The prime minister of Estonia has apparently released a video supporting NAFO, encouraging an online troll movement of mostly anonymous accounts that harasses anyone not in ideological lockstep. Yuck.
Dear fellow void travelers, if you are here and only see my toot and are confused, click the top toot and read through the many replies for proper context.
Tl:dr; it's apparently a Twitter troll group. Ywfms
@aliide They are trolls piling on anyone who doesn’t agree with them. They defend their bullying as “fighting the vatniks,” when what they are actually doing is polluting rational debate. The tide never turned against them: they have been shit from the start.
fair enough, I have no strong feelings either way and rarely interact with the accounts. I'm sure they manage to effectively dogpile some vatniks but see your point that this can impact quality of discourse
@aliide They obviously have a good time being trolls online (who doesn’t?), but I block them at the first opportunity. Seeing a head of state endorse them makes me want to die of cringe.
@markcasey She thanked them for their “countering-disinformation” service, not their crowdfunding. This is NAFO’s defining quality, and it’s fundamentally stupid.
@markcasey “An entire group.” Give me a break. These are trolls, not some immutable class of human beings. As I said, there’s nothing wrong or toxic about their fundraising, but their actions to police public discourse are just coordinated bullying. Now please buzz off.
It's a bunch of random people with a silly dog in their profile with varying outlooks on life. Some will be toxic, some will be stupid, some will be good.
At the end of the day, painting a vast number of people as singularly trolls because they have some silly profile image reflects more on you than it does them.
It’s not about public discourse. You’re missing the point. You counter the infinite numbers of russian trolls by making a mockery of them. Which is exactly what NAFO does. There can be no discourse with a troll.
Huh, judging only by my feed, it seems @official_nafo@twitter.com is coordinating a lot of fundraising, and folks who are fronting for them (e.g. @frontlinekit@twitter.com, @vorobyov@twitter.com) are distributing food, tac medical supplies, drones, etc on the ground.
The online trolls seem (to me) mostly interested in chipping in their nickels and dimes.
The wired article describing the whole lot is pretty upbeat about it.
To me #NAFO tactics make sense when bonking Kremlin trolls. On Twitter, that was/is needed and a good thing and Kallas is right in that respect.
Problem is that some of them take the same tactics to other situations, such as otherwise good people that disagree with them in good faith. Not helpful.
I can see why you don't love them, that's fair enough, they've not gone easy on you and let's just say your day job does not exactly make you a Kremlin stooge.
I think it makes sense to bully back the bullies and make crazy memes. And stick to that. @BradRubenstein
@baalzephon I see you don't care much for us #NAFOFellas Your research lacks enough evidence to support your conclusions. This is typical of russian trolls.
this is a very disappointing attitude. I see you've argued about it with people already so I won't rehash those with you.
I know quite a few NAFO people that really don't fall into that category. I do not hide my identity, or troll, I know many other #NAFO that don't either.
As I said yesterday when you replied to my toot, I value dissenting views. Unfortunately, you approached what I said with the assumption I was nothing more than a troll and that did you a disservice.
I didn't take offense at all. I replied in an intelligent and respectful manner.
I think you have the wrong end of the stick with regard to NAFO, but that's your right.
"Bonking” Russian trolls is an interesting way to combat disinformation (the jury is still out on effectiveness). Harassing people for not being “PRO” enough is wrong -- I haven't seen NAFO incidents (not saying they don't exist), I have seen non-NAFO examples though.
@markcasey @vertis Yes, I learned about NAFO from IAmTheWarax on twitter, who was someone I followed for years because he wrote with intelligence, compassion, and humor about military issues based on his experience as a tank gunner in Afghanistan.
I don't know how Kevin came to his opinion about NAFO, but what he sees does not resemble what I've seen.
Even Ukraine's Ministry of Defense has acknowledged NAFO's value as anti-propagandists.
Giulia
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •Kevin Rothrock
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •Jock
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •Beeks
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •Dear fellow void travelers, if you are here and only see my toot and are confused, click the top toot and read through the many replies for proper context.
Tl:dr; it's apparently a Twitter troll group. Ywfms
violet
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •Aliide
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •Kevin Rothrock
in reply to Aliide • • •Jack Leone
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •It's a meme that developed from an old tweet.
"The whole internet loves Milkshake Duck, a lovely duck that drinks milkshakes! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you the duck is racist"
Schmaker
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • •Kevin Rothrock
Unknown parent • • •Aliide
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •Schmaker likes this.
Kevin Rothrock
in reply to Aliide • • •Mark Hughes
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •Kevin Rothrock
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •Lennart Petersson
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •Kevin Rothrock
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •Aliide
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •Kevin Rothrock
Unknown parent • • •Elk
ElkKevin Rothrock
in reply to Aliide • • •MikLinSwe
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •#NAFO and Kallas are infinitely better people than you, Softcock. Most are. Crawl back to your echochamber and start blocking everyone again.
✌🇺🇦 #SlavaUkraine
Mark Casey
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •To be fair, they've also raised *VAST* sums of money to help Ukraine.
Am I going to add some silly dog to my profile? No.
But I will freely admit they've also done a lot of good with all that money raised.
Kevin Rothrock
in reply to Mark Casey • • •Mark Casey
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •It's shades of gray, there are toxic people in any large enough groups.
Painting an entire group of people with the same brush because they have some silly dog in their profile is counter-productive.
Kevin Rothrock
in reply to Mark Casey • • •Mark Casey
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •To quote you "encouraging an online troll movement of mostly anonymous accounts that harasses anyone not in ideological lockstep"
That is painting the entire group of people as entirely trolls. It is painting with such a wide brush that you could cover continents.
Do you really think that is fair?
Kevin Rothrock
in reply to Mark Casey • • •Mark Casey
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •Did I say it was?
Or did I say you're painting an entire group of people with a wide brush as if it was a binary choice of good/bad?
Kevin Rothrock
in reply to Mark Casey • • •Mark Casey
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •It's a bunch of random people with a silly dog in their profile with varying outlooks on life. Some will be toxic, some will be stupid, some will be good.
At the end of the day, painting a vast number of people as singularly trolls because they have some silly profile image reflects more on you than it does them.
Kevin Rothrock
in reply to Mark Casey • • •Mark Casey
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •EyalL
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •@markcasey they were actually countering Putin's troll farms and propaganda effectively
They are awesome
Schmaker likes this.
Kevin Rothrock
Unknown parent • • •[zaphod@::1]#:t_blink:
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •That's very russian.
Schmaker likes this.
Ada Ґ.
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •@baalzephon
It’s not about public discourse. You’re missing the point.
You counter the infinite numbers of russian trolls by making a mockery of them. Which is exactly what NAFO does.
There can be no discourse with a troll.
So why are you actually salty? Crush on Kaja?
Sigmagirl
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •Brad Rubenstein “:verified:”
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •Huh, judging only by my feed, it seems @official_nafo@twitter.com is coordinating a lot of fundraising, and folks who are fronting for them (e.g. @frontlinekit@twitter.com, @vorobyov@twitter.com) are distributing food, tac medical supplies, drones, etc on the ground.
The online trolls seem (to me) mostly interested in chipping in their nickels and dimes.
The wired article describing the whole lot is pretty upbeat about it.
wired.com/story/ukraine-war-tr…
@kevinrothrock
Ukraine War: How to Win With Trucks, Trolls, and Tourniquets
Peter Guest (WIRED)Kevin Rothrock
in reply to Brad Rubenstein “:verified:” • • •notsoloud
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •To me #NAFO tactics make sense when bonking Kremlin trolls. On Twitter, that was/is needed and a good thing and Kallas is right in that respect.
Problem is that some of them take the same tactics to other situations, such as otherwise good people that disagree with them in good faith. Not helpful.
@BradRubenstein
Kevin Rothrock
in reply to notsoloud • • •notsoloud
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •I can see why you don't love them, that's fair enough, they've not gone easy on you and let's just say your day job does not exactly make you a Kremlin stooge.
I think it makes sense to bully back the bullies and make crazy memes. And stick to that.
@BradRubenstein
Kevin Rothrock
in reply to notsoloud • • •Kalle Kniivilä
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •😉
Kevin Rothrock
in reply to Kalle Kniivilä • • •Rocket🇺🇸💙💛❤️🤍💙🇺🇦
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •@baalzephon
I see you don't care much for us #NAFOFellas Your research lacks enough evidence to support your conclusions. This is typical of russian trolls.
Tells me allot about you. Enjoy the ride!
Rocket🇺🇸💙💛❤️🤍💙🇺🇦 reshared this.
The Curse of La Mikey McFilms
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •csh
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •Luke Chadwick
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •this is a very disappointing attitude. I see you've argued about it with people already so I won't rehash those with you.
I know quite a few NAFO people that really don't fall into that category. I do not hide my identity, or troll, I know many other #NAFO that don't either.
As I said yesterday when you replied to my toot, I value dissenting views. Unfortunately, you approached what I said with the assumption I was nothing more than a troll and that did you a disservice.
Kevin Rothrock
in reply to Luke Chadwick • • •Luke Chadwick
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •I didn't take offense at all. I replied in an intelligent and respectful manner.
I think you have the wrong end of the stick with regard to NAFO, but that's your right.
"Bonking” Russian trolls is an interesting way to combat disinformation (the jury is still out on effectiveness). Harassing people for not being “PRO” enough is wrong -- I haven't seen NAFO incidents (not saying they don't exist), I have seen non-NAFO examples though.
Kevin Rothrock
in reply to Luke Chadwick • • •Luke Chadwick
in reply to Kevin Rothrock • • •honestly, I'm trying to be as respectful an un-combative as possible, while still sharing my view.
I value your content and your perspective. Let's leave it there shall we.
Mark Casey
in reply to Luke Chadwick • • •@vertis I'll give you credit, you tried.
His behaviour was confrontational and you tried to get your point across. Unfortunately he has his mind made up and doesn't want to listen.
Spicewalla
in reply to Mark Casey • • •@markcasey @vertis
Yes, I learned about NAFO from IAmTheWarax on twitter, who was someone I followed for years because he wrote with intelligence, compassion, and humor about military issues based on his experience as a tank gunner in Afghanistan.
I don't know how Kevin came to his opinion about NAFO, but what he sees does not resemble what I've seen.
Even Ukraine's Ministry of Defense has acknowledged NAFO's value as anti-propagandists.
twitter.com/DefenceU/status/15…
Kevin Rothrock
in reply to Spicewalla • • •