NZ consumed 30% more Russian disinformation than the USA during Covid
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- Date published:
11:15 am, August 22nd, 2025 - 38 comments
Categories: internet, interweb -
Tags: disinformation, foreign interference, Misinformation, national security, troll farms
Tracking Russian troll farm consumption – NZ is the blue line
Russian Propaganda Index. Source: Microsoft Digital Defence Report 2022
I’d previously shared this data point on Mountain Tui –
“During the Delta lockdown, researchers noticed an explosion of extremist content on social media: invented stories about vaccine-related deaths, calls for Ardern and top health officials to face “Nuremberg 2.0 trials,” and various conspiracy theories.
The posts were traced to Russian troll farms.
Until this point, disinformation had largely remained on the fringes of New Zealand politics.
In the final month of the Auckland lockdown, however, according to a Microsoft analysis, the consumption of Russian disinformation was thirty per cent higher in New Zealand than in the United States.”
What Is A Russian Troll Farm?
Guardian has an old article on this topic where they talk about “hundreds” of paid bloggers working the internet, posting non-descript comments interweaved with political propaganda.
Pro Publica has a 2022 article revealing an “infamous Russian troll farm” is at the heart of anti-Ukraine messages on the internet. They are described as “a network of paid trolls who attempted to influence the 2016 US presidential election.” These accounts are so successful they can rack up hundreds of millions of views and have their contents shared.
In 2018, Reddit banned nearly 1000 accounts linked to a suspected Russian troll farm.
i.e. It’s everywhere on the internet.
And CNN was even able to capture partial footage of one operation a few years ago.
The Line Between Troll Farms & Ordinary Kiwis Are Blurred Over Time
As I wrote in “The folly of retreat in the face of defeat”, when it comes to misinformation and disinformation (lies), eventually healthy cells can get contaminated, and the body’s defence mechanism starts metastising.
It becomes harder to know where to draw the line between troll and genuine belief.
Many leaders in the EU and elsewhere have recognised for years that modern warfare is no longer conducted with boots on the ground. Instead, it’s conjoined in cyber-warfare, satellites, with the aim being propaganda, division, misunderstanding, and through that, opportunistic extraction/manipulation.
Look at the USA for a shining example of a country that no other could physically break – yet is now cracking from inside.
It’s not ironic that yesterday NZ’s intelligence services said NZ is now facing its toughest national security environment.
They listed “foreign interference, espionage, and online radicalisation” as major threats –
“Increasing levels of polarisation and grievance are driving support for violent extremist ideologies and foreign states are more willing to target New Zealand organisations and communities in order to achieve their aims.”
And all this amidst the current NZ government cutting national security roles, budget. and shutting down funding for the Disinformation Project,1 He Whenua Taurikura and social services research.2
Why would they do that knowing what is at stake?
The reality is some politicians benefit from disinformation and division, whether from foreign or domestic sources.
And the rise of the“free speech movements” in some countries can be a pretext to freely spread misinformation and hate — context matters.
All this is a risk to ther country – and primarily the left aligned politicians to bear.
This is an excerpt from Mountain Tui
This site gets a hell of a lot of back end attacks trying to leave misinformation, malware links, or just trying to take over the site.
The latter usually runs at about thousands of attempts per hour that I can see attempting to hack into open ports like ssh or web. But I only see the top of the iceberg because many are handled before my systems even see them with everything from denial of service attacks to botnet exclusions at the internet provider or the CDN services.
Plus I have firewall rules that prevent repeated network domain connections from networks outside Australasia (where 96% of our readers comes from)
Wordfence eliminates most of the wordpress exploits and further winnows out wordpress targeting botnets.
We only publish about 3-5% of the comments that are attempted to be made on the site. Automated defences block most of the automated comments.
Our policy of requiring first-time commenters to get past a moderator eliminates the few others that get through. They wind up in spam (or trash).
What we are left with is the human commenters who seem to spend their life sucking up ideas from other people without bothering to think about them or having no capability of arguing.
We tolerate them on the site, up until the point that they start attacking other commenters for daring to suggest that their comments reveal themselves to be incoherent idiots who don’t know what they are writing about.
//—
Ummm an example is called for..
For instance Pat O'Dea both in his post at TDB and under his pseudonym here (which I am constrained from revealing) being a good example of a misinformation parrot. When you google parts of his comments on this site, as I have done, you often find exact matches coming straight off troll-farm sites.
Thousands of comments here parroting dumbarse opinions that he clearly didn't understand. Then incoherent name-calling and attacks on anyone questioning them when he didn't just avoid responding. Probably because he was too stupid to understand the criticism or too lazy to do anything except wallpaper our comments section with fire and forget bill-boarding.
I pity and shudder anyone who is misrepresented by Pat O’Dea in a union (he claims to be a ‘unionist’ presumably a rep or union employee). I can’t conceive of him being useful for anything apart from propping up a pole with a sign on it, and chanting someone else’s words. There is a place for that in workplace relations – but it is pretty damn limited.
Clearly a person who equates yelling at people as being a productive activity. A lazy stupid arsehole who needs placard and a picket line. Because he prefers to lie in a short soundbite rather than constructing coherent response to any situation.
If he is one of the O'Dea family from Kupe St, in Orakei, none of them were what you would call "bright". In the 1960's old Mrs O'Dea would go off her meds intermittently and run up and down Kupe St stark naked screaming that she was going to destroy the world.
I know this because I used to answer the phone sometimes for the local Doctor who was the one who people rang when she "went off."
Probably. I just looked him up for the first time. Probably this guy. It would explain his obvious affinity to Russian troll farms.
From my interminable correspondence with him over various bans on the site by virtually every moderator at some point or another, I got the impression that he was incapable of understanding what I wrote. All he was interested in was finding a phrase that he could construct some bullshit around to attach a label on.
In the end, I came to conclusion he wasn't worth wasting my late night respond time on. It was better to use it for the people who had solvable problems.
You are right – some of his "fellow travellers" are really good people but every group has it's trouble makers.
I routinely disagree with some of his fellow travellers and often many inside Labour. But agreeing to disagree seldom descends into the kind of outright lying, stupid slogans, and misrepresentation of views that Pat O'Dea used in his post about this site and my views on the Palestinian/Israeli conflicts.
Especially since even before October 7th 2023, I’d been pointing out that Israel was heading towards treating Gaza like the Nazi’s had treated the Warsaw Ghetto during WW2. That a genocide or ethnic cleansing was likely to the the result.
O’Dea is a piece of work – a uniquely incoherent lying one.
Not a Russian troll farm given what is said by Pat O'Dea on the Russian-Ukraine conflict (Russia should return to its borders).
here.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2025/08/18/ben-morgan-the-alaska-summit-and-russian-advances-near-pokrovsk/
Sure. But you’re mistaking the objectives.
If you ever read the Russian (and other) troll farms, they are rarely coherent in their messaging. The intent usually isn't to further explicit state objectives. It is to cause social disruption, disagreement and clicks in the target countries. That is the objective.
Active measure strategies have always targeted virtually all opinions simply to cause disruption, confusion and disagreement. Each of which decreases coherence in a societies responses.
The strategy doesn’t depend on promoting a viewpoint, it concentrates on making sure a coherent response to any event is unlikely. The details of the understanding of the fools who listen to it is irrelevant, just so long at they are disruptive to decision making.
For example all the Russian troll farms were pushing both “Make America Great Again” and Trump in 2016, while also pushing fear of Trump and MAGA themes on sister sites, often on the same IP numbers.
The Israelis are pretty good at it, and appear to have their own farms pushing it. For instance like the oft-repeated propaganda the Hamas controlled Health estimates of casualties are highly inaccurate – when the Israeli army and government are incapable of offering any credible figures in a area that they control.
That just speaks of the clear IDF policy of fire and forget about protection of civilians casualties that have been a characteristic of the non-existent ethics of the IDF.
And of course other countries practice it as well. The US was pretty notorious, but somewhat less sophisticated. I suspect they have gotten more effective over time.
Re: lprent message
"If you ever read the Russian (and other) troll farms, they are rarely coherent in their messaging. The intent usually isn't to further explicit state objectives. It is to cause social disruption, disagreement and clicks in the target countries. That is the objective."
Agreed
Given the local identity and profile, I'd say little connection to a Russian troll farm.
And the cause activism is consistent.
Even when differentiating with other lefties, "tankies", on the civil war Syria and invasion of Ukraine, on principle.
And at least they admit being a stubborn mule.
As I said in my comment (my bold) which you clearly didn’t read.
Obviously I can't show you that. Our privacy policy prevents me from identifying his pseudonym on The Standard.
That also constrains me from showing you the sites that his pseudonym frequently copies his links and much of his 'own writing' from and the text that he copies.
However in my expert opinion, a high proportion of Pat O'Dea's pseudonym comments on this site are directly or indirectly cribbed from troll farms. Many of which are identifiable likely to be Russian operated troll farms in various countries when you look at the ownership details and track back to the databases of troll farms.
I wasn’t aware of his “local identity and profile” until I looked it up today. I saw his post on TDB when a moderator referred to it a week or so ago.
I was only aware of his identity on this site because of his complaints in emails using his real identity over a decade of so about being temporarily banned by various moderators.
I vaguely remember that he also used to post comments under his own name a long time ago….
Ummm. https://thestandard.org.nz/?s=%40author+%22Pat+O%27Dea%22&search_comments=1&search_sortby=date
As I remember it, he ran afoul of moderators several times then as well
I remember that mostly because I had to rewrite some search engine code to handle the quote in his last name.
He is consistently anti Russia/Putin, anti imperialism in general, American, Chinese or Russian, pro Palestinian ,an old school Marxist.His views are consistently in line with the mainstream Standardista views.Perhaps more crudely expressed and reliant on partisan news sources.But then can that be a criticism when so few of us are able to read non western sources?
I have yet to find any inconsistency, he is boringly predictable, can be nasty and ad hominem, but genuine in his beliefs .I have clashed with him many times….I think he’s one eyed , but I would never classify him as a cynical troll farmer.
If anything I would say he’sreminiscent of Louis Proyect…minus the film reviews and ignoring the fact that Proyect died
That may be the case on other forums. But here he is just a nuisance who in my opinion does not have the capability to make an argument or engage in debate. This place is about debate. That means more than parroting other peoples words, astro-turfing links, and applying unsupported vitriol
Moderators on his pseudonymous comments here have consistently pulled him up for
Essentially all the moderators are sick of his wasting of their time. I don't think any of them think that he adds anything to the site apart from moderation workload.
The email correspondence that he very selectively quoted from on the TBD was in response to temporary bans on his pseudonyms. It was extensive but very carefully didn't quote his actual text, and quoted mine quite out of context. It was also obviously inaccurate.
The first link was a warning in 2017 by the post author about commenter behaviour on his post. Quite how that became the The Standard or the Labour Party is beyond me. Bill, as far as I can tell, despises the NZLP, was some kind of anti-authoritarian anarchist but was able to argue well.
The second link was originally to a comment in the same post. It had a link to a youtube with a copyright infringement. Since I looked that the TBD, it looks like the link was changed to a ITV on Gaza. I guess someone told Pat how stupid his original link was.
Pat O'Dea may be well-intentioned. I really don't care. I think that he is also a stupid and rather pathetic arsehole who simply cannot debate or state his ideas clearly. I also think that he does more harm to the causes he supports simply because it is so easy to point to his writing as an exemplar of why you cannot support such a fool and the causes he professes. He reads like the kind of agit-prop tool that traditionally got put up to bring causes into disrepute.
I know that he has put me off writing posts about Gaza and the IDF (and I have been extremely pissed with the Israelis well before October 7th) simply because I don't have the time to deal with a mindless fool pushing in links to rubbish, videos that are off-topic, and abusing other commenters without explaining why. Also I think that he knows fuck all about the history of Palestine.
Yes,I do agree about the lack of proper debate…and the endless cut and paste etc.Thanks for your well reasoned reply
One of the most difficult things about moderating on TS is the number of long term commenters who still don't get it. We don't moderate for people's views or politics or content. We mostly moderate for behaviour (and sometimes for things like defamatory comments).
There has been the odd time someone has been moderated for views, but it's rare. As you say, PO's comments could be boring but genuinely felt, but it's the flaming, link spamming, and refusal to listen to moderators is why he's been banned. Mostly the latter. And as we now know, if he's been cut and pasting from organised trolls, that's obviously a problem for the site.
It takes work to maintain the robust debate ethic on TS and not have the comments descend into FB, or twitter shit fights. I really which this was better understood.
One interesting thing about "troll farms" is this:
It's not just Russian troll farms now anymore – many are now organic and home grown in my view. They could or could not be still getting influenced.
And NZ's national security agencies acknowledge increased "grievances" & extremism for a reason. But what the above shows is a turning point in terms of getting to NZ psyche and into the populace.
Honest question hoping for an honest answer, am I tolerated or of value to the site?
I would have thought so Bwaghorn, you seem honest and tell it how you see it without too much of an ideological overlay
I appreciate hearing a blue collar view that you provide.
Matey as a (possibly rare) Rural Lefty you sure are of value. I can also relate as a man of the land/tools…incl number 2 roundmouth shovel : )
Cheers all , probably sounded needy but it wasn't, I lack the ability to sustain an argument, with seriously limits my input.
nah…if you are nullifying that NZFist sopporting worker you mentioned recently..that is positive action. Keep on : )
I don't have a problem with your comments. Never have as far as I remember.
You certainly are a value to the site bwaghorn. You can say in a sentence what takes the rest of us six to get the same point across. 🙂
good value. You might not be doing the long, involved debate arguments, but you bring in fresh perspectives and say what you mean. I also value the farming/worker perspective.
This is disgraceful, what happened to our own home grown trolls?
Why do we need to be out sourcing to Russia.
Make NZ trolling great again!
seymour tries everyday
He needs to do better
Missing WhaleOil?
Incidentally whats up with the blogsite you used to post on (name escapes me). I looked at it the other day and it looks like frequent clickbait.
chickswithdicks.com?
dude, you're the one that's been awol.
It's not easy rebuilding a career when you're on the wrong side of 50…
Especially when the cheques from National started bouncing
fair point PR, hope things are getting better.
Not bad as it happens, we're in a financially better place but it was quite dicey there for awhile
For what it's worth trying to get someone fired for no reason is really close to being a truly evil act
When you have bills, mortgage, when your professional reputation is potentially damaged, when you see your retirement plans start to dissipate you do see how seductive drugs and alcohol can be
You start to see why and how domestic violence can become a reality, a little pressure here, a recriminating voice there, add some guilt and a drink or two too many and that pressure valve has to be released somehow
Or maybe you don't release that pressure and you find yourself at an intersection waiting and waiting and you just start to idly wonder if it would be better, easy even, to pull out into the live traffic lane…after all you have insurance, it was an accident and your wife suddenly has a paid off home and a little money to invest
I mean you might lose your job, your purpose so its a fair trade
Or you just accept the reality of the situation, swallow some pride and learn from your mistakes (guess what I did)
Hope everything is going well with you
Adding:
This is unwritten but important.
It's not just Russian troll farms now anymore – many are now organic and home grown in my view. They could or could not be still getting influenced.
And NZ's national security agencies acknowledge increased "grievances" & extremism for a reason. But what the above shows is a turning point in terms of getting to NZ psyche and into the populace.
Genuine question, how is the 30% measured? Is it links clicked, time spent on sites?
Also is this a per capita metric?
I couldn't make out what the RPI metric means.
Ahh Russian Propaganda Index…