $0 and it shows.

      • atro_city@fedia.io
        1·
        3 hours ago

        Veracity of news is important though. Some random person claiming Gandi rapes kids would carry much less weight than @brandy@bbc.com saying so. “News” from some mastodon.social account would (hopefully) get more scrutiny.

    • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      5 hours ago

      BlueSky’s verification system lets you make your handle any URL you own (via DNS or a meta tag in your HTML). Like the Washington Post’s handle is just @washingtonpost.com

      That seems like a pretty trivial thing for any institution to setup even if most users are just going to stick with the default (“whatever dot bsky dot social”), if only because a URL costs a few dollars a year.

      Not that I disagree about institutions being on Mastodon. Important government agencies should be basically everywhere. (Like a local weather service that issues critical safety warnings should be on every service possible.)

    • Eldritch@lemmy.worldEnglish
      173·
      3 hours ago

      The US certainly isn’t good on that front. But they’re nowhere near the mastery of it as Russia, Mainland Taiwan, or other Korea.

      • holo@lemmy.wtfEnglish
        115·
        5 hours ago

        People still think China isn’t a democracy or Cuba is under a military dictatorship… The US is the undisputed master of disinformation and propaganda.

        • Eldritch@lemmy.worldEnglish
          10·
          4 hours ago

          No state under a vanguard party is Democratic. No state is communist either. When is emperor Xi’s next election? Is he enjoying the royal palace? Democratic my ass. Cuba factually has been under a military dictatorship for the last many decades. I think it’s better than many of the others would have been. If it only because Castro somehow managed to be less corrupted than most leninist dictators/vanguards. Which is why we should have no vanguards or oligarchs.

          Believe me I have no love for the US government. They stole my ancestors land. Marched them to death. Sent my grandmother to those quaint little Indian schools that practiced cultural genocide. And often actual genocide with mass graves out back. But that you think Lenin’s shit smells good. Lenin/Stalin actively helped Hitler invade my other ancestors home. Slaughtering family and neighbors. Then returning to Russia to slaughter more that lived there. Because the fucking vanguard perceived them as a threat. Passive genocide, active genocide, passive genocide, active genocide. They both suck. But somehow leninist apologia manages to always be more hypocritical and out of touch.