‘They’re Kidding, Right?’ Social Media Unimpressed by Intel Report on Russia ‘Hacking’ US Election
The US intelligence community have released their findings that supposedly prove Russian interference in the US presidential election with 7 of the 13 page brief dedicated to RT and its influence on the campaign. Twitter reacted accordingly.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released the report on Friday titled “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US elections.
Smoking-gun evidence re: Russia's meddling from US intel report: cartoon of RT's @M_Simonyan stepping over the White House from years ago. 😂 pic.twitter.com/32qvVMbRdu
— Nina ☦️ Byzantina (@NinaByzantina) January 6, 2017
Они же шутят, да?
— Маргарита Симоньян (@M_Simonyan) January 6, 2017
But instead of providing evidence of Russian interference, the brief relied on the CIA and FBI’s “high confidence” in the report’s findings along with the NSA’s “moderate confidence.”
In the back of the unclassified US intelligence report. pic.twitter.com/BkL9RMYyX4
— Paul Sonne (@PaulSonne) January 6, 2017
Suggested HED/DEK change:
We Really Don't Like RussiaToday™
(Also election things happened)https://t.co/dyn5JQx8LK pic.twitter.com/OJ7J0DPEJn— Ali Watkins (@AliWatkins) January 6, 2017
The NYT calls the report "damning and surprisingly detailed". We must be reading different reports. https://t.co/tItMXQn1N3
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) January 6, 2017
https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/817509666691448837
It's shocking how much this report was hyped and how literally no effort was made to include *any* evidence at all, even stuff like this: https://t.co/wvompG6Nyl
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 6, 2017
Every time IC repackages its same assertions in a new form, media acts like it's been proven, even though it – again – includes no evidence: https://t.co/C5yRsZsJbS
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 6, 2017
Many people took to Twitter to mock the report’s RT obsession and failure to provide proof of “Russian hacking”:
https://twitter.com/JordanSig/status/817493618650992640
https://twitter.com/LukeGeorge27/status/817496089263738882
US government's declassified "Russian hacking" report has the curious disclaimer that it is based on watching TV and reading Tweets. pic.twitter.com/Ac1Iyec839
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 6, 2017
Most seemed to think the report reflected badly on the DNI more so than anything else.
Conclusion from wasting time w/DNI CIA FBI NSA report is that American intelligence takes any responsibilitu to US public to be total joke.
— Doug Johnson Hatlem (@djjohnso) January 6, 2017
Fake news: when US government release fake intelligence report devoid of evidence and reporters believe it. @BarackObama
— Jean-François Mezei (@jfmezei) January 6, 2017
Although there were some helpful takeaways…
So the recently released declassified intelligence report CONFIRMS that the leaked emails were credible/legitimate. Kthx
— President Elect Miranda Mitchell (@Mashugana_Kat) January 6, 2017
To me, the main takeaway of the odd RT stuff in the ODNI report is W media should invest in video. Nothing replaces being on the ground. pic.twitter.com/JFvg7yhAoH
— Zselyke Csaky (@zecsaky) January 6, 2017
It wouldn’t be RT without some conspiracy theories, right?
Putin tacitly approves pic.twitter.com/O0MKOIkGmj
— Slashed Tire Owl Dr. (@theowldoctor) January 6, 2017
https://twitter.com/InfoSecPlaya/status/817494615435644930
evidence of collusion came when the WPo, CNN and NBC all were seemingly given a sneak peak of the 50 page intelligence report bf PresEl "zh
— owhy3 (@owhy3) January 6, 2017
In conclusion, the DNI cited two RT programmes they say were used to “intensify” criticism of Hillary Clinton… both of which haven’t been on the air in over a year.
Ah yes, @AbbyMartin's Breaking the Set, which went off air in Feb. 2015, helped swing the 2016 election pic.twitter.com/KbgARKLBxi
— Sam Sacks (@SamSacks) January 6, 2017
One thing is clear from reading the #DNI #hacking report: this is what happens when your universities no longer train Russia specialists.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) January 6, 2017
Illustrated version of IC doc. pic.twitter.com/zeYGLxf31o
— Max Keiser (@maxkeiser) January 6, 2017
https://twitter.com/5egDEG/status/817579550905401345
Source: RT
