The news story about Russia cutting off natural gas supplies to the Ukraine was, at least until the countries came to agreement, a pretty big story. Most of the Western press was reporting it as the story of big powerful Russia flexing it’s muscles to intimidate it’s newly democratic neighbour Ukraine.
There was quite a lively online debate about the story and one of the things I noticed happening was that there were many posts expressing a more pro-Russian viewpoint than was seen in the mainstream media. Some users noticed, and pointed out, similarities between some of the messages, suggesting that it was “FSB spam”. I don’t know, but when I got home last night I found a comment from a Russian woman on this blog, expressing her views about the Russian gas story.
I recalled seeing very similar messages during the day and, at first, thought that perhaps there was some truth behind what the conspiracy theorists were saying – that there was some sort of coordinated effort to post pro-Russian messages on different websites. But it turns out that the user is an ordinary Russian woman who, fed up with seeing only news which she felt was anti-Russian in the mainstream media, took to the internet in a bid to express herself.
In the past few years, the internet has increasingly become an effective channel for the expression of views that aren’t necessarily present in the mainstream media. I’m not suggesting that the internet yet allows the cyber-activist (or ordinary person with a view to express) an equal voice to that of mainstream media but it does give them a voice, which is something that might not have had up until quite recently.
[related cybersoc content: Brave Fight to Save B-92]
Nothing like a healthy dose of paranoia. If it is a bit of cunning propaganda then its a bit long-winded for the net, i would have expected it to be more like “.RU is teh r0x0r”. How many other instances of the comment have you seen 2-3 or 100’s? I tried googling it but I got no results, so either its not that widespread (and probably a genuine person having a rant) or the spooks in google are surpressing it and we are in the middle of a cyberpropaganda war :)
It’s more like ten times rather than 100’s and you’re absolutely right, it’s entirely possible, even likely, that it’s private citizens having a rant. In fact, in this case, I’ve been in touch with the author of the comment and that’s exactly what the comment is – an ordinary person giving her two-pence on a news story that effects her.
What I think is interesting about this, and the more clear cut instances of message board spamming I’ve seen in the past, is that people are increasingly using comments, message boards, etc to express the views that aren’t necessarily carried by the mainstream media. I personally think it’s a good thing because it means that the angle taken by old media on stories like this can be challenged.